1961 Impala Super Sport

[Oldsfan]

Below is a photo of my father and I, and his '61 Impala Super Sport convertible. It was taken on Easter Sunday, 1969. Dad bought the car late in '68 or early in '69 at a car auction in Manheim, PA. He paid $300 for it. They wanted $450. It was a 348 with 3-2s.

Anyway, dad has always talked about this SS and how we should have kept it. We moved and only needed one car. My mother couldn't drive the stick shift, so they kept her '61 Olds and the SS was sold, again in Manheim, PA. I think it was sold for $200.

He was telling our barber about it a few weeks ago and he mentioned that it was a 3-speed. I thought that was odd. Then, I found a Super Sport brochure online that said that all the '61 Super Sports were 4-speeds (except the 305 horse, which could also be had with the heavy duty PowerGlide).

But this 3-speed was on the floor. The sales brochure I have mentions a line-wide standard 3-speed. It also mentions the available 4-speed, making a big deal about the fact that it was floor shifted (with the assumption that the 3-speed wasn't). I saw nothing about an optional floor shifter for the 3-speed.

We're pretty sure the car wasn't a clone. Who would have thought to do that in '68? I've read where some dealers added the SS gingerbread to regular Impalas, and I thought it might be one of those. Dad thinks maybe someone blew up the 4-speed and couldn't get one to replace it, so they replaced it with a 3-speed.

So, I guess my question is - does anyone know if you could get a factory 3-speed on the floor in a '61 Chevy?

Paul

Edited February 8, 2011 by Oldsfan (see edit history)

[real61ss]

Paul,

Thanks for sharing the story of your father's '61 Impala. To answer your question; the '61 SS was available with 4 different motors; 348/305, 348/340, 348/350 and the 409/360. The 305 was available with either the 4 speed manual transmission or the HD Powerglide. The remaining motors were available only with the 4 speed.

As for your question about who would have cloned an SS back then.....lots of people did and most of them were dealers. It wasn't called cloning back then it was called selling cars!!! There were only 453 Impala Super Sports built at the factory during the '61 model year, there were approx. 6000 Chevrolet dealers in 1961. Think what the odds were of a dealer getting one of these cars. However, if someone came in a dealership and wanted to order one of the cars the dealer surely wasn't going to let him get away, they would explain that they could convert an Impala that they had in stock simply by adding a grab bar on the dash, 1/4 panel and truck emblems and spinners on the hubcaps. The first SS's were built the third week of Feb. 1961, by the time they arrived at the dealers it was March. If you ordered one it would be months before you received the car but the dealer is saying he can "fix" you one now. It was pretty easy to convince a customer to take the car on the show room floor rather than order one.

I speak from experence, today I own one of the original 453 but my first '61SS was converted by a dealer, it was the Spring of 1961, I was 18 at the time and wanted the car now. Somewhere out there today someone may have my old car swearing it's the real thing because it has 50 year emblems on it.

I'm not downing your Dad's car, it's just how things worked then.

[Oldsfan]

Thanks.

What I am still trying to figure out is the 3-on-floor. Factory issue? Or no?

Paul

[real61ss]

Paul,

Chevrolet did not offer a floor shift for the 3 speed transmission in the big cars. They were column shifted. The only '61 Chevrolet cars to receive a factory installed 3 speed transmission with a floor shift was the Corvair and the Corvette.

Someone could have installed an after market shifter in the car.

[countrytravler]

The column shift wore out and a floor mount was installed?

[61-63]

2 hours ago, countrytravler said:

The column shift wore out and a floor mount was installed?

Or some kid just stuck the floor shift in it because he thought that was the neat thing to do, which was what I did to my '59 Biscayne back then.  There wasn't anything wrong with the column shift I just wanted a floor shift.