Proof you don’t have to be rich to drive a cool car.
It’s easy to feel like if you want to have a cool custom car these days you have to also be sitting on at least a small if not a large fortune. There’s no end to these high-end custom builds which cost more than your house and are transported solely in trailers to shows where they generate a tidal wave of praise. We’re big fans of the everyday builds, the ones guys (and gals) put together in their garage and drive around their hometown. That’s what caught our eye about this 1963 Chevy Impala.
This thing ditches all the pretenses. First off, Impalas are still relatively affordable, so they’re a good car for someone on a budget to check out. That’s not to say Impalas aren’t cool, but instead that people with more money than sense don’t agree with that assessment and for that we should be grateful.
As Shawn of Autotopia LA points out in the video, this build doesn’t erase the classy, original feel of the American classic. The owner, a guy named Rich, hasn’t gone crazy with the car but instead exercised a lot of restraint. Some people don’t appreciate what that does to a build, but here we see the results.
Under the hood is the ubiquitous Chevy 350 V8 block bored to 355ci with Edelbrock heads and a Wynn intake manifold. It’s obvious Rich hasn’t thrown the thing on a dyno, but he thinks it’s making about 400-425-horsepower and about 400-425 lb.-ft. of torque, which isn’t anything to sneeze at. It’s not a race car and that’s plenty for cruising around town.
The blue interior looks classy and is just as understated as the interior. If you watch the video, you get to see this Impala lay down some rubber, plus you can hear the rumble of the V8. What do you think of this ride?