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For 1970, General Motors dropped the internal rule capping intermediate cars at 400 cubic inches, and Chevrolet answered with RPO LS6: a 454 rated at 450 horsepower and 500 lb-ft on 11.25:1 compression and a solid-lifter camshaft. Roughly 4,475 Chevelles got it, and it lasted exactly one model year in that car. Whether any particular survivor is the very last one built is a far harder question. Read on to find out why.
Vanguard Motor Sales walks through a red 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle, VIN and all, with the kind of detailed, plain-language presentation that’s turned its host into a fan favorite in the comments. It’s a pivotal model year for the Chevelle, the first to offer the 396 big-block as a widely available, regular-production SS option. No dyno pulls, no drag strip — just an honest, thorough look at a genuinely significant piece of GM history. See what makes this one worth a second look.
Chevrolet’s fender badge said ‘396’ on every 1970 SS Chevelle, but the actual engine under the hood measured 402 cubic inches — a quiet update the automaker never bothered to advertise. Buyers chose between a 350-horsepower street engine and a 375-horsepower solid-lifter race motor, wrapped in a convertible body built in far smaller numbers than the hardtop. Clean examples now average around $105,000 at auction. Read on to find out why a mislabeled engine became one of the most valuable badges in muscle car history.
This 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle wears a Yenko-inspired build — trimmed bucket seats, console, staple shifter — around a 427 cubic inch big block created by pairing a 454 block with a 396 crank. Fed by a 750 CFM Holley four-barrel and backed by a posi rear end, power steering, and power brakes, it’s built to be driven, not just displayed. Vanguard Motor Sales has the full spec sheet, and it’s worth the read.
Best-selling rarely means rare, and the 1969 Chevelle SS 396 proves it. Chevrolet moved 86,307 of them, more than any other year the badge existed, after turning the SS from a standalone series into a $348 option package. Yet a genuine numbers-matching car still stops traffic on a Dallas street. Here is what changed for 1969, and how to tell a real Z25 from a Malibu wearing the right emblems.
No 1966 Chevelle ever left a Chevrolet assembly plant with 496 cubic inches under the hood, because that number simply did not exist on Chevy’s big-block order sheet yet. So a car wearing SS 496 badges is telling you something about the person who built it rather than the factory that shipped it. Here is what Chevrolet actually offered in 1966, and where a genuine 496 really comes from.
Somewhere in America sits a single 1965 Chevelle convertible that Chevrolet built completely differently from every other Malibu on the lot, and for decades most people who saw it had no idea why. Chevy had a new big-block ready to show off and, rather than quietly bolt it into a few cars, engineers built an entire limited package around it. Only 201 were made, and fewer than eighty are believed to survive.
Most 1969 Chevelle SS cars left the factory with a 396 under the hood, the engine the SS package was built around that year. An LT1-badged 350, a designation usually reserved for Corvettes and Camaro Z/28s, tells a different story entirely. Chevrolet built over 86,000 Chevelle SS cars in 1969, including a tiny handful of factory-ordered secrets, like the rare COPO 427, most buyers never knew existed.
A supercharged big block pushed past 700 horsepower on pump gas, custom suspension, and a nine-inch Ford differential under a 1967 Chevelle Super Sport. The factory version of this car was capped by a General Motors corporate memo that actually reduced its advertised horsepower that year, and the legendary 375-horsepower L78 was not even on the order sheet. Read on to find out how the badge and the build connect.
Chevrolet built plenty of 454-powered Chevelles for 1970, but only one version of that engine turned the car into a legend. The LS6 carried solid lifters, forged internals and an 11.25:1 compression ratio, and just 4,475 of them were built for the entire model year. Here is why 1970 was the only season it could have happened, and what those gross horsepower numbers really mean when you read them today.
General Motors spent the 1960s refusing to let its mid-size cars carry engines larger than 400 cubic inches. When that rule finally lifted for 1970, Chevrolet dropped a 454 into the Chevelle within months. By 1972 the numbers on the window sticker had fallen sharply, but not for the reason most people assume. Read on for what a 454-powered 1972 Chevelle SS actually delivered and why it closed out the best-looking generation of the car.
MotorTrend’s Generation Gap pits a rare, numbers-matching 1969 COPO Chevelle, 427 cubic inches, 425 horsepower, and a body that looks like grandma’s car, against a McLaren-tuned 1987 Buick GNX turbo V6 that quietly out-torques expectations. Both cars disguise serious performance behind unassuming looks. See which one the hosts, and the comment section, actually side with.
This 1964 Chevelle hardtop shows up in fresh red paint, aftermarket five-spoke wheels, and a white bucket-seat interior, clues that point to a full cosmetic restoration rather than a barn find. See what the photos can and cannot confirm about its original trim level, and why first-year Chevelles are drawing renewed attention from collectors today.
This 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu underwent a complete frame-off restoration and has logged just 15,000 miles since, now running a 5.3-liter LS V8, a Quick Performance 9-inch rear end, and a full RideTech suspension. Listed out of Ubly, Michigan for $59,000, it pairs SS badging and classic sheet metal with genuinely modern mechanicals. Read on to find out everything that went into this build.
Every good getaway car needs the same three things: enough speed to matter, enough anonymity to disappear, and enough reliability to not quit a block from the vault. This 1973 Chevrolet Chevelle was built by its owner purely to make him grin every time the key turned, not to win a trophy. But 1973 is a loaded year for the nameplate, because it is the year Chevrolet rebuilt the Chevelle from the frame up. Read on for what changed and why it mattered.