In the fall of 1963 my Father bought his 3rd Chevy Impala Muscle Car. It had what he called a "Midnight Blue" exterior,blue bucket seat interior and  4 speed with console. And the best part, it was Super Sport , with a 409 cubic inch Big block" W engine" with a 4 barrel carburetor.

This is the car that made me fall in love with Muscle cars. He owned the "09" from the time I was 4 to 9 years old and it had a huge influence on me.

The dark blue exterior really showed off the lines of the 64 Impala and made the SS chrome jump out at you. It had six tail lights jutting out of the rear and all chrome grille and bumpers. But what caught my eye was the side trim and rear panel trim, with the reflective inserts and red SS emblems.

The interior was light blue with what seemed like SS emblems everywhere, the dash, door panels, console and even the rear seat center speaker, had huge emblems.

The engine compartment used Chrome W valve covers and a big chrome air cleaner covering the big Carter 4 Barrel Carb. ( Dad's first two big Blocks where Tri Powers)

The performance was amazing especially to an 8 year old. I remember one day in 1967, my Mom, Dad and I , were late going to my older brother's  junior high basketball game (Dad had to work over because of a break down at the steel mill), and there was a line of cars going about 50 mph, on a long straight stretch of road that we called “Dragway 88”.

We came up on the rear car and Dad Shifted into third gear, He took a look in the left lane and seeing it was clear hit second gear and put the gas pedal on the floor board. I was strapped in the center of the back seat and could see between the buckets. When he was down shifting it made the 50 pounder that I was pull against the seat belt, then when he let off the clutch I went flying against the rear seat-what a cool feeling! I can vividly remember looking beside me and thinking “man I'm inside this seat" and stayed like that until he let up on the gas pedal. I had a good look at the speedo and the needle was past 90 MPH. I wish I took a peak at the tach.(It happened pretty quick but in slow motion).

That’s the moment I fell in love with the 1964 409 Impala SS, and found out what a Muscle car is!

Post from: Project Car Blog

1964 Chevrolet Impala SS 409