With Hot Rod Drag Week coming up next week, we’re in door-slammer mode mentally. While shopping for the whip we would take on the tour, this real Z-11 1963 Chevy Impala jumped out at us. The Z-11 was a world beater when it hit the strips in the early 1960s. All the name racers like Dyno Don, Ronnie Sox, Malcolm Durnham, and others had them. Their lightweight aluminum body pieces and 427-cid W-engines gave them a leg up on the competition and kept them competitive for seasons in the face of newer, more modern competition.
The heart of the beast is a stroked 409 that measures 427ci. While the Z-11 motor shared some stuff with the factory 409, many pieces, like the cylinder heads that had oval ports, the two piece aluminum intake manifold, cowl induction air cleaner, and deep sump oil pan, were special to these ultra rare cars. The 20 aluminum body panels included stuff like the hood, fenders, front and rear bumpers, and virtually all the brackets on the front of the car.
This particular car has some neat racing history having been run by Terry Prince, a noted West Coast racer of the day. The car made the final round at the Winternationals in 1963 only to be clipped by another Z-11 at the stripe by two hun!
This car has been painstakingly restored right down to the ultra-rare QM stamped block. The Z-11 motor used a normal factory block, but they had a stamp of QM as opposed to the “normal” stamp of Q. Supposedly only 50 blocks carry the QM stamp and the Z-11s that were raced went through many of them. The 409 had heavy pistons and that caused connecting rod failures that were often block wreckers.
Our favorite part of this car? The fact that it is equipped with the same set of custom Hooker headers that it wore in 1963!
We’d totally drive this thing all week at Hot Rod Drag Week 2010!
Source — AutoTraderClassics.com — 1963 Impala Z-11
