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WWW.PGCITIZEN.CA | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2014
Muscle machine had humble beginnings
Malcolm GUNN
www.wheelbasemedia.com
Although it has a reputation of being the baddest of the bad when it comes to musclecars, the Chevelle’s roots were far more sedate.
The vast majority were sold as affordable four-door family sedans or wagons since the car was roomy and economical.
  Two-door models were rarer, just as they are today, but the rarest of the rare - the “big-block” Chevelles - are what everyone remembers, honours and drools over at car shows.
  Big-block V8 power turned this otherwise tame intermediate hauler into a fearsome street fighter capable of beating up on unsuspecting Ford Torinos, Plymouth Road Runners and similar musclecar makes.
  Chevrolet’s popularity was also riding high as the new decade began, despite a lengthy strike at all General Motors’ plants whose various brands continued to rule the roost despite the resulting production cuts.
  The Chevelle, positioned between the full-size Caprice/Impala/Belair and the more compact Nova, remained the undisputed sales champ against competing Fords, Chryslers and a group of GM models that included the Buick Skylark and Oldsmobile Cutlass.
  From the mid-1960s, one of the undisputed kings of the street was the Chevelle SS396. With up to 375 horsepower (depending on the package you ordered), this particular Chevy quickly - very quickly -gained a reputation for tearing up the drag strip as well as being tough to beat down at the corner stoplight.
  The SS396, a name which combined Chevy’s popular Super Sport option label along with the cubic-inch displacement of its engine, was so overwhelmingly popular that the designation remained unchanged even when, in 1970, the V8 was increased to 402 cubes and an all-new body style was introduced.
  But, with the ever intensifying battle for musclecar leadership among manufacturers on full boil, the SS 396/402 was deemed by the brass at Chevrolet as insufficient as the Chevelle’s chief weapon. The high-output powerplants from various competitors,
especially the Chrysler 426-cubic-inch (7.0-litre) Hemi, were threatening to dethrone its supremacy and, just as importantly, its considerable edge in market share.
  More firepower also became available the same year when GM rescinded an earlier rule that limited intermediates to V8 en-
gines no larger than 400 cubic inches. The result arrived in the form of a 454-cubic-inch V8 torque monster available in two strengths. The base version, called the LS-5, doled out 360 horsepower, while the potent LS-6 weighed in at an advertised 450 ponies along with a 500 pound-feet torque rating.
  In fact, this biggest of Chevy’s big blocks actually produced more than 500 horsepower, but the division, fearful of an insurance industry backlash, toned down the advertised output. In the end, the LS-6 proved an equal, if not superior battle tool to Plymouth’s Hemicuda that came with the legendary 426-cubic-inch Hemi V8 powerplant.
  The special ingredients that went into making an LS-6 consisted of special “square-port” cylinder heads, an aluminum intake manifold and other trick engine goodies, including a giant Holley four-barrel carburetor.
  Both the LS-5 and LS-6 could be ordered with optional “Cowl Induction” that required a special hood to direct cooler outside air to the carb through a slot that opened just ahead of the windshield.
  Costing about $1,000, the LS-6 option wasn’t cheap, which is probably why fewer than 4,500 Chevelles were so equipped.
  However, the pleasure of turning zero-to-96 km/h times of about six seconds (and the quarter mile in about 13.5 seconds at 170 km/h) easily justified the extra expense for those hard-core performance fanatics with enough cash in their Levis.
  Most SS454 Chevelles came with a set of attractive vinyl-coated bucket seats, fake wood dash trim, five-spoke Rallye wheels and a grab-handle-style floor shifter that controlled the three-speed automatic transmission. A few cars - mostly convertibles -left the factory floor with a plain-Jane front bench seat and a four-speed Muncie “rock crusher” (named for the noise it made while shifting) gearbox.
  Although the 1970 SS454 became the ultimate force among its peers, it also turned out to be the high-water mark in the musclecar madness that had swept the land. The following year, increasingly stringent pollution controls along with the use of unleaded gasoline curtailed the big block’s output and spelled the end of the trail for the LS-6.
  The LS-5 SS454 was still available and still plenty quick, but its maximum 365 horses took the edge off the Chevelle’s previously breathtaking quarter-mile times.
  Twelve months is a very short time in the life of any automobile, but for Chevrolet, 1970 will always and forever be the time when its bread-and-butter Chevelle achieved its greatest glory.
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