That little blond kid staring up at his dad in admiration should have been me. This is exactly the kind of dad I would have preferred to have, and yes, this would have been the perfect car for the six Not-Niedermeyers upon our arrival in the US in 1960: an Impala hardtop sports coupe with the 290 hp fuel injected 283 V8, the newly-available four-speed stick shift transmission and Positraction (instead he bought a dumpy old ’54 Ford four-door sedan with a 130 hp Y-block). But where’s the heavy duty/sports suspension? The ad does say handle like a sports car.
Time for a trip to oldcarbrochures.com. No sign of an obvious sports/HD suspension package. There’s “Heavy-duty rear coil springs”, probably aimed primarily at station wagon owners with six kids and a fully-loaded roof rack. It does mention “Special equipment for police or taxicab service”. Not so sure that actually means a HD suspension. Frankly, that kind of thing just wasn’t really in the air in 1959. So the “sports car handling” seems a bit of a stretch. But the performance certainly wasn’t.
Update: a bit more research shows that the “police suspension” was a HD set up that was also used on export cars. Presumably it would have been available on any Chevy ordered, as per the mention in the brochure. It might have made sense to mention that in the ad. And according to one test of a police package ’59 Chevy, it was a big improvement over the base suspension.
With that Fuel Injection badge on the front fender, 290 hp (at 6200 rpm,) and the four speed, this would have been a brisk car for the times. And given the 283’s light weight, it would undoubtedly have been a relatively better handler than many of the heavy-engined competition, including the 348 V8 Chevy. So maybe there was something to the claim; certainly so in relative terms.
Chevrolet was the first popular-priced car to offer a four speed manual. Ford wouldn’t install one in the factory until 1962, although one could order a ’61 with a four speed in the trunk, to be installed by the dealer, and then only with the hi-po 390. Seriously. Which is of course exactly what my not-dad did in 1961, since he was a confirmed Ford man at the time. It was not-worth waiting two years, I guess.
Hat tip to Sean Cornelis
Related reading:
Automotive History: 1957 Chevrolet Fuel Injected 283 V8
You had a lot of company. That “Dad in the ad” would have been rare in 59 and his car – with the high performance stuff, the four-speed, and seat belts (!) – would have been super rare. About 99% of the Dads in my childhood small town midwest would have gotten the six or 283 with PowerGlide, a good percentage of which would have been installed in a Bel Air or Biscayne. I doubt that many urban/suburban Dads would have opted for the four-speed. And surely Mom would have had a say in the choice if it was the only car in the household. I’ve known many a Mom/wife over the years who has nixed the purchased of a stick shift. Fun fantasy ad.
Yes the seatbelt choice was rare during those days. During those days the common perception was that you would be better off if you were thrown clear of the car in an accident then remain in it. It was not until after a state police officer discovered that on a lot of the accidents he was called to the scene of, the crash damage was not that great and would have not resulted in the occupants deaths had they remained in the vehicle that changed this perception.
If the only car in the family WAS the Impala, then yes, it would’ve been a six or 283 with Powerglide and P/S, P/B for Mom. However, I do of Dads in the day (not mine, of course – he waited for the end-of-year deals to get something marked down out of dealer inventory) – that would’ve optioned their car like this . . . he’d drive IT; but it would have the capacity to take along the gang on a weekend jaunt. A school friend acquaintance’s folks had a full-boat Bonneville Safari that had a 421 and four speed; Mom’s daily shuttle was a Bel Air with 283 and ‘glide . . . .
Suffice to say, ’59 Chevy fuelies are very rare and if sedan (as built for the ad) existed today, it would easily be a six-figure car (if clean) . . . . Yes. I’d LOVE this one and one WOULD have had to order it in the day . . . .
This Dad is seriously cool and must have had an Iteresting range of cars over the years! I did not realise how extensive the optional equipment lists were already in 1959. I had always thought that the really wide options choices came in with the Mustang a few years later.
As for sports car handling, I have never driven a 1959 sports car so perhaps his Chevy Coupe was a pretty neat handler by the standards of the day.
Having owned a 1960 Bel-Air, I can’t imagine anything sporty about this thing except the power and transmission. The X-frames were land yachts rivaling the handling dynamics of the great barges of the 70’s.
I still love that dashboard though.
The optional HD police suspension apparently was a substantial improvement, at least in relative terms.
I drove a 1960 Bel Air, one that was in very nice condition, too. Simply the least soild, quivering death trap I have ever piloted. The hood shook over bumps and you could feel the whole body flex over any kind of bump, The doors needed to be realigned regularity the whole thing was so cheaply made. But the style was there, man!
And it want pretty good when you stomped it.
Even with the 235 6 my youthful aggression managed to break the arm that locates the rear axle (can’t remember what it was called). Very flimsy design all-around, would think with higher HP it would be pretty fragile.
For all it’s engineering faults though, I still have a soft spot for the 59-60.
Youthful aggression and rust? 🙂
Fast-forward to the 1970s when you could order a Chevrolet Nova from the factory with all manner of good bits, the F-41 Regular Production Option being the “handle like a sports car” ones. That was the police suspension and tires, with the exception of a softer bushing in the front eye of the rear leaf springs. With the right selection of engine, you could show the driver of a BMW 5-series your rear end…complete with CHEVROLET emblazoned on the trunk lid, though I will admit that blowing off a Beemer in a 1959 Impala would leave ’em even more slack-jawed. If only that were possible.
Much slimmer pickings at Chevy these days, they have nothing comparable to the Ford Focus/Fiesta STs so the Gen X version of this dad’ll have to go for a Sonic 1.4 Turbo with 6-speed unless he can cough up the 43 grand for the Commodore-based SS (with an architect’s student-loan debt? Dream on).
Fully comparable to the Fiesta ST and Focus ST are the Opel Corsa OPC (1.6 liter turbo) and Opel Astra OPC (2.0 liter turbo). This is the Corsa OPC.
And they also got the very powerful Opel Insignia OPC with a 325 hp 2.8 liter V6 turbo, a D-segment car.
Funny thing about this ad is if you really wanted a full-size sports car, you were better off with a Plymouth, especially with the first-year Unibody construction, TorqueFlite transmission, torsion-bar front end and whatever hot Mopar motor you wanted. Sure, you had to deal with spotty Chrysler quality, but weren’t most of the 1957 bugs worked out by then?
I grew up a GM kid, and my dad was driving Chevy company cars back then, one of which was a ’59. His employers were cheapskates, however, and they gave him a three-on-the-tree car instead of Powerglide, to be driven to sales calls in New York traffic. To this day, he hates manual-shift cars and has often busted my chops about owning any.
Judging from the ads that have been posted here, Chevy’s 1959 campaign touted its options list. It could be had with just about anything you could get on a Caddy, including power windows, power seat, cruise control, etc. Of course, that pushed the price into Pontiac and Oldsmobile territory.
I agree – the Plymouths offered tauter handling, although Plymouth didn’t offer a four-speed manual transmission in 1959. Plymouth switched to unit-body construction for 1960, but the styling was a major handicap that year.
The option list was a lot shorter here 283 was the engine Ive only ever seen one 59 6 cylinder Chev and it was a Canadian import full of rust that I test drove at a bomb dealers 3 on the tree it didnt go particularly well and it didnt handle at all, mind you it was stock 19 years old and very tired. I cant think of any sports cars that age a 59 Chev could out corner no doubt a FI and 4speed would be straight line fast but left and right at high speed nar.
The inaugural 1960 NZ saloon car championship which a 59 sport Chev would have been eligible for was won by a guy called Harold Heasley in a tuned 59 Humber 80 in our then run what ya brung allcomer racing category it outran and outhandled all the competition.
We only got ’59s with that basic six-and-manual here. V8s and automatics came in new for ’60. I have an old ’61 issue of “Modern Motor”, an Aussie car magazine, and it had a big article comparing the various automatics available. They way it was written, obviously the automatic tranny was brand-new cutting-edge technology for 1961 Australia!
Yeah Aussie got the Del Ray with leather seats to send it upscale, a friend near Narrabri had a neighbour who had two 60 Chevs in her front paddock both V8s the first model she reckoned both inspection failures along with 50-60 others.
Well the paper says he is a young architect so that makes him a yuppie before we had the word. With all those kids he would be atypical IMO for a recent college graduate and IIRC the country was just coming out of a recession. Considering all, I think this guy was a figment of the ad agencies imagination so those of you who were wishing for a dad like him should probably stay content with the one you had.
I think 59 and 60 were the two best looking Chevrolets of that era which I always felt was owned by the 348/409 chev. Concur that they did not handle like sports cars.
Yeah, if Mad Men is completely correct, he’s also got a girlfriend on the side that wifey doesn’t have a clue about; and catching one or two others when the chance presents itself.
Maybe it was like that in the big city. In the small towns like I grew up in, you gotta be kidding.
Judging by his appearance, “young” means early 30s, or even his mid 30s. If my relatives from that time are any indication, it was common for a married couple to have three (or even four) children by the time dad hit his early 30s. Particularly if dad had a good-paying job. Mom may have gone to college, but she likely dropped out when dad graduated, got a decent job, and asked her to marry him. She probably stayed home with the children. Plenty of women in the 1950s attended college primarily to get what was called an “MRS.” degree. Attending college increased their chances of finding a husband with a more prestigious occupation – i.e., a budding architect, as opposed to someone working in a factory.
In those days, most people didn’t wait a few years to “enjoy their time together” or “discover each other” after getting married. You got married, and it was expected that you’d have your first child within two years of the wedding date.
I don’t know how many 30-something professional fathers were driving around in four-speed Impalas with hot V-8s in those days. But, for the late 1950s, the number of kids and the ability to afford a brand-new, well-optioned car isn’t far off the mark for a professional in his 30s.
There were 5 of us by the time my dad was 30 in 1965, so yeah the family in that ad makes sense. They had kids right after they were married in those days I guess. Of course in ’65 we had a Plymouth Fury wagon and a red Valiant with 3 on the tree.
Interesting combination. If I’m not mistaken, the only 4 speed Chevy offered back then was the close ratio T-10. It had a first gear ratio of about 2.20:1. Coupled with an engine that didn’t make much torque until fairly high up in the RPM band, you’d need a 3.70 or even 4.11 rearend. Great in a ‘Vette, but I’ll bet it was a tough combo to live with in a big Chevy which weighed half a ton more. I doubt you could get power steering with the 290 horse engine either, but maybe 5 or 6 turns lock to lock was sporty in ’59.
I wonder how many were actually sold?
There were several gearsets for the T-10 used in Chevrolets of this vintage. The one in most full-size Chevrolets was 2.54/1.91/1.52/1.00; the Corvette offered the close-ratio set, which was 2.20/1.66/1.31/1.00. I’ve seen several period tests complaining about the wide-ratio set in the hot Impala SS — with a rational axle ratio for street use, the wide ratios made sense, but with the optional 4.56 dragstrip rear end, it was kind of silly.
I just have to ask: did your dad ever own anything remotely sporty or powerful?
Does a ’66 Chevelle 4-door with 283 and ‘glide count?
Impala SS hardtop every year from ’62-65. Of course they were all small block, two barrels with the automatic. Not necessarily bought for sporty (my father didn’t even listen to the Indy 500 on Memorial Day), but because it was a fancier car than any of the department managers got, and it was an easy sell as a used car the following fall.
If you’re asking about my dad specifically, the closest he got was the only time he asked me for a buying recommendation, and bought an ’86 or ’87 Taurus V6. Not exactly, sporty or powerful, but for times, a well-balanced all-round car.
He eventually traded that in on a ’93 or Skylark, which had the 3.1 V6 and was probbaly a wee bit faster, but not as nice all-round to drive.
The last car he bought was a Saturn Ion. Ugh!
Thanks. Interesting that he kept the vast majority of his cars very modest and frugal.
Aside from the Ion. No idea what was going on there 😀
This one is likely a lot closer to reality.
Yup 🙂 Although FWIW, my dad was very anti-six cylinders in full size cars. He thought the “right” amount of hp was about 200, with 250 being the absolute maximum. Anything above that was excessive and dangerous!
The ad mentions a hand throttle? Interesting, I’ve seen such a thing in 30’s cars, but I never knew such a feature made it all the way to 1959?
The GM Tech Center always does a good “generic office building” background.
I don’t think it’s a hand throttle, but an early form of cruise control that the ad mentions.
It talks about a “throttle holder”, I think that’s more like Chrysler’s Auto-Pilot mechanical cruise control than a hand throttle.
Although I’m too young to remember the 1950s or 60s, I do remember when you could actually order whatever option you wanted your car to have.
While I am not sure about the 50’s, in the 60’s and 70’s most cars were basic, with most everything optional. The Impala had a nicer interior standard, but everything else was an option.
This is still more or less the case. But Cadillac bundles options in base, luxury, performance and premium trim’s. The premium trim has nearly everything standard, except for a few items not available on base or luxury trim. For example to get adaptive cruise control, either the performance or premium trim is required to get the optional adaptive cruise, which is part of another package.
Navigation is standard with the premium trim, optional on luxury and preformance, not available on base.
The top trim CTS has almost everything, including the adaptive cruise, from what I’ve seen.
I was actually referring to my ATS. The CTS premium trim does have a lot of standard stuff. But you have options on engines, AWD or RWD, colors (some extra cost), interiors (extra cost) …
I guess I am not quite sure what you were getting at. You can still order a car with the options that you want (assuming of course that the options are available). In the 70’s the options lists were quite long, and on full size Chevrolet’s, most options available for the Caprice were also available for the Bel Air (lowest end). Now the Impala comes with 5 trim variations with some options available for each trim level. The lowest trim does not offer all options.
One of the best looking Chevys ever,especially after the ostentatious 58s.Those taillights always remind me of the glasses a kid hating librarian with a voice that should have been in boot camp wore.One of the few adults who scared me as a kid
I do remember going over 120 MPH with dad in his 67 Conti with the 460 flat out. In Montana on a long, flat straight road. And he told me a story of him outrunning a Highway Patrol car, and eventually seeing a cloud of smoke as the patrol car blew it’s engine. I tend not to believe his story, though. All our family cars were 283 powerglide Chevy wagons, except for a 59 Plymouth wagon with a V8, but I don’t know what engine. I do remember he used to tow with the Plymouth a Shasta travel trailer and a small outboard boat together, at that time it was still legal. I also remember the boat unhitching itself and passing us as we slowed. My brother and Dad were able to run out and reattach it and we continued on. The guy in the ad would be the perfect Dad with the perfect ‘family car’.
The ad says nothing about a suspension upgrade, but the heavy duty rear springs option probably was for towing. However, those springs would have improved handling some. Heavy duty replacement shocks would also have improved handling after the original equipment shocks were worn (about 25000 miles in those days).
I did a bit more poking around: the “police suspension” mentioned in the options was an all-round HD suspension that Chevy also put on export cars, and apparently was a substantial improvement according to one vintage test I read.
The 71 Riviera that I bought used with about 12000 miles needed shocks at about 25000 miles, or at least that is when I had them replaced with HD shocks. The handling was greatly improved with no impact on the ride. GM’s cars had frames and bodies that would flex a lot, which were part of the suspension, particularly after 20,000 miles or so.
I found a later test talking about the 1960 options, which explained that the police suspension (at least in 1960) was more elaborate than the “civilian” H-D stuff. The police package had stiff springs and shocks, but also severe-duty wheel bearings, hubs, and steering knuckles and stiffer bushings. The police kit also included metallic brake linings and 15- rather than 14-inch wheels.
Without the police package, you could get stiffer rear springs, stiffer front springs, and/or H-D shocks as standalone options, but each of those was listed separately — there doesn’t appear to have been a complete H-D package other than the police kit.
That article (in Motor Life, incidentally) noted that the police package wasn’t offered on Impalas or on convertibles or hardtops, so if you wanted an Impala sport coupe like the one in the ad, you had to settle for the H-D springs and shocks and either forgo the other severe-duty stuff or install it yourself.
If this guy had been any kind of architect at all, he would be crowing about his Chrysler 300E. His neighbor the engineer (the guy with the 59 Plymouth Fury Golden Commando) just smiles every time he pulls away from the archetect in that Chevy around that long, sweeping curve on the way into the city. “Of course a 4 speed is a big deal – when your other choice is a lousy Powerglide.”
Seriously, the dash design on the 59-60 Chevy is a masterwork. Not my favorite car overall, but those interiors were fabulous.
Fuelie Impala? Letter-series Chrysler? That may have been the case in ’59 but the recession had taken its toll. Everyone knows that by 1961 every young architect with a hot blonde wife was driving a Studebaker Lark…..and owned a talking horse…….
Perfect!
My data I have on the 1959 Chevrolet shows no optional HD suspension other than HD rear springs. That said, as other’s have already mentioned the police and export vehicles used Heavy duty springs. RPO 330 (Taxi) and LPO 1105 (Police) both specified HD springs front and rear. Taxi’s show a different front spring when equipped with six cylinders with a slightly lower load capacity while the V8 taxis have a higher load capacity. The Police cars springs fall in the middle. Both list HD shocks, HD bushings but regular production front sway bar.
There are 11 different front coil springs that Chevrolet had to choose from for 1959. There was only three different rates, 275 in/lbs, 310 in/lbs and 370 in/lbs. Keep in mind there were several variations of the spring with the same rate to compensate for different vehicle weights. These variants would have the same spring rate, but taller or shorter).
There are six rear springs listed, in four different rates. These are 230 in/lbs, 265 in/lbs, 340 in/lbs and 450 in/lbs.
Paul I believe you were also looking for the net HP ratings for a 283 FI engine in the Corvette post? According to the factory published dyno sheets, the 290 hp 283 produced 245 net hp (or as best as I can read from the graph). Keep in mind that until SAE standardized net HP in 1972, there is no saying on if these would even be comparable to 1972 and newer SAE net ratings. However, I am sure much closer to reality than the 290 hp rating.
How I wish one could still have that amount of choice on the bread and butter models.
What were the two different air conditioning systems?
Is there anywhere that lists all those engines and transmissions?
I like how in the ad posted by roger628, it talks about the “Throttle-holder”. Makes me wonder who coined Cruise Control that it became the name for it across the board.
Was the 283 FI their hottest engine during that period, or was the 409 already top dog? Then the 427 came out? I’m rusty on the timeline…
409 came out in ’61, and the 427 in ’66. If you google 1959 Chevrolet you’ll find lots of info. Try 348-409.com if you’re interested in Chevy’s of this vintage.
The 2 kinds of AC were the built-in type, with full reheat and fresh, and the cheaper, under-dash unit.
AFIK a throttle holder was just that, a Fred Flintstone level device that held the throttle at one setting, with no servo of any kind.
Perfect for the “big midwest territory” the man covered, especially with a 3-on-the-tree. In hilly driving, not so much. I don’t even know if it had a cancelling device,
I don’t remember when GM introduced cruise control, but Chrysler’s Auto-Pilot was introduced on senior models in 1957. That was a speed governor, not an automatic throttle, and would disengage if you tapped the brakes.
That mechanical ‘cruise control’ was nothing special, just a choke-like knob connected to the throttle linkage, and having a great deal of friction to hold it in place. My 1937 Buick had the same setup.
Top dog engine wise for 1959 was the 348 Tri-power with 335 hp. The 409 didn’t come out until 1961.
At the time this ad appeared my dad’s car was a 58 Ford Fairlane 6 cyl, 3 on the tree. Mom was fully stick qualified, but hated having to start on hills, and didn’t get any relief until our 64 Mercury Monterey.
I guess Dad had a hotrodder hiding inside, because when I drove back for Christmas with my first Mustang GT (an 83) he asked to take it for a spin and pronounced it to be a pretty good car.
Beautiful and cheerful interior on that car. It would be a mood lifter just to open the door and sit down.
Okay, to append my comment above: The 1960 article I was looking at lists the heavy-duty front springs and shocks — and the police package — as LPOs rather than RPOs. Based on B. Mitchell’s comment, my guess is that was probably true in ’59 as well, if only for the benefit of fleet customers. However, LPOs were listed on a separate order form, so you’d have to know the option existed and ask the salesman for the LPO list, which I imagine meant you were also dependent on how accommodating the salesman was feeling.
I checked the specs for 1960. The only option for civilian cars was HD rear springs. HD front and rear springs were offered in the police and taxi packages as they were in 1959. The spring rates offered are also the same as 1959.
If your dad was Zora Arkus-Duntov he would have driven that fuelie. Duntov developed a police pursuit package for the ’59 but it used the 348 W block and I believe that it was only available in the Biscayne.
LPO 1105 was only available on Biscayne 2-door and 4-door sedans as well as 4-door Brookwood wagons.
Today this ad would read:
“I was barely allowed by my wife to pick medium beige frostmist instead of frostmist medium tan…..Toyotas made a Camry for ME!”
+1
“With three kids, six figures in college loans, and nobody building anything except design-free box stores – Honda made a Civic for ME! In 1996…”
“Today this ad would read:
“I was barely allowed by my wife to pick medium beige frostmist instead of frostmist medium tan…..Toyotas made a Camry for ME!””
This is the most poignant comment on this thread.
The V6 Camry in both acceleration and handling would blow the Chevy into the weeds. But the Chevy looks (and sounds) like it would do the opposite. Carmine’s comment is still correct. But she also may say that’s how she want’s it equipped so she will be happy with it when she get’s it in the settlement.
I wonder if this is a David E. Davis ad? He was penning copy for the Corvette at Campbell-Edwald back then, and this ad has the same feel.
Mom is supposed to be happy that she snagged the Paul Newman of their suburban neighborhood. If that means she has to learn how to drive a manual, then so be it.
Judging by the positioning of the people in the ad, it’s apparent that hubby being man enough to demand the stick shift and hot V-8 makes the little woman love him even more!
Wait until the bonus comes and get her a little cheapie Corvair 500 sedan with a PowerGlide, though many women back then did know how to drive manuals and standard transmission cars were still pretty common.
True. Automatics were not universal even in the late 1950s. Most people in their 30s at that time would have started driving in the late 1940s or early 1950s, when cars equipped with an automatic transmission were still fairly rare.
My father learned to drive in 1951 on a brand-new Chevrolet provided by the local dealer to his school. I asked him if it was equipped with an automatic, and his reply was, “No, automatic transmissions were fairly expensive in those days.”
Many women, even if they knew how to drive a manual transmission, if given the choice, demanded an automatic. That was the case in our family. Power steering also wasn’t universal in those days, so trying to park a car with a manual transmission and no power steering wasn’t always easy.
Yup – one such Mom was a neighbor. Dad drove the big Bonneville while Mom got a Chevy II with manual steering and three on the tree. Of course, a “second car” was quite a luxury in the early 60s, especially if it was bought new, so perhaps Mom was happy to have it. For awhile, anyway. It was replaced by a 69 Impala with auto and air.
I’m not sure why everyone assumes women don’t/didn’t know how to drive manual transmissions (particularly in the late ’50s, when a woman in her 30s would have probably learned to drive when automatic was still quite rare). Even today, women are statistically more likely to own stick-shift cars, mainly because on low-end cars, the $800 to $1,000 cost of automatic is a lot.
It’s not that they didn’t know how to drive a manual – it’s that a lot of women didn’t want to drive a manual, if given the choice.
My mother and paternal grandmother are good examples of this.
My grandmother finally learned to drive after World War II, when she was in her early 30s. She learned to drive on a car with a manual transmission (I believe it was a prewar Ford). My grandfather later bought a slightly used 1951 Studebaker Champion sedan with a stick shift. She never drove it unless she had to, and when my grandfather died in 1964, she immediately traded it for a 1962 Ford Falcon four-door sedan. One of the main reasons was that she wanted an automatic transmission.
My mother married my father in 1960, and moved here from Germany. She learned how to drive on his 1953 Studebaker Champion Starlight with a stick shift. From what she says, the experience almost ended the marriage right there. Their next car was a used 1959 Rambler station wagon with an automatic. The only other car my parents ever owned with a manual transmission was a 1986 Ford Escort Pony, and my mother only drove it when she had to.
Ah, yes… in February, 1968, dad’s 1960 Impala sports sedan was about shot. We went to Johnny Londoff Chevrolet in Florissant, MO and saw two nice used Impalas – one, a 1965 SS w/327, green w/black vinyl top and the 1966 250/Powerglide red sports sedan.
Of course, I hungered for the SS, but I knew that we carried people besides the three of us, so the 1966 won out.
It was bright red, so I never complained, as dad let me drive the car almost any time I wanted to. He even let me and my buddy drive the “new” car to McDonald’s and try out the new Big Mac!
The odd manual trans Altima or Maxima that survives 30 to 40 years from now will be viewed the same way these Impalas are.
Not quite. Depending on whose records one believes, either 26 or 37 full-sized ’59 Chevys were built with the 283-290 FI engine. Chevy production records show 26 cars built, while Rochester Products’ records showed that 37 fuel injected engines were built for installation in full-sized cars in 1959.
What is known is that three documented cars exist, two convertibles and a coupe. They are easily worth six figures.
From what I can tell, the 250HP FI engine was still available in ’59, so maybe it was 37 total FI installations and 26 of them were the 290HP version? Who knows… Chevrolet kept surprisingly vague production stats back then.
The closest thing to a “modern” equivalent I can think of are the early W-body Cutlass Supremes and Grand Prix with the H.O. Quad4/5-speed. Standard size family car for the era, relatively small, high-revving engine, only a handful of each built.
Actually a Z34 Lumina coupe with the 5speed would probably have been the 90’s equivalent to this car.
Modern day match up for this car? A 6 speed manual Buick Regal GS or Cadillac ATS 2.0 litre turbo with the 6 speed, maybe a Camaro SS, though that’s a 4 seater at best.
That too, but they were way more common. The Regal is probably the closest current day car. I also thought of the Dodge Stratus R/Ts and Pontiac G6s with manual transmissions, I’m sure there weren’t many of those built.
Any of the non-Impreza Subaru turbos with a 5-speed (Legacy GT, Outback XT, Baja XT, Forester XT) would fall into that category. Forester XT manuals are a little less rare, but they were discontinued in North America with the debut of the 3rd gen Foz in 2009. (the rest of the world can still get them to this day)
As one might imagine, the Baja XT/5-speed combo is especially rare.
My mother’s first new car was a 1960 Rambler 6 with 3 on the tree, and then once married, her & Dad got a ’64 Rambler wagon with same combo. For a 2nd car, we had a manual 3 speed ’65 Mustang I6.
So, not all ‘moms’ in the 60’s demanded automatics, just yet.
Anyway, ’59 was the first year for Impala as a sedan, so Chevy was repositioning it from specialty coupe to families. In a few years, Impala was synonomous with mainstrean family car, rather than “sports car”
I can never make up my mind about the ’59 Batwing Chevrolets in general, but with the Ramjet 283 and 4-speed those mixed feelings turn into a powerful lust! What a car… too bad hardly any of them were ever built. But as others have pointed out, the 348 was both faster and cheaper(?), and the sports car handling was pure fantasy. Neither factor puts any sort of dent in my enthusiasm, however.
The only way I could possibly be more into this is if it was a 4-door hardtop instead. The flying wing roof is my favorite feature of these cars. That ad for the economy special version is great, too – and a car like that is also very appealing to me. In a perfect world, I would have both a black w/red interior fuelie Impala coupe and a Bel Air 4-door hardtop with the six, 3-speed+overdrive and rudimentary cruise control in two-tone green.
I spent a good amount of time reading up on these cars the other day and bumped into another interesting Ramjet tidbit. Apparently Canadian Pontiacs (Poncho body + Chevy guts) could be had with a “Power Chief” fuel-injected 283 in ’57-’58 as well. Sadly there don’t appear to be any documented on the web, but the consensus seems to be that at least some of them existed: