This ’96 Chevy Impala SS Gives Us Hope For The Future Of The American Muscle Sedan

With the Chevy SS discontinued and Ford getting out of the passenger-car game almost altogether, the American muscle sedan is a dying breed. Only the Dodge Charger remains to hold up the mantle. But looking at this 22-year-old Impala, we can’t help but feel hopeful.

A very different machine from the mild-mannered Impala we know today, the Impala SS of the mid-1990s was basically an muscled-up Caprice. It had the 5.7-liter LT1 V8 from the C4 Corvette, a dropped suspension, a smattering of other performance upgrades, and a low-key but sinister look. It was arguably the ultimate sleeper, looking like a taxi cab (or police car) but packing a secret punch.

For better or worse, Chevy made fewer than 70,000 of them between 1994 and 1996. Over two decades later, a low-mileage and unmolested example is hard to come by. But the rapper known as Killer Mike managed to find one – an end-of-run ’96 example with the floor-mounted (instead of column) shifter and analog gauges.

A Rare Remnant of a Bygone Era

Fortunately the hip-hop star – arguably best known for his collaboration with OutKast around the turn of the millennium – had the good sense not to mess it up. He had Forgiato fit a 21-inch set of its Tecnica alloys with black fascias and chrome lips fitted. But he otherwise left it largely alone. And glad we are that he did.

The Impala SS is a rare remnant of a not-so-distant but bygone era. It might not have set any Nürburgring lap records, but it proudly revived the spirit of the American muscle sedan. It showed that Detroit had the capacity to make family sedans with big muscle… when the public asked for it. And if Chevy could do it then, it could do it again. All we need to do is ask, and be prepared to put our money where our mouthes are.