Misha Charoudin is well known for his content at the Nurburgring and when he visited a well-to-do Russian friend with an impressive car collection, he asked his audience which car they would like to see go around the fearsome track. What they chose was a Chevrolet Impala SS from the ’90s.
Powered by a 5.7-liter V8, the Impala SS is no slouch and made 260 hp (264 PS/194 kW) and 330 lb-ft (447 Nm) of torque from the factory. Charoudin even does a little lightweighting before the lap begins, taking out the spare tire from the capacious trunk.
By European standards, though, the vehicle is a land yacht, and Charoudin and his co-driver both seem to think its presence on the track is hilarious. They are, however, kind of impressed by the performance.
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Early on, they’re amazed that the massive quarter-century-old vehicle can actually manage to heave itself around corners. The vehicle’s prodigious size and its age do, however, catch up with it quickly. Just two minutes into the lap, the brakes start to smell due to overheating and they ease off the power.
The car does do some things well, though, and they applaud the Impala SS’s comfort around the bumpy Karousel.
“With comfort! Something you can’t have in an M3,” the passenger says. “Yesterday in the M3 was really bumpy through here!”
So that’s a plus. It doesn’t take long before Charoudin expresses a desire for more power from that big V8, though. He says it doesn’t like going up hills, while his passenger proposes that may be down to the four-speed transmission not offering it enough gearing options.
Charoudin also complains that the steering rack could be quicker, but all in all, were it not for the brakes overheating so soon, the car would have performed reasonably well. And I can’t remember seeing a Nurburgring video in which the hosts have giggled quite as much as in this one.