Introduced in 1957 for the 1958 model year, the Impala gained the Super Sport performance package a few short years later. Coincidentally, the final rear-wheel-drive Impala flaunted the SS badge as well. Enthusiasts refer to this generation as the seventh, and it only came as a sedan.
Previewed at the 1992 Detroit Auto Show by a concept with an 8.2-liter behemoth of a powerplant, the B-body sleeper can be considered the go-faster sibling of the Caprice for it used the Caprice’s police pack as its base.
As fate would have it, General Motors couldn’t make a case for the aforementioned engine in the series-production vehicle. The biggest of the Big Three in Detroit settled for the second-generation small block of the Corvette, namely the LT1. Although it’s not exactly impressive in terms of horsepower, the 330 pound-feet (447 Nm) of torque is more than enough for lighting up the rear end into a puff of tire smoke. Introduced into production in 1994 at the Arlington, Texas production facility that currently makes truck-based utility vehicles, the Impala SS numbers very few units.
General Motors produced a total of 69,768 examples until 1996, most of them finished in black although Dark Green and Cherry were offered as well. 1996 also happens to be the best year for the Impala SS due to meaningful improvements that include analog instrumentation with a tachometer as opposed to a rev counter-less dash featuring a digital speedo.
Marouane Bembli, the gentleman known as The Sketch Monkey in the world of pixel wizards, had a go at improving the final-year Impala SS with modern-day aesthetic traits. It’s hard to get one’s head around the 2022 Nissan Frontier-sourced headlights of this rendering, but nevertheless, it makes the front end look a lot fresher than the period-correct light clusters.
Bembli also works his magic on the front bumper, five-spoke wheels, side profile, and greenhouse. These changes may appear small on their own, but as a whole, they make a tremendous difference over the native styling cues.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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