KIM POYTON My Californian DREAM CAR

I first spotted Kim’s stunning 1959 Chevrolet Impala Coupe at the Bay Rodders Winterblast show in Tauranga a few years back.

It was nestled in amongst some pretty cool hot rod custom builds but it just jumped out at me screaming “you want one of me!” From the chrome bumpers, detailed polished grill to the long black slender lines running all the way back through the pillarless doors to the huge rear fins that look back at you like a pissed off bat with an attitude. I love these Impala Coupes! Chevrolet certainly wanted the Impala to be the luxury, coolest looking street car of the era, and they certainly did a damn fine job of it. The Impala Sports Coupes through that whole era of fins have a style of their own that makes them stand out in a show full of cool cars.

Sometimes I wonder what those car designers were on at the time with some of the styles that came out back then, but the art and style of the fin era is quite stunning and totally surprising to see that they actually built these cars from the drawings! If you take the time to check out the panel pressings with the tail light and headlight junctions, you can see that the only way to build these cars in the era was by hand in a lot of places. Back in the good ole days of melting lead and filing curves. They are definitely works of art these cars. They didn’t muck about with the interior either, the styling throughout from the door cards front and rear to the dash components all carry that same arty flare with extra’s built in everywhere. From personal lights built into hand rests and all sorts of extra goodies to attract buyers. Kim’s dream of owning one of these came true around twelve years ago, finding it advertised from a deceased estate in California. So with help from John Key, it was in a container and on its way down under. There’s been a few thoughts of swapping the original Blue Flame six out for a V8 as most were V8’s back in the day, but as Kim says, it’s too original and such a beautiful car to kick about really, and I do have to agree, it’s pretty stunning as a two owner car and still original from 1959!

MODEL: 1959 Chevrolet Impala Coupe

COLOUR: Black (because there really is only one colour)

ENGINE: 235ci original Blue Flame, bored out 60 thou, balanced, block decked 30 thou, cammed, custom intake manifold, 350 Holley carb, mildly ported head , Z28 value springs, extractors, dual exhaust

TRANSMISSION: Original cast iron power glide, interesting fact cast iron power glides are one of the two automatic gear boxes you can crash start as they have two pumps

DIFF: Factory

BRAKES: Factory non-boosted drum brakes

WHEELS/TYRES: FRONT: 15x7 Rally Wheels 235/70R/15 BFG Silvertown wide whites REAR: 15x8 Rally Wheels 285/70R/15 BFG Silvertown wide whites

INTERIOR: Carpet replaced, rest of the upholstery is original