1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS454
Muscle
cars get a bad rap--they are often written off by pretentious
sophisticates as gauche, crass, and driven by mullet-haired,
stone-headed lowlifes. Dodge's Hemi ads--in which an unwashed simpleton
driving a thoroughly knackered Dodge Duster inquires "That thing got a
Hemi?"--don't exactly help matters either.
Well,
count me among those lowlifes, because I'm a certified muscle car
addict. The muscle car dysfunction is in my genes--when I was an
infant, my father suffered from a severe mental illness, the primary
symptom of which was his sad compulsion to install high-horsepower V-8s
into Chevy Vegas while my mother and I watched from the trailer house.
Perhaps
as a result, few things get my blood pumping as much as the raw,
visceral danger implicit in a classic muscle car; the rump-rump-rump of
a high-performance V-8, the cheesy hood stripes, the promise of
acceleration violent enough to detach a retina--it all forms a heady
emotional mix that, say, a Mazda Miata can't begin to touch.
Today's Car Lust, the 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS454 LS6, was the first muscle car I ever fell in love with and is still, in my opinion, the quintessential muscle car. Introduced right at the end of the classic muscle car era, before fuel shortages and governmental regulation drove these powerful dinosaurs into extinction, the Chevelle SS454 represents the apex of the species.
The 1970 SS454 fit into the sweet spot between the late 1960s Chevelle and the 1971 Chevelle, each of which were nice-looking enough in their own way. However, the 1970 was a classic, with handsome, uncluttered lines that conveyed strength without looking crass, even with the hood and roof stripes. The clean front grille and headlight treatment, along with the simple rear detailing and strong side sculpting, made the 1970 Chevelle an instant classic.
What made the Chevelle SS454 so special, though, was 454 cubic inches of torquey, implacable muscle. The LS6 454 added racing-grade hardware to one of the biggest blocks available at the time, creating an engine that could purr sweetly along in traffic but provide hallucinogenic acceleration when called upon. The LS6 could propel the bulky, heavy Chevelle to 60 mph in the low 5-second range, an incredible time considering the narrow, primitive, incredibly slippery tires of that era. Envision a big dog fighting for traction on a freshly waxed linoleum floor and the Chevelle's handicap is clear.
Plus, remember that this is a 36-year-old car. Consider the state of technology in 1970 compared with today--for one thing, transistor radios were a relatively recent phenomenon--and then consider the fact that even had the SS454 debuted this year, it would still be considered a breathtaking performer amongst today's heavily computerized, awesomely complex sports cars.
I talk about hero cars from time to time; with apologies to cars like Hemi Mopars and L88 Corvettes, in the Pantheon of classic American muscle, the Chevelle SS454 LS6 is my Zeus.
--Chris H.
rylan Pendry on June 02, 2008 at 01:07 PM
hey chris dont worry, im a muscle car lover too and i jsut happen to have got my hands onto a dodge duster similar to the one in the pic and im all about the car man
bdog on November 24, 2008 at 12:41 PM
nice