Few times have I passed local pizzeria and hangout Gino’s North (unrelated to Chicago-based national chain Gino’s East) and seen a car parked in front as appropriate to this setting as this ’75 Chevy Impala Sport Coupe. I love my neighborhood. Tucked under an L station on the Chicago Transit Authority’s Red Line, Gino’s North has been a fixture here since 1941. The current pizza crust’s originator, the lovely Peggy G., is in her 80’s and has been here for over thirty years. As would be expected by a place with history like this, I’ve found the pies to be unmatched by those of any other establishment in the ten-plus years I’ve lived in Chicago. To echo the license plate holder on the Chevy, “Bella Italia”, indeed.
I’m not ashamed to admit that the Impala Sport Coupe’s hardtop roofline had me completely confused until becoming a CC reader within the past year or so. The general rule I had learned with regard to the 1971 – ’76 Chevy B-body biggies was that the frontal styling of one year’s Caprice would predict that of the next year’s Impala. That much proved fairly consistent. What I hadn’t realized was that two separate rooflines were offered for a time for both coupes and sedans, with the pillared “Custom” coupe that arrived for ’74 being sold alongside the “Sport” hardtop. I had always incorrectly assumed that there was no more hardtop coupe after ’73.
A question for the ages: why on earth would someone pay an extra $51 (about $230 adjusted for 2015) for the pillared ’75 Custom over the the hardtop Sport two-door? In my opinion, it certainly wouldn’t be for aesthetics. (In ’75, the Sport went for $4,575, and the Custom went for $4,626.) I was in diapers at the time, so I have no personal frame of reference – for some of you who remember this era, did many car shoppers in 1975 put rollover protection near the top of their lists of buying criteria? Nothing I’ve read seems to substantiate this to any degree.
As for Gino’s North, it’s fun to come here and pretend it’s a day (or night) in the 1960’s or 70’s, order a twelve-inch, flat-crust Gino’s Special, and load up the jukebox with my favorite classic jazz, R&B and rock selections from the past. It’s really not that hard to imagine you’ve magically stepped back in time while in here, given the original wooden bar, statue (the whimsically-named “Snowdrop”), and much else that appears unchanged over not just years, but decades. This delightfully old-fashioned pizza parlor seems to attract a wide range of customers, from college kids from nearby Loyola University’s Northshore campus to folks that were the same age as the college kids when the featured Impala was new. The people watching is almost as good as the great food and classic cocktails.
As for the connection between this restaurant and the car (no, this wasn’t intended to be a Yelp review), mine is a simple premise, and it’s this: It can be comforting to be in a place and see familiar things that remind us of formulas that had worked so well for so long. Some of the basic pizza recipes here at Gino’s North have remained unchanged for at least the past thirty-five years. The restaurant had recently introduced some new, specialty pizzas, but the enduring popularity of the “Gino’s Special” proves that sometimes, you just can’t improve on a classic.
The full-size Chevrolet was an extremely popular car line in the United States for ’75, with model year sales exceeding 420,000 units for Impala, Caprice, Bel Air and wagons combined. The full-size Chevies offered RWD, V8 power, and body-on-frame construction in no less than five different bodystyles. For comparison, the redesigned, 2014 Impala sedan shifted just over 140,000 units for the calendar year (1/3 of the ’75 full-size total), with sales having tapered off substantially for 2015. While I think the new Impala is (finally, again) a fantastic-looking, competitive offering, there’s something about a classic Impala like the featured car that commands my attention with a little more authority. And let’s just be honest – the world and people’s tastes have changed much in the past forty years.
This Impala hasn’t been the only vintage car I’ve spotted in front of this friendly, neighborhood restaurant, and I doubt it will be the last. But I’d like to think this Impala’s owner came in for a ten-inch pie, sat down comfortably in one of the red, vinyl banquettes, and enjoyed his or her meal with Cal Tjader, Al Green or Steely Dan playing softly from the jukebox before returning to the comfort and splendor of this silver beauty. If he or she was fortunate, they also had a to-go bag sitting on the passenger’s side of the front bench seat when they drove away.
All photos as taken by the author in Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Related reading:
- From Jason Shafer: Curbside Classic: 1975 Chevrolet Bel-Air Wagon – Not The Last Of The Mohicians, But Darn Close
- From Dave Skinner: CC Classic: 1974 Impala Custom Coupe- Colonnade?
Muuuuuuuch better looking than the execrable Custom Coupe from this year. And yes, parked in a setting where it looks right at home.
Such a fitting adjective RE: the Custom.
Regarding the roofline differences: That was the style at the time. I seem to remember that this all started back in 1968 when the Caprice two-door hardtop was the formal roof only without vent windows (the beginnings of Astro Ventilation) while the Impala came in either the sport roof or formal, with vent windows. And, at least in Johnstown, the Impala way outsold the Caprice (at that point, the Impala was still the main big Chevy), and the formal roof Impala way outsold the sport roof.
Something about the style was rapidly changing at the time. If you wanted a sporting two-door hardtop, you bought a Malibu. If you wanted the formal lines, you went with the Caprice or Impala. If anything (as I’d left for college before the 69’s came out, and kinda drifted out of my mad car obsession – well, Chevrolet’s anyway – for the next eight years), I’m surprised that they were still offering a sport roof on the Impala by the mid-70’s. By which point the Caprice had definitely relegated the Impala to also-ran status.
Parallel in the Chevy lineup: The Monte Carlo came out in ’70 (’71?), formal roofline only. The Grand Prix was in ’69, formal roofline only. Even the intermediates were starting to split between formal and sport, with formal not-so-slowly winning out.
Yeah, the first Monte was 1970 and used the formal roof A-Special aka G body, shared with Grand Prix and Cutlass Supreme.
And, yeah, Chevy offered differing 2 door styles, since coupes were popular in the 70’s. For the big cars, the Custom Coupe was more common, and the concave rear window is unique.
Very insightful, Syke. I see what you’re saying and also think that the proliferation of formal-roofed GM coupes and still-increasing market segmentation combined to reduce the market share of the large GM coupes.
Of course, the full-sized Chevy’s direct competitors also offered more than one two-door roof shape starting in the mid-’60s, up through 1970 (Ford) and 1971 (Plymouth). The latter even offered an additional, pillared version of its formal-roof hardtop coupe (1969-71).
The worst thing about the 1974-76 concave-rear-window Impala and Caprice coupes was the awful shiny plastic beading that bordered the large fixed rear quarter windows, which would warp (and eventually fall off) even more severely than it did when used on the colonnade coupes’ quarter windows.
You know.. The thought occurs to me that Chrysler was doing the same thing with the Imperial in 1975
Images here:
and here:
The white Imperial LeBaron hardtop coupe is such a classy looking machine.
That Imperial is indeed a stunner. I don’t think I’d even realized that there were hardtop versions of these 74+ mopar big coupes.
It started a bit earlier, just after when the Caprice appeared as a sub-series of the Impala 4-door hardtop to become a full-separate series in 1966 who included station-wagon and a 2-door hardtop coupe different from the Impala and not shared by the “BOP”.
Great read, great photos, great car, and makes me wish I was having a good pizza for lunch. Great job Joseph. Those Impala two doors were just a heck of a good value. They still had an incredibly long options list which you could enhance your cheapskate cred by avoiding or better yet study deeply and come up with a car that may be common, but was customized by you. Not possible today on Accord, Camry, or I am afraid the Impala. By 75, the wolves were at the door with big bumpers and cat cons, and in two more years would come for your road hugging bulk. This car still had the basics, 350V8, 350thm, ps, a huge wide cabin and big trunk, and most importantly the American dream. Todays cars are better in every way but the spirit is lost.
Right on, John, thanks. I miss the excitement of the new model year around this time. The spirit has largely disappeared, but I do like a handful of new models.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these before. I thought the true hardtops had died in 73 as well.
What I remember from driving a ’75 Impala (a 4 door hardtop) was that it had the world’s largest Fasten Seat Belt light.
I’m not saying Chicago has bad pizza.
What I’m saying is in Chicago they don’t know what pizza IS.
The colonnades, starting in ’73, were the first line of cars by the American manufacturers that didn’t have a 2 or 4-door hardtop in the line. That was the beginning of the end. . . . . The big bodies didn’t change until ’77.
Absolutely agree with you on the roofline: this is a gorgeous, timeless roofline, while the other one was just a monstrosity.
And I know this is sacrilege, especially being a former New Yorker, but I think Chicago deep-dish is the best type of pizza.
And as a Pittsburgher, I perfer New York pizza, Luckily neither is all that far away!
🙂 There are times when I wish I could airmail a Chicago pizza to whoever’s house in my extended family is hosting for the holidays. I always have a jones for Gino’s North after I return to Chicago after traveling.
I think we can all agree that St. Louis-style pizza is the weirdest though.
Haha! I’ve never had St. Louis pizza – but to be honest, I was waiting for Shafer’s weigh-in on this! 🙂
Greetings from Alton, IL (or as the Chicago media condescendingly refers to any place south of I-80, “Downstate Alton”)
STL-style pizza is basically a giant unsalted cracker (or communion wafer) topped with the usual stuff and a nasty Frankencheese called Provel. It’s cut in squares like the “thin crust” places in Chicago (Home Run Inn, Aurelio’s etc) but at least the Chicago stuff uses proper mozzarella.
My introduction to Chicago deep dish was at Pizzeria Due (Wabash@Ontario) circa 1981. Last time I ate there was 1997 and at least at that time they had stayed true to their roots and was nothing like the Uno’s chain that it and the original Uno around the corner spawned.
My personal favorite? Uncle Pete’s in Naperville. A tiny hole in the wall with no seating and was carryout-only for many years.
Mark, I am truly intrigued! Thanks for clearing that up. I need to try some STL-style some time.
As an Italian-American, I prefer ANY regional style pizza over the chain pizzas like Papa Johns, Pizza Hut or especially Domino`s. Just no comparison.As for that beautiful Impala, well, that’s amore!
It appears that the Sport Coupe was discontinued at the same time as the convertible.
While I can’t say for certain, one would think that those two body styles shared some stamping and parts (such as rear window regulators, window gaskets, and some interior panels). It may have made sense to produce both at the same time, but since neither body style sold all that well on its own, perhaps the decision to discontinue the convertible drove the decision to kill the Sport Coupe.
Cool to see those surviving 1974-75 hardtops. Just imagine what if they had continued the hardtop style for one more model year.
More rarer as I mentionned at https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1977-chevrolet-bel-air-coupe-a-once-storied-names-last-stand-in-canada/ is the Canadian Bel Air hardtop. A 1975 Canadian Bel Air hardtop is more rarer.
Part of the difference was that the custom coupe had the ‘supposedly cooler’ concave rear window style that was begun in 1969, whereas sport coupe had just a plain rear window.
Is this correct? It sort of looks like the 1975 Sport Coupe has the same concave rear window as the Custom Coupe. It would make sense that GM would do something like that in a cost-cutting move.
But, yeah, those ’75 ‘colonnade’ Custom Coupes look like hell and I can’t imagine a lot of folks warming to them, particularly since they cost ‘more’ than the much nicer hardtop. I can only surmise that they were created in an effort to fit in with the styling of the intermediate Malibu colonnade.
I wasn’t sure, either, Rudiger, but I just checked on-line – and it looks like Custom’s rear window is definitely concave and a different shape than that of the Sport.
I think the triangular, flag-shaped rear quarter windows on the base Colonnades looks much better on those than on these full-size Chevies.
Coincidentally, I was in Chicago on Wednesday and passed by your neighborhood, healing south 10 blocks away on Clark Street. This Impala is the sort of Detroit iron that I remember seeing remarkably often on the streets of Chicago 20 years ago and saw many times again during this trip. I continue to be amazed at how a city with the usual big city car life problems (stop and go driving, high accident rates) and with massive use of salt in the winter can have so many 30+ year old cars still in regular use.
The amount of old Detroit iron on the streets would have reminded me of Stockholm, if there had been more of them around. Ironically, I didn’t see any on the streets in Andersonville. Someone should park an old Chevy in front of the Swedish-American Museum there, to show people in the old country that they are in touch with their roots!
Robert, I hope you had a great visit to the Windy City. My mind is also continually blown by all the vintage cars that have survived our winters. And as you observed, there are also a lot of cool, vintage spots in Andersonville – another of my favorite parts of this city.
The pillared coupe might be desired by some because the windows wouldn’t tend to be leaky by letting in drafts, noise and moisture the way the hardtop might.
That is so true, Scott. What I’m thinking about now – with frameless door glass on both the Custom and the Sport, would the difference in the two bodystyles (with regard to drafts, noise and moisture) be substantial? Great point.
Also, one thing I remember from the Seventies was the simple fact that by the time a lot of those windows behaved after a number of years being closed by someone shoving on the glass, it actually seemed like an advancement to put frames back on, all safety standards aside. Especially as quality went down, the *last* hardtop people had may have just tended to seem rickety.
20 years ago, I bought one of these with no registration for $50. Hideous faded burgundy with a white vinyl roof. The previous owner had given up on it when it ran progressively worse and then left him stranded downtown. Turns out the distributor bushings had disintegrated and after changing that out, the small block 400 ran like new. It also handled well and turned out to have a 3:73 posi rear diff. Many of the parts lived on and on in a myriad of GM vehicles. That was the wonderful thing about these old Chevies, everything was tested, true and heavy duty.
You gotta love calling something this large a Sport Coupe. If piloting the Queen Mary is your idea of sporting, it might make sense. Great car though. Did the rear quarter window still roll down on these?
Big Chevys sold well in ’75, and still were #1. But then dethroned the next year [’76] by the whole Olds Cutlass line, including Cutlass wagons and base models, not just the Supreme.
Big Chevys made a comeback to #1 for 1977, but not for much longer.
I hated these in the 70s, but am warming to them. I actually find this one pretty attractive, especially in this roofline.
Yes, those fixed-window coupes were replacing traditional hardtops all over by 1975. If you thought the Chevy version looked bad, try the LTD or Gran Fury.
Now I’m hungry for Chicago pizza.
+1 on those mid 70s Gran Furies. But as I said below, most mid 70s fullsize coupes are just wonky looking. On big cars, Engle really knew how to spin gold. The ’65 Sport Fury and ’66 Imperial 2dr hardtops are my personal favorites.
Very nice combo car/restaurant review! I am going to put Gino’s North on my list for whenever I get back to Chicago…I love that type of place!
As for the car, I guess I differ from just about everyone here, because I think the Colonnade roofline on the Custom Coupe was super cool! I think the combo Colonnade/hardtop treatment on the Delta 88s, Pontiacs and LeSabres looks good too, maybe a little better, but I still like the Chevy. I like hardtops as well, but the vertical window line and raked backlight on this model make the rear quarter look a bit pinched and awkward to me. The Olds Delta 88 hardtop coupe handled it better, in my opinion. Of course, that’s not to say that the Impala shown here isn’t a great car to see and own in this day and age.
Chris, I completely agree with you that the hardtop roofline on Delta 88 coupes (and related Buick LeSabres and large Pontiacs) are better resolved – particularly the Delta. There’s something really graceful about that 45-degree angle rear quarter window and lightly-wrapped backlight that make the Olds’ roofline my favorite. Seeing this silver Impala, though, even if it wasn’t exactly pristine but still very, very nice was such a welcome sight. The fact that it appeared to be rust-free just added to my love for it.
Joseph, if I had seen it there, I’m sure I would feel exactly the same way. Sometimes seeing a car in the environment is so much better than seeing it in a more artificial setting, like a parking lot or a car show. And I really do like that car, but was just saying I like certain other rooflines a little better. Thanks again for sharing the sighting so eloquently.
The 1971-73 Sport Coupes shared the triangular quarter window design with the Delta and LeSabre, but I can’t remember if the back window was less curved or not. Dave Skinner’s article mentions these earlier models: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/cc-classic-1974-impala-custom-coupe-colonnade/
A parishioner at our old church had one of these in green. It always looked a bit odd to me- not so graceful as the Olds and Buick. Can anyone recall if the back window on these was less curved than on the Delta 88 and LeSabre?
Reference shot from IMCDb.org:
Once again, a well written piece. Even though Im the voice of dissent here you definitely wrote an interesting piece. These cars just don’t make a whole lot of sense to me, as they sit. A formal looking and way too big 2-door coupe just makes my brain melt as I attempt to make sense of it. Fuselage Mopars have a similar effect. The cigar shape and over wrought bumpers don’t seem to be so out of place on a sedan or even a convertible…I mean theres no sporting pretensions whatsoever on either of those. But the least aggressive and sporty a coupe should be is like the big linear sleds of the mid 60s. Those Impalas, Furies, Fairlanes, and Imperials aren’t ‘muscle cars’ either, but absolutely lend themselves to dumping down low, some mild to wild customizing and then raising a little hell. This car and others like it seem to be favorites of the donk crowd also…and I guess we all know how that usually goes.
AND on top of it, you’ve got me craving pizza! Although Ive tried Chicago style deep and thin…neither is my bag. As a Jersey kid, make mine NY style or even wood fired which is a nod to New Haven. Bizarre as it may seem, Portland actually has over a half dozen places to get good pizza. Im a card carrying pizza snob and yet I have several favorite spots here….
Thanks, MoparRocker 74, and I see what you’re saying. Today, a full-size two-door seems a little like a contradiction. It’s a large car, meant to carry more people and stuff, but it has only two doors and limited ingress / egress. If the increasing popularity of imports had any positive psychological impact on potential car buyers (and this coming from me, a die-hard domestic car lover raised in a GM factory town), it was that imports got people to start questioning what they really wanted or needed in a car, instead of buying stuff “just ‘cuz”.
“The full-size Chevrolet was an extremely popular car line in the United States for ’75, with model year sales exceeding 420,000 units for Impala, Caprice, Bel Air and wagons combined.”
Extremely popular? Eh, maybe not when you consider just how dominating full-size Chevys used to be. Full size Chevy sales exceeded 1 million per year all during the ’60’s. In 1965 alone over 1.3 million full-sizers were sold, including 803,000 Impalas. Now those are impressive numbers.
Sales remained very strong until this generation appeared, fully captured by the ugly behemoths displayed here. I don’t know if this generation is a Deadly Sin, but it should be. No wonder the Cutlass blew it away soon thereafter. The tasteful ’77 re-style got things back on track, but the mega sales numbers never returned.
Those numbers are indeed impressive. Proof positive that the waves of imports, along with the fuel crunches in the 1970s, deeply wounded GM. Ironic that by 1965 Studebaker was DOA….those Stude customers must have gotten themselves Impalas, then when those wore out, Coronas.
Imagine going straight from this Impala to a Corona. The slowness, the small pickup truck ride and handling, the lack of room, the amount of noise, the idea that you just sent a great deal of your wealth to Japan. All for 10-12 mpg extra. What a letdown.
There were some people that made radical moves as you describe, and when gas prices fell, they were the first to move back to the biggest cars they could find – and they were very remorseful for their knee-jerk decisions.
But, for the most part, people that had been buying Caprice and Impala coupes simply downsized a bit to the Malibu and in particular, the Monte Carlo coupe. These cars were about the size of full size cars 20 years earlier. The full-size car was hardly dead, combine the mid-size and full-size sales and the real headline was “THE BIG AMERICAN CAR FROM GM IS SELLING BETTER THEN EVER!”
I agree to an extent that the ’75 Chevrolet’s numbers weren’t as impressive as those of the 60’s, but by ’75, I’m thinking both increased market segmentation (i.e. increased popularity of midsizers and personal luxury cars) combined with the first oil embargo (and a few other factors) combined to hit full-size car sales. These aren’t necessarily my favorite generation of B-body Chevy, but seeing one in 2010 in this shape that wasn’t a trailer queen was something that absolutely floored me. In a good way.
I had a similar reaction to CPJ; as impressive as those numbers sound today, they were abysmal compared to what the fullsize Chevy had been racking up just a few years earlier, before the first oil crisis.
“I’m thinking both increased market segmentation (i.e. increased popularity of midsizers and personal luxury cars) combined with the first oil embargo…combined to hit full-size car sales”
I think this is absolutely correct. The first factor was a gradual process from about 1965 onward. To some degree, Americans simply became accustomed to smaller (if not always “small”) cars; to some degree, manufacturers like Chevrolet made their fullsize lines bigger and bigger over time, placing more and more emphasis on the top end, shedding sales to customers who didn’t want anything that big or that luxurious; to some degree, midsize cars grew to the point where they were functionally similar to what fullsize cars had been 15 years earlier, so some buyers who had traditionally bought fullsize cars went there instead.
The second factor wasn’t gradual, but hit pretty much at all at once. The last model year to escape its full-on effect was 1973. According to my copy of the Standard Catalog, Chevrolet built 941K fullsize cars that year, just two model years before the car that is the subject of this post.
CPJ: “Sales remained very strong until this generation appeared, fully captured by the ugly behemoths displayed here.”
I don’t know that I totally agree with that. To be sure, sales of this generation were down compared to the previous one, and I do think this generation is clear example of the “bigger and bigger/more and more emphasis on the top end” process that I mentioned earlier. But I think much of the dropoff in sales can be attributed to gradual, long-term trends rather than a specific issue with this generation. Sales weren’t down nearly as much as they were between 1965 and 1968-69, or in the few years after the 1973 oil crisis.
Add me to the “now I’m hungry for pizza” crowd! And the big silver Chevy is impressive too–a true survivor. The one mismatched wheel cover irks me, but otherwise it’s in great shape for its age and its locale. And it just fits the vibe. These “sport” coupes, un-sporty though they may be, still win in the looks department. The custom coupe has always looked extremely low-rent to me with its wide pillars and odd proportions. The concave glass is a nice touch but it can’t make up for the rest of the roofline!
I’m sure the visibility is great, though, recalling an article from not too long ago…
I like the Impala/Caprice sisters. I think the 1973 face is prettiest.
http://i49.tinypic.com/15xreom.jpg
Love the first B&W picture – that would be great on a calendar of street scenes and vintage cars! It’s great to have a restaurant still doing business after so many years- and not falling into the ground, changing owners who change the recipes, etc. I lament each time we drive past this one gas station that used to have the old gas pumps, and was owned by a local couple who knew how to serve ice cream (huge scoops, and it was goooood) :-p Now, it’s owned by someone else who doesn’t speak English very well, makes small scoops of ice cream and had the old gas pumps torn out. Granted, a gas station doesn’t have recipes like this pizzeria, but it was still a landmark. . .
Regarding the Impala, nice car! Got me confused, too with that front end. . . I thought the last year for the hardtop sport coupe was 1974. These 1975 models must be pretty rare by now, indeed.
Thank you, WoodgrainCoasty. And that gas station / ice cream place you describe that had been owned by that couple would be exactly the kind of place I would have liked. Places like Gino’s North and that gas station (as you know it) don’t get replaced once they go away.
Thanks everyone for taking the time to read this.
Now I’m thinking Gino’s North would have been a great place to have a local CC-Chapter “summit”, but then again, street parking is tight around these parts. 🙂
I never knew you could get the sport coupe roof line for the 1975 model year, I’ve thought they’ve stopped making those after the 1974 model year, I never liked the landau style coupe’s of the GM cars from this era at all, the sport coupe roof line is IMO a throwback to the early 70’s full size 2 door hardtops.
Late to the party.
I was around a lot of these ’60s and ’70s Chevy coupes in my formative years. You may notice a ’67 Impala coupe from the ’67 full-size owner’s manual is my avatar.
My commentary applies to U.S. only models, the situation in Canada may vary slightly. Beginning in 1966, Chevy began to offer two distinct hardtop (frameless door glass) coupe rooflines. This lasted through 1975. Year by year……..
1966: Caprice becomes a full-line model and the new for ’66 Caprice coupe has a slick looking formal hardtop roof. The Impala uses the carry over 1965 fastback coupe roof.
1967: Same as 1966.
1968: Same as 1966 except they begin to offer the Impala Custom, essentially the Impala with the Caprice formal roof.
1969: All new coupe roofs. The formal roof Caprice uses a unique concave rear window. This concave rear window is on all Caprice models through 1976. Base Impala coupe uses a new simple hardtop roof that is essentially similar to the one you see on the subject car – this lasts through 1975. Impala Custom continues and uses the new Caprice roof.
1970: Same as 1969.
1971: All new full-size cars across the GM line. But, the new Chevy coupes continue to use what amounts to the 1969 roof designs. Little is likely directly carried over, but the basic styles stay very much the same. Model designations and roof style assignments stay the same.
1972: No changes.
1973: No changes.
1974: The formal roof continues with the concave rear window but the rear side windows become fixed in the sail panel, similar in concept to the windows on the 1973 Chevelle/Malibu and Monte Carlo. Roof assignments remain unchanged: Formal roof for Caprice and Impala custom, the traditional hardtop roof, still with roll down rear windows, remains on the base Impala coupe.
1975: No change.
1976: Final year for the basic 1971 body shell. The Impala base coupe moves to the formal roof shared with the Caprice. The Impala Custom coupe name is dropped. New “Landau” trim packages are available for both the Impala and Caprice coupes.
To modern and younger eyes, that fixed side window formal roof may seem a travesty, and you are not entirely wrong, the traditional hardtop coupe as popularized by GM in 1949 is a timeless design.
Some things were going on in the background, and the various fixed rear window designs generally sold very well.
My editorial take:
GM was a style leader, and found that their 1970 Camaro / Firebird was well accepted with NO rear side window. With the popularity (and profitability) of air-conditioning, this seemed to open up some new style windows – pardon the irony.
Fixed rear side windows had been on GM drawing boards since the late 1960’s, and appeared in earnest on GM’s 1973 mid-size coupes. They were so well received that Ford and Chrysler were soon sort of faking this style into their coupes with filler panels and vinyl roofs. While the loss of the traditional hardtop was lamented by some, the new looks sold well in the times.
Likely Federal roof rollover protection standards made the future of hardtops tenuous, and the beancounters at the manufacturers likely saw some benefits in these simpler roofs lacking window gears. GM knew that they would be really killing frameless door glass styles with their 1977 full-size cars, so conditioning the public to change may have also seemed a good idea.
GM was very good in the 1970s with introducing style changes on their top cars, and trickling them down as fashion statements to lesser cars. The roll out of the ’75 “sheer look” Seville being the top example. Rectangular headlights were another trickle down. The 1976 Caprice front end was styled to look a lot like the front of the ’77-79 Caprice that was otherwise very changed. Continuity was king if the car was successful.
In 1974, GM took the plunge with fixed rear windows on all C body coupes – the top line offerings from Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac. This was also true on the top Pontiac Grandville and the Chevrolet Caprice.
The lesser B body cars carried over more traditional hardtop coupe rooflines. The most traditional of all being the entry level Chevrolet Impala coupe as you see here. The implied message was that frumpy cheap people bought these. In the middle ground, the Pontiac Catalina, Olds 88 and Buick LeSabre had a large fixed window in the C pillar and a thin traditional roll down rear side window. High style had become fixed side windows at GM.
The other domestics played catch up, and in an effort to avoid a complete copy of the GM look, they sometimes made up controversial designs – especially to modern eyes. The ’75-’78 Ford LTD seems to draw exceptional ire – but it sold well.
Today, we look back and wonder what they were thinking – along with our thoughts on gold chains and bell bottom pants. But, in 1975, this hardtop was low style indeed.
Interesting to note while Ford used a fixed rear window in 1975, Mercury kept the 2-door hardtop (to be more precise a hardtop wannabee) until 1978 like the one used by “Uncle Buck”. IMCDB list it as a 1977 model http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_11993-Mercury-Marquis-Brougham-1977.html while others said it’s a 1975.
I was looking at this from a GM centric view, but yes, of the three big Ford products, the Marquis retained a traditional looking hardtop roofline for their ’75-’78 versions. However, they plucked the manual and electric window gearing from the rear quarter and sadly the windows remained fixed throughout the run. There’s a reason the rear windows are up in this brochure photo……….
I had always thought that at some point the Sport Coupe and Custom Coupe became two variations of the same body style, aside from one having adopted a “pillared hardtop” look earlier than the other. Discussion here a while back prompted me to take at look at the brochures at oldcarbrochures.com, and I realized that they were always different in the rear quarter/back window area, with the Custom Coupe having an at least slightly more squared off, more formal appearance. I also realized that the Sport Coupe never got pillars, remaining a true hardtop to the end in 1975.
A note on terminology. IINM, what Dave is calling the base Impala coupe was always called the “Sport Coupe” (a generic term that Chevy used for all of its two-door hardtops) through the non-formal true hardtop’s last year in 1975. And the use of the term “Custom Coupe” for the formal-roofline coupe was not limited to the 1968-75 Impala, to distinguish it from the Sport Coupe. The 1966-76 Caprice and 1976 Impala also called it a Custom Coupe.
I tried to convince my Dad to buy a Spirit of America Impala in 1974, when he was looking at new cars. He didn’t like the color combinations available. He thought the Custom Coupe was horrible, due to the huge B pillar and triangular side window. We went to the NY auto show and a dealer from Larchmont, had some “personalized” cars on display. One of them was an Impala Custom Coupe with the triangular window changed into an opera window the size of an Eldorados. My Dad literally stopped in his tracks and said, “that’s my new car!”. He went to Hory Chevrolet in Latchmont and ordered a 74 Custom Coupe, and had them put the half roof and opera window on. He also had them install and electric sliding sunroof. I learned how to drive on that car and so many people mistook it for a Cadillac, that Dad began referring to it as his Chevrollac. It made for a very interesting variant on a 74 Impala…and it made it tough to see out of !
Jimmy J, your Dad’s “Chevrollac” was beautiful and I love the story behind it. That is such a great, period photo. Thanks for sharing that.
I think I remember seeing Spirit of America Impalas in the “Sport” configuration.
Thanks Joseph! One of the things my Father did was order the F41 suspension. Though it became widely known with the redesigned 77’s, it had been available since the late 60’s. It made for a very well handling car. It was an amazing difference driving my Dad’s and then driving one that didn’t have the F41.option. Here’s another photo of Dad’s car with my Mom, my Sister and me.
No matter the roof line style you chose, they were all still considered hard tops as the glass never had a frame around them like a traditional coupe. The big reason for choosing the non “sport” configuration was you didn’t have to deal with the pain in the @ss quarter windows. If you had the front window up and then rolled the rear down and back up it would bind up on the rubber on the glass and then you had to roll the front down roll the rear up and then front up. Happened all the time on our ’72 Caprice. I own one of the last big B bodies GM made and they are very good looking if you take the vinyl top off and paint the whole body. Low riders call them Glasshouses due to all the windows in them. They did have a tendacy to rust around the rear quarter glass though.
I only wish we had designers like Bill Mitchell again who could truely make a car beautiful but honestly cars have no soul and no one really cares how they look anymore, the traditional use for the family car was gone in the 90’s.
The cockeyed license plate on the grill cover just adds to the atmosphere of the photo.