School me on SS427s!

[Tarrytown SS427s]

I used to classify cars like the black one from SS427's by calling them 427 SS cars..but that just confused everybody. So now I call them Z24 cars and non Z24 cars.

The SS427 option was merely a trim package, just like a Judge, RS, SS396, etc. It was a separate option costing about $95.00 and got you the special trim, bright engine accents, F40 suspension, redlines(or white), and automatically equipped the car with a 427. By the body numbers it wasn't technically ever it's own "model", but in the literature it is classified as such, the same way a regular Super Sport was in 68.

[SS427]

What a lot of people don't understand is, you could purchase an Impala Super Sport with a 427 or you could order an Impala with the RPO code Z24 and get the "SS427". Two entirely different cars so to speak. The SS427 carries a lot more mistique than a 427 equipped Super Sport as their hoods and badging had a lot more appeal.

[Donny Brass]

Mark, I am pretty sure the L72 was not available at all in 1967 Impala....

am I wrong ?

[Tarrytown SS427s]

You're correct, until one of the supposed few that were produced turns up lol

[JohnZ]

[ QUOTE ]
You're correct, until one of the supposed few that were produced turns up lol

[/ QUOTE ]

I had one when I worked at Chevrolet Engineering - tagged it for employee purchase the day it arrived in the Company Car Fleet garage; L-72 4-speed SS427, special-ordered by Engineering for Chassis Development. It hit the 3,000-mile mark in December, and I bought it and drove it home just before Christmas; sold it in Flint a couple of years later.

Removed the "Special Order" tag from the left side front fender reinforcement and put it in my rollaway just before I sold it, still have the tag - photo below. There may not have been any L-72 SS427's built on dealer order for retail sale, but there was at least one built for Engineering; I bought several sets of rear tires for it in the two years I owned it.

[Tarrytown SS427s]

John,
Do you have any memory of a red 68 Biscayne 427/385 stick ordered by engineering to test posi clutches? I was talking to a guy who bought this car from Chevrolet after it had traveled in circles for 3,000 miles worth of testing!

[JohnZ]

[ QUOTE ]
John,
Do you have any memory of a red 68 Biscayne 427/385 stick ordered by engineering to test posi clutches? I was talking to a guy who bought this car from Chevrolet after it had traveled in circles for 3,000 miles worth of testing!

[/ QUOTE ]

No, not offhand - there were over 1300 cars in the Engineering Evaluation fleet at any one time, and haulaway trucks full of them arrived every day. I focused on mine because I knew it was coming - I knew the Staff Engineer who ordered it for his development program.

[Paul Vitale]

John was it a 67 with an L-72 and do you have anything documenting the build ? Iam sure you have had that question asked of you alot when you talk about that car LOL ..

Paul

[JohnZ]

[ QUOTE ]
John was it a 67 with an L-72 and do you have anything documenting the build ? Iam sure you have had that question asked of you alot when you talk about that car LOL ..

Paul

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, it was a '67 L-72. Nope, have no paper on the car - it was 42 years (and ten transfers/homes) ago; all I have is the special order tag. It was that pretty champagne color inside and out, with redlines. If it stayed in Flint after I sold it, it's probably iron oxide dust by now.

[Ivan]

I have one in my garage. It is the car on the front cover of Hemmings Muscle Machines September 2012