Throwback Thursday: 1966 Impala

In 1966, the Impala was the biggest seller for Chevrolet, even though the Caprice was dropped from the Impala line up and became a model by itself. The Impala was still a deluxe model, with color-accented body molding, front and rear wheel opening moldings, bright rocker trim, front fender “Impala” emblems, backup lights in the rear bumper, and a hood ornament with extending chrome accent.

The Super Sport Impala for 1966 was the recipient of a revised grille and all Impala’s received new rectangular taillights that replaced the three round units. Inside were new Strato bucket seats with seat backs that were both thinner and higher than the previous years, and there was a center console available with an optional gauge package. In a not-so-surprising event, sales of the 1966 Impala Super Sport dropped by more than 50-percent. This is attributed to the performance car market deviating from a past relationship of full-sized cars and becoming part of intermediate-sized models (think Chevelle). Another interesting note is that from 1964 through 1967, the Super Sport was a separate model, and carried its own VIN prefix (168 versus 164 for the standard Impala).

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If you lived in a country where the driver sits on the “wrong” side of the car, your Impala was manufactured in Canada. These cars used a modified version of the 1965 Impala dash. Center-mounted radios and heaters were locally sourced, and the wipers parked in the center of the windshield unlike American-sold cars.

The 1966 Impala also introduced several variations on two new engines, the Turbo-Jet 396 cubic-inch and Turbo-Jet 427 cubic-inch big-blocks with a maximum output 325 and 425 horsepower respectively.

Se we’ve looked back and now we’re thinking, “what would happen if it were 1966 again?” We know what we would do, but if you could, how would you order your new Impala?

Article courtesy of Chevy Hardcore, written by Randy Bolig.