While consumer tastes were changing, they needed the latter colossus of classic 1950s ornament. The Impala 1959 was more than 5 meters tall, had gigantic chrome baguettes that ran from end to end, a large bubble cabin and the tail was topped with 2 huge bathymobile fins.
The 1959 models, both Chevrolet, Pontiac, Cadillac, Olds and all GM products represented the glorious closure of the career of designer Harley Earl, one of the pioneers of automotive design in history.
Earl worked for General Motors for 32 years. Their models are constantly remembered for the daring, bombastic and spectacular. After his retirement, GM decided to smooth out the lines of his cars.
While the Impala 59 was longer, wider and heavier than the previous model, it appeared to be much lighter, due to its slender and intelligent handling of details such as fine parantes. The Impala was featured in a television campaign with renowned Pat Boone and Dinah Shore, who sang about how beautiful it would be to see America from a Chevrolet.
The Impala had a 5.700 cm3 Super Turbo-Thrust V8 that reached 335 HP at 5.800 rpm. It had a 3-speed automatic box and 3 double-mouth carburetors. This engine was used back then for motor racing.
© Adrián Blanco 2005 — Reproduction in whole or in part without explicit consent of the author is prohibited. —