Fully Restored 1959 Chevrolet Impala Sport Coupe Up For Private Auction

Few cars capture the full fever dream of late-1950s American design quite like the 1959 Chevrolet Impala — and pristine survivors are only getting harder to find. When Bill Mitchell took over as head of design from Harley Earl in December 1958, his opening move was to green-light this 212.5-inch, chrome-soaked, batwing-finned tribute to Earl’s excess on a 119-inch A-body frame. Now, a Louisiana private auction is offering one of the finest survivors ever to hit the block: a black-over-red two-door Impala sport coupe with every factory panel pristine — a 25-year-old restoration that remains driver-grade crisp.

Why This ’59 Impala Is Pure Throwback Gold

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Settle into the red vinyl bench and the experience is immediate: the factory A/C still pumps ice-cold air, the column shifter glides with effortless precision, and the original push-button Delco radio crackles with period AM stations. The dashboard glows with full instrumentation — a 120-MPH speedometer, fuel, temp, oil pressure, and ammeter gauges — all framed in chrome bezels. Power windows were a cost-option in 1959, so this example retains the factory crank setup, which only adds to its honest survivor character.

Under the hood sits the correct 348-cubic-inch W-series V8 — GM’s first big-block passenger engine, originally developed for medium-duty trucks but pressed into car duty to answer Ford’s FE and Chrysler’s B-series. The oversquare 4.125 x 3.25-inch bore/stroke design, combined with wedge combustion chambers, a forged steel crankshaft, hydraulic lifters, and a 9.5:1 compression ratio, delivers 250 horsepower at 4,400 RPM and a respectable 355 lb-ft of torque at 2,800 RPM.

A single four-barrel Rochester 4GC carburetor sits atop the cast-iron intake, feeding dual exhausts that exit through chrome tips beneath the rear bumper. Power most likely flows through a smooth Turbo-Thrust Turboglide 2-speed automatic and a 3.36:1 rear axle with open differential. Curb weight is roughly 3,700 pounds, with a 0–60 time of 9.8 seconds. The quarter-mile comes in just over 17 seconds at 82 MPH — not bad at all when you consider a 250-horsepower engine is tasked with moving this much luxury cruiser.

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X-Frame and Big-Block Bones

The chassis rides on GM’s perimeter X-frame, which drops the body 2.5 inches for improved handling and a sleeker roofline. Up front, independent coil springs with unequal-length A-arms handle cornering duties, while rear semi-elliptic leaf springs and tubular shocks soak up the straights. Eleven-inch drum brakes — 2.5 inches wide at the front, 2 inches at the rear — provide confident stopping power, and 7.50-14 bias-ply whitewall tires on 14 x 5.5-inch steel wheels maintain the factory footprint. Steering is a recirculating-ball unit with a 17.1:1 ratio and 3.8 turns lock-to-lock.

GM built 165,000 Impalas in 1959, and only around 55,000 were sport coupes like this one. Even so, finding an example with zero rust repair, patch panels, or body filler is nearly impossible today. This car’s recent mechanical refresh — new brakes, shocks, fuel tank, lines, and fluids — means it drives as reliably as it looks. The seller holds a clear Louisiana title and offers shipping or short-term storage. The factory warranty expired decades ago, of course, so this gem is sold as-is.

This ’59 marks the close of Earl’s chrome binge; Mitchell’s leaner, more purposeful era followed almost immediately, stripping away the excess. This survivor stands as the last unapologetic gasp of Earl’s vision. Miss it, and you could be scouring barns for another six decades.