With the new G8 and GTO reminding people that big cars can still be big fun, we thought it was important to step back and remember where the big car craze started; the '95-96 Impala SS.
For many people these are one of the most beloved land yachts of all time. This particular Impala SS belongs to Rob Fisher, the Editor of Circle Track magazine, who purchased the car brand new. Over the years, it has seen every possible driving and weather scenario, spending most of its life as a daily driver in the northeast. Needless to say, time has taken its toll on the suspension, but the car still handled surprisingly well.
Before we made any changes, we decided to head up to Gainesville Raceway and make some laps on its 200-foot skidpad to get a good average lateral g number. Rob Fisher had already replaced the front sway bar endlinks with a polyurethane set (due to the stock ones failing) and had replaced the factory tires with a set of 255/50/17 Nitto NT450 tires. Making three laps in either direction, we obtained .81 g's (using our in-house G-TECH), a very respectable number for such a large car. We did notice a large amount of body roll, which is to be expected with the stock sway bars.
With the stock number in hand, we turned to Matt LaRue of ProFab Performance in Thonotosassa, Florida, to set us up with a much more performance-oriented suspension. Before arriving, we made a few calls to our friends at BMR Fabrication and Summit Racing, who both hooked us up with a slew of new parts. BMR sent us a pair of matching front and rear sway bars, along with its extended upper and lower rear control arms, which not only center the wheel in the well, but also provide much less flex in the rear components. Summit Racing sent over four Bilstein shocks, which this Impala badly needed, and boxes full of frontend rebuild parts including all new upper and lower ball joints and new tie rods.
Heading back to Gainesville, we showed an improvement, now recording.91 g's (though with a different testing method), which was apparent well before we began testing. According to Rob Fisher, "There is a definite difference when getting on the gas. The stock sway bar couldn't handle the hefty torque this car had and I could always feel the car wanting to fishtail if I got a little too confident with my right foot. If I didn't hold the wheel perfectly straight I could get the back end to come out from underneath me. That feeling is gone now. Under hard acceleration the rear stays firmly planted and I get great bite from a dead stop. However, the most noticeable change is when cornering hard. Significant body roll is an understatement when pitching 5,000 pounds of Chevy iron around a corner at speed. The car used to be spongy and if I went too fast I'd feel completely out of control. It's a totally different story now. There is next to zero body roll and I can take 90-degree turns at more than 45 mph with barely a squeal of the tires. Plus the car stays incredibly level. I even left a cup of coffee on the dash, took a corner hard and didn't spill a drop. Nimble and crisp would be the perfect words to describe the handling now. The upgrades have taken all of the drama out of driving this car at the limit." Follow along with Matt LaRue at ProFab as he installs our new suspension parts and shows us some tricks along the way.
 Besides the wimpy stock sway...  Besides the wimpy stock sway bars, worn out shocks, and 300,000-mile ball joints, one of the major issues with the '95-96 Impala SS is the location of the rear wheel. As you can see on the left, it sits too far forward in the wheelwell, which can be fixed using BMR's extended upper/lower control arm package, as shown on the right. |  Summit Racing stepped up big...  Summit Racing stepped up big time, sending us a set of Bilstein shocks (PN F4B461104H0, $100.69 each and PN F4B460929H0, $61.95 each) to help renew our Impala's suspension. While these alone would have made a big difference, they are only part of our package. |  Summit Racing also sent us...  Summit Racing also sent us a slew of frontend rebuild parts, which will help eliminate any "slop" in the response. Seen here are a pair of upper ball joints (PN SUM-BJ-0268, $19.95), lower ball joints (PN SUM-BJ-0277, $21.95), and two complete tie-rod ends (PN SUM-TR-2019R, SUM-TR-2020L and SUM-TR-2004S, $47.85 per side). These ship complete with the required hardware and look great. |
 BMR sent over its extended...  BMR sent over its extended lower control arms (PN TCA007, $209.95), extended upper control arms (PN UTCA003, $145.95) and a pair of front and rear sway bars (P/N SBP006, $399). The sway bars are massive and it was immediately clear that they would make a huge improvement in handling. |  This is what 300,000 miles...  This is what 300,000 miles of driving does to the underside of an Impala SS. In all honesty, it isn't too bad. Some of the bolts are rusted and stuck, so take some time to spray everything down with a lubricant (like WD-40) and give it time to soak in. |  Matt starts unbolting the...  Matt starts unbolting the frontend by removing the tie rods first. Remove the cotter pin and loosen the nut on both ends of the tie rod. Keep the old unit around, so you can match the new tie rod up in length. |