CHEVY IMPALA - Everything You Need to Know | Up to Speed

it's the car that started the muscle car movement no other car has changed and evolved as much as this one it went from full bore dragster to fully boring dragster the only car that rednecks rappers cops security guards and suburban management types all agree on this is everything you need to know you asked for it to get up to speed on the Chevy Impala [Music] thanks to Wix for sponsoring this episode of up to speed stick around in the end to learn more about how they can help you build a cool website like this one i made about buff horses it's called buff horses calm go to it the impala galloped on to the scene in 1958 GM wanted to do something special for their fiftieth anniversary let me tell you something about GM they love their anniversaries they literally celebrate every anniversary they're like the opposite of my parents well GM wanted to do something special so they were like let's make some special models for our top full-size sedans and they came up with some pretty cool cars like the Buick Roadmaster Riviera Pontiac Bonneville Catalina because there's nothing you want more on a tiny island than a giant car the Cadillac Eldorado Seville and the Chevy Bel Air Impala that's right like other legendary Chevy names the Impala had simple beginnings at the top trim level of the bel-air the 1958 bel-air Impala was built as a sport coupe and convertible model only and was a big different than typical Chevy's at the time with it's shorter greenhouse longer rear deck lower stance it had dual headlamps beautiful long fins and six count'em what two three four five six taillights because you want people to know when you stop hey guys he's about to stop let's do it the prancing antelope came with a bunch of fake vents color matched interior trim chrome and bust aluminum Earl ware and a two spoke steering wheel the styling straight up gorgeous you're gorgeous and the one featured in the George Lucas film American Graffiti is especially rad the top tier engine offered which was in the movie was Chevy's 348 cubic inch turbo thrust v8 with 250 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque these things sound the business with an exhaust on them hit me with dead noise called me in 1959 the Impala broke away from the bel air to become its own model and start the really short 1959 to 1960 second generation the fresh new Impala was Chevy's best-selling vehicle that year accounting for around four hundred and seventy three thousand units sold it was two inches longer than the fifty-eight had a rear batwing lid with huge fins cat eye sideways teardrop taillights and other body lines that make it look skinny and streamlined the top tier v8 was once again 348 cubic inches but with the help of a bumped up compression ratio triple to bel carbs and dual exhaust this thing now netted 320 horsepower 70 more than the previous year's model Chevy was slowly but surely making the Impala faster and more muscular something special happened with the third gen of the impalas that debuted in 1961 this is possibly the most iconic generation of Impala but also have you ever heard of the SS badge the impalas Super Sport is the first muscle car ever GTO guys fight me in the comments the SS has some very significant developments that would influence other brands for decades in 1961 it had a 409 cubic inch v8 clocked under the hood stiffer suspension a 7000 rpm tact and 3:36 rear gearing and a manual transmission as the only way to shift there these muscular coupes sprinted off the line with 360 buff horses and 400 pound-feet on tap pour me a cold one was about to get way more real in 1963 to or as I like to call it 1962 part two in 1963 a special option was offered in the Chevy Impala SS dubbed the z11 package it consisted of an engine bumped to 427 cubic engines aluminum body parts a cowl induction hood a big intake manifold dual carbs and a crazy 13.5 to 1 compression ratio this juiced up bar fight start and buff antelopes stomped out 425 horsepower and 575 pound-feet of torque this was one of the first times a manufacturer offered a serious performance option from the factory the fourth gen and pala ran from 1965 until 1970 and featured the same big power tweaks and focus on performance as the previous gen this was also the point in Chevy's history where the Caprice made its first appearance again Chevy with their weird let's start this name as a high-level trim and eventually make it its own [Music] sales of the Impala SS declined during this time thanks to the lighter more agile Nova SS and Chevelle SS still between nine different v8 choices and six different body styles there were plenty of other Impala options for American consumers the thick boi engine of this generation was the 454 turbojet v8 coming as an option in 1970 but all good things must come to an end and sadly the SS trim level for the Impala died out during this time these early gen and Pallas are true staples of American tuning culture everyone loves an old Impala over the next two whole generations in the 70s and 80s the impalas stuck around but it just kind of hung out it was a comfy family Cruiser with no real tweaks that didn't resemble anything like the excesses of the mid to late 60s sadly the Impala name died in the mid 80s but it's legacy lived on in lowrider culture but with the rise of West Coast hip-hop the Impala was thrust into the spotlight yet again west coast rappers like eazy-e and Ice Cube rapped about their 64 and not eating pork it was beginning to be cool again then in 1992 something really rad happened like Jim Carrey's riddler GM designer John Moss was tenting his fingers steaming up away to shake things up a bit we don't mean this how can we revive the impala SS badge and do something that gets the enthusiast horned up oh I'd love to get enthusiasm doc maybe he didn't say it exactly like that and maybe sure his voice didn't sound like that voice but he did design a new impala SS concept based on the Caprice with an eight point two liter v8 in it people at the 1992 LA Auto Show were slack-jawed finally a sleek fast Chevy that would do the Impala SS legacy proud production of the 7th gen Impala began in 1994 the production model was almost entirely like the concept visually and featured the fuel-injected 5.7 liter lt1 engine from the Corvette instead of the 8.2 that's okay because this thing is badass based on the Caprice 9c1 cop car platform it featured stiffer suspension bigger wheels disc brakes on every corner a bigger radiator and an LSD talked about one of the sickest cars for any highschool guy in the early 2000s power was rated at 260 horsepower and 330 pound-feet of torque and it weighed around 4,000 lives alright that's not amazing but you got to understand that the only other performance of v8 cars Chevy had for a long time where the Camaro and the Corvette anything with a little more than average horsepower and torque was a much welcomed sight but in 1996 American aftermarket tuner Callaway who's famous for turbo and everything from Corvettes to volkswagen rabbits offered a package for the SS that satisfied enthusiasts lust for more our jumped to just over 400 her Spurs and it shot to 60 miles per in 5.9 seconds around a second faster than stop it also received bigger breaks that were originally developed I'm not kidding for the Ferrari f40 bringing it to a shocking $45,000 at the door now that's 90s money now a math boy so I know that that's like 300 thousand dollars in today's money like the impalas of the 1950s and 60s the new mid 90s SS was well-loved by all corners of American tuning culture and still is what happened to the 7th gen after 1996 you ask nothing nada GM killed off the Impala SS and his B body sisters the Caprice and Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser poor went out for the GM platform well loved by cops rednecks rappers and suburban middle management alike after a four-year hiatus the Impala named returned yet again in the year 2000 as Chevy's version of the GM W body shared by the Pontiac Grand Prix Oldsmobile intrigued and Buick Regal it replaced the bland as hell Chevy lumina sure the Lumina was lame but Cole trickle drove one in Days of Thunder so it's got that going for the SS badge returned in 2004 and 2005 this time the Impala SS was front-wheel drive and power came from a supercharged 3.8 liter v6 with 240 horsepower on tap it also looked very cool as a cop car 2006 marked beginning of the ninth generation Impala that lasted all the way to 2014 it was a car in fact it continued on for fleet sales through 2016 2 years after commercial production ended Chevy did offer an SS version they returned to the small-block v8 this time with a 5.3 liter LS 4 though it was still front-wheel drive but also if we're honest a front-wheel drive LS is pretty sick oh and it's the car that Ryan Gosling drove in the opening scene of Drive so that's it Bryan Cranston's in that movie if you like bryan cranston check out this episode of up to speed on the Pontiac Aztek a car opens its doors and gets shot and you think it's this car no this is the car that knocks finally the current 10th gen Impala has been with us since 2014 it's actually a good-looking sedan in my opinion with the Chevy SS being discontinued after a short run in 2000 in 2017 will there ever be another badass rear-wheel drive exhilarating four-door Chevy sedan it doesn't look like we'll be seeing anything anytime soon big thanks to Wix for sponsoring this episode everyone needs websites nowadays whether you're an entertainer like me or dog walker like Nolan a website makes you look more professional and Wix can help you build it with Wix the tools are Arnie built in Wix video which stores Wix booking just a few of the many tools that can help you design and grow your brand look at this website I made about buff horses and just like a buff horse Wix does all the heavy lifting for you everything from reliable hosting to email marketing to custom domains and emails all with a refined expertise Wix has infinite design possibilities so you can get as creative as you want build your own website today at wix.com slash go slash doughnut media go to buh horses calm we're almost at 2 million subs you guys if you're not already subscribed we'd really appreciate it if you click that subscribe button if you liked the video hit the like button to let us know so I can shoot him on boss's face and so yeah 3 like me check out this episode of bumper to bumper for a very special Chevy Camaro check out this episode of my son show wheel house [Music]

Channel: Donut

Views: 2,022,930

Keywords: Chevy, impala, impala history, lowrider, impala ss, 1964 impala, Muscle cars, drag racing, hydraulics, lowrider impala, Donut Media, donut, doughnut media, Cars, Automotive, Car Review, Car Science, Car Tech, Best Cars, James Pumphrey, Up to Speed, review, everything you need to know, automotive history, donut media up to speed, up to speed donut media, chevrolet, muscle car, up to speed impala, car history, v8, classic, ss

Id: jHZYNylijX0

Length: 12min 52sec (772 seconds)

Published: Thu May 02 2019