Chevy Built 71 Big-Block SS Wagons In 1973 And Enthusiasts Forgot
As a brand of one of Detroit’s big three manufacturers, Chevrolet has produced plenty of great performance cars over the years. It’s also produced a bunch of good station wagons. So, what would happen if you combined both of those things within the Chevy stable? That’s something that, for a brief moment, actually did happen! Not only is it one of Chevy’s most puzzling experiments in some ways, but it’s also one of the rarest Chevrolet models around. It’s a model enthusiasts have completely forgotten about, too.
The SS Badge Is One Of Chevrolet’s Most Prestigious Nameplates
If you’re looking for a high-performance Chevrolet, you can be sure you’re going to get something exceptional if it has the SS badge on it. It’s adorned so many legendary high-performance Chevys over the years. Even people who aren’t Chevrolet enthusiasts know how important this nameplate is to the history of performance cars. So, it’s a bit surprising when the SS name turns up on something that you wouldn’t immediately think is a performance car. But that’s something that has actually happened a few times!
Some Cars Were Given The SS Badge That You Wouldn’t Expect
The SS badge tends to be reserved for frontline Chevrolet models. The Camaro, Chevelle, Nova, and a few other heavy-hitters have all had the SS treatment, and those variants have all gone on to be legendary. But there have been a few times when the SS nameplate has been given to a model you wouldn’t expect to get it at all. One of those is the car we’re going to talk about here. It’s not only a station wagon, but it’s also a station wagon from one of Chevrolet’s most unassuming day-to-day models at the time. Not only that, but one specification of it that you could have is likely to be one of the rarest classic Chevrolets you could find!
For One Year Only, The SS Badge Appeared On A Three-Row Wagon
The 1973 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu Wagon is perhaps the last car you’d expect to get the SS treatment. But for that year only, that is exactly what happened! This typically unassuming three-row station wagon got Chevrolet’s most famous performance badge. It wasn’t just for show, either. It was actually engineered to have proper power and performance under the hood. At least as much as could be done during the early part of the malaise era…
One Of The Engine Options Was A Big-Block Monster
The 1973 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu SS Wagon got two engine options. One of those was a fairly standard 350 cubic inch small-block V8. The other was the massive 454 cubic inch Turbo-Jet big-block V8. Both of these engines were fairly standard fare for Chevrolet models of the time. The unusual part of this is how that big-block option was made available in the Chevelle Malibu SS Wagon.
If this engine had appeared in a car like this just a couple of years earlier, it would have been an absolute monster. In 1973, though, things had changed. Due to all the strangulation that happened to engines during the malaise era, the Turbo-Jet V8 only produced 245 hp in 1973. While that was still quite a lot of power for a 1970s station wagon, and it did have a decent amount of torque at 375 lb-ft, it just feels like a gut punch compared to how powerful the big blocks of old were.
That 350 cubic inch small block V8 fared even worse, too. The 2-barrel version only produced 145 hp, while 4-barrel 350s only got a boost up to 175 hp. It’s safe to say that the potential this sleeper station wagon could have had was almost entirely wiped out by the misery brought on by the American auto industry’s malaise.
Barely Any Chevelle Malibu SS Wagons Were Ever Produced
High-performance wagons are a niche in any era. Combine that with this wagon only being available for the 1973 model year, and it’s not that surprising that barely any Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu SS Wagons sold. According to some research done by Hagerty, only 1,432 were made across all variants during that 1973 model year. Out of that, just 71 were built with the Turbo-Jet V8. That makes the big-block powered versions of these wagons a real unicorn among classic Chevrolets in general. You’re more likely to find some low-volume supercars on the used market than a genuine big-block 1973 Chevelle Malibu SS Wagon!
It Wasn’t The Only Big-Block Wagon Made During The Muscle Car Era
The 1973 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu SS was only a part of a wider niche during the muscle car era of high-performance, big-block sleeper wagons. Just a few years earlier, Chevrolet had offered a 427 cubic inch big-block in its Kingswood station wagon. Unlike the Chevelle Malibu SS Wagon, the big-block engine in the Kingswood wasn’t strangled—1969 examples were rated from the factory at 390 hp and 460 lb-ft of torque. Over on the Ford end of Detroit’s Big Three, the sixth and seventh generations of the Country Squire were also available with big-block V8s. These went as monster-sized as the 460 cubic inch 385 V8, which lasted until 1978. Much like the 454 in the Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu SS Wagon, this engine was throttled by the malaise era. It was only rated at 224 hp in 1972, making it less powerful than the Chevy’s engine despite being bigger.
Sources: Chevrolet, Ford, Hagerty
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