“How do you like me now?” might be the question Clarence Goodwin’s 1961 Chevy Impala would ask if it could talk. You see Clarence didn’t make a whole lot of changes when he first got the ’61 Impala, and for that matter he really wasn’t looking for a 1961 Impala when he bought the car. One might say it was Clarence’s dad who was to blame for him picking this particular year and model of car.
The year was 1961 and Clarence’s dad bought a 1961 Chevy Impala right off the showroom floor, so when Clarence spotted a 1961 Chevy Impala bubbletop for sale in his local newspaper nostalgia made him jump at the chance. The classified ad hadn’t been in the paper more than a day when Clarence met with the original owner and cut a deal for $7,900.
For the first seven or so years of owning the bright red with red-and-white interior Impala, Clarence did a minimum of modifications. The main thing was to set the stance by lowering it on airbags and mount up a set of custom wheels and tires. Then that fateful day came when Clarence’s wife gave him the clearance to go ahead with a complete renovation done by a professional shop.
Clarence commissioned Ronnie’s Hot Rods in Senatobia, Mississippi, to totally customize his 1961 bubbletop, and the shop started by stripping the car down to the bare frame and building it up from there. The stock 1964 X-frame was kept, along with the air-ride suspension. The air-ride setup Clarence and his son Trent installed on the 1961 back when Clarence first got the car was a basic RideTech system, retaining the OE upper and lower control arms in front and stock trailing arms in the rear.
Pleased with how the basic air-ride system worked, Clarence went for the gusto and bought RideTech’s complete system for 1959-1964 Chevy B-body cars. This meant a full conversion to tubular components, upper and lower StrongArms with HQ Series Shockwaves to control the height and damp the bumps. A front and rear MuscleBar, generically known as a sway, or antiroll bar, comes with the RideTech kit to tame pitch, roll, and yaw. At rear, tubular StrongArms, Fox billet shocks, Firestone ’bags, and Panhard bar. Air supply and ride height are controlled via RideTech LevelPro.
Wilwood disc brakes are at all four corners managed with a fully polished un-boosted dual master cylinder. Steering starts with a CPP power steering kit connected to a CON2R custom color-matched steering wheel via a Flaming River steering column. The wheels are U391 Rascals by US Mags mounted on 245/40ZR18 Continental Extreme Contact tires in front and 275/435ZR20 Continental Extreme Contact tires in the rear.
Underhood, Ronnie’s Hot Rods went to great lengths to clean up the look of the LS1 engine and all that surrounded it. The inner fenderwells and shaved firewall were custom fabricated to align looks with the core support. Travis at Walker Radiator Works custom-built a smooth-tanked radiator to match. The LS1 engine, built by BB&T Racing, displaces 383 inches and produced 580 hp at 6,200 rpm. Engine internals consist of an Eagle crankshaft and rods, Mahle 9.8:1 pistons, and a COMP cam. The aluminum cylinder heads are from RHS (Racing Head Service).
The speed equipment necessary to produce that kind of power is a dual-quad setup of FAST XFI Sportsman 1,375cc throttle bodies on a Holley EFI intake under a Ronnie’s Hot Rods custom-made air cleaner. The ignition is a FAST EZ LS controller with Moroso Blue Max wires running from coil packs concealed in the fenderwells. Ronnie’s custom fabricated the 1 3/4-inch mid-length headers that dump into Borla stainless steel mufflers.
Transmitting 580 hp produced by the LS engine begins with a TCI 4L60E StreetFighter with a TCI 2,500-stall converter and TCI SFI-approved billet flexplate. The floor shift is Shiftworks button top shifter, and the trans controller is a TCI-EZ. Stock, a 1961 Chevy uses a two-piece driveshaft the X-frame was modified to convert to a one-piece driveshaft. The narrowed differential is Chevy 12-bolt with 3.73 gears.
All bodywork and paint was done in house at Ronnie’s Hot Rods. The bubbletop was relatively rust free, but after soda blasting revealed a multitude of small rust holes it was necessary to fabricate sheetmetal to repair the rocker panels and related areas. Originally painted Roman Red by the factory with DuPont Magic Mirror acrylic lacquer, Clarence requested a mild color change to a much brighter Viper Red Ronnie’s Hot Rods sprayed in Glasruit urethane. And naturally all of the body gaps are much tighter than a mass produced ’61 Chevy ever was. Dan’s Polishing & Chrome did all of the chrome plating, including front and rear California one-piece bumpers.
In contrast to its factory original red-and-white interior and what is now in the bubbletop is the difference between night and day. Over a bed of Dynamat laid in by Ronnie’s the car was sent to Terry Mathis at Gulf Coast Trim & Upholstery for a four bucket seat interior with a full-length center console all custom-made by Terry. RideTech suspension controls and power window switches are concealed under a console sliding cover. The heavily reshaped front buckets are 1962 Impala with scratch-built buckets for the rear. Flame Red cut-pile carpeting and sculpted red Italian Leather cover the interior and trunk.
Hung on a natural finish March billet aluminum serpentine belt system, the 12-volt electrical system begins with a March high-amp alternator fed into a Painless Performance universal muscle car wiring harness. Running front to rear, the Painless harness supports lighting from Halogen headlights and LED taillights. The customized dashboard with a lot of 21st century features is based on a stock 1961 Chevy. Dash instrumentation comes from Auto Meter gauges. The Auto Meter gas gauge measures contents of a Rick’s Tanks 18-gallon stainless steel tank. supplying an Aeromotive Stealth electric fuel pump. A Pioneer AVH-X4800BS head unit with a 7-inch motorized display handles in-car entertainment, including a backup camera and Bluetooth.
After it was all said and done, Clarence told STREET RODDER the most memorable and rewarding moment was when the bubbletop debuted in the Builders Showcase at the NSRA Nats in Louisville, Kentucky.
