62 impala SS 409

[59Impala]

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We did go & see a '62 Bubble near Southend about 12 years ago, it was on the road, red, red interior, 350, auto, a fare bit of rust, but too much else to sort to make nice, my mate always has a couple of projects on the go, so just didn't want another.
We both have imported quite a few cars over the years, so that's not a problem, as said they aren't that common in the USA!
There is a '61 bubble in deepest Surrey, 409, twin 4bbls, 4 speed, being restored to race as a clone of Dan Gurney's Jaguar slaying race car from back in the day.



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That 61 bubble in Surrey sounds interesting, any more info? There was a 61 that was restored with a dual quad 409/5-speed combo a while ago, was touted as a genuine SS 409 but was nothing of the sort. As for Dan Gurney's car, it lives in Australia where it went to back in the 60's. It was converted to RHD as per regulations there, lost its original 409 but apparently has another in place. Hopefully it's in good hands there.

[Total loss]

[quote]
That 61 bubble in Surrey sounds interesting, any more info? There was a 61 that was restored with a dual quad 409/5-speed combo a while ago, was touted as a genuine SS 409 but was nothing of the sort. As for Dan Gurney's car, it lives in Australia where it went to back in the 60's. It was converted to RHD as per regulations there, lost its original 409 but apparently has another in place. Hopefully it's in good hands there.
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Basicaly stock with race safety mods I believe, being done by Derek Drinkwater who does the old yank truck catering at shows etc. He has also raced a '63 Galaxie at Spa & a '50 Cadillac at Classic Le Mans.

[aeropilot]

Total loss said:

There is a '61 bubble in deepest Surrey, 409, twin 4bbls, 4 speed, being restored to race as a clone of Dan Gurney's Jaguar slaying race car from back in the day.

Look forward to seeing that race at the Revival one day then.

For a few years, as few of us have always wondered why no-one has ever done a 61/62 Impala 409 for Revival meet, although I believe a hardtop shell rather than a bubble-top is the better shell to make into a race car?

Would historic race regs allow you to use the Edelbrock new ally head castings instead of the cast iron ones?

Even better if you could use the alloy W-block casting as well, and have a full-monty 600+ horses, all-alloy, 509 cube W-block like this one

Edited by aeropilot on Tuesday 2nd January 22:12

[Total loss]

aeropilot said:

Look forward to seeing that race at the Revival one then.

For a few years, as few of us have always wondered why no-one has ever done a 61/62 Impala 409 for Revival meet, although I believe a hardtop shell rather than a bubble-top is the better shell to make into a race car?

Would historic race regs allow you to use the Edelbrock new ally head castings instead of the cast iron ones?

Even better if you could use the alloy W-block casting as well, and have a full-monty 600+ horses, all-alloy, 509 cube W-block like this one

With the separate chassis of these, I would doubt it would make much difference.
You can't just race any old car, it has to have been holomagted back in the day & these might not have been, plus it costs £75k+ to build any competitive car
No, no ally heads, only period parts as specified in holomagtion papers which there might not be for it.

[aeropilot]

Total loss said:

With the separate chassis of these, I would doubt it would make much difference.
You can't just race any old car, it has to have been holomagted back in the day & these might not have been, plus it costs £75k+ to build any competitive car
No, no ally heads, only period parts as specified in holomagtion papers which there might not be for it.

The old homolgation issue was why Gurney couldn't race the Impala again in the July meeting, and thus sold it to Australia. He was leading the May race but broke a wheel on the last lap, handing victory to Graham Hill's Jag Mk.2.
When Gurney entered the Impala at the British Empire Trophy meeting in July only to discover just two days before the race that apparently the car was not homologated (even though Gurney was accepted at the May meeting and held the necessary acceptance papers from the F.I.A. committee in the US). The papers had been sent to the C.S.I. of the F.I.A. in Paris who admitted they had the documents but now claimed it was too late to act. This prompted Gurney to contact John Eason Gibson at the BRDC but Eason Gibson subsequently received a telegram from Paris one hour later saying “Chevrolet not homologated”. According to a letter from Dan Gurney published in Autosport magazine on 21 July 1961, the RAC knew 10 days beforehand about the homologation problem but failed to inform Gurney in time. Unsurprisingly Gurney was very upset and stated in print that “I will in time get over the fact that I had spent a lot of time and money in bringing the Impala to Great Britain, but I will not readily forget the suspicion that there may have been some behind-the-scenes sabotage to prevent the Chevorlet from running at Silverstone”. He ended the letter by stating “I say again that our car is very standard and that it does comply with the rules and regulations”.

I've seen it reported from the current owner of the car in Aus that it's believed the Gurney car was the very first 409 powered car to be built at GM's Los Angeles factory.

[59Impala]

Gurney was correct that something had gone on behind the scenes and it is widely known that Jaguar was pulling the strings to have the Impala banned as it had shown what an American car could do. Two years later the Galaxie arrived and again Jaguar protested about this that and the other not being legal but the writing was on the wall and the Mk2's reign was over. In Australia Norm Beechey ran a 62 Impala 409 four door hardtop and beat the Jags on many occasions.