The original 1964 Chevelle was an answer to Ford’s mid-size Fairlane, but not everybody considered it mid-size: “It’s the right size for a big car,” wrote @caranddriver at the time. That first Chevelle was, not unintentionally, very much like an updated 1955 Chevrolet; dimensionally similar in every way but height (the new car was considerably lower) and using basically the same engines, including a top-spec 283 small block V8. The smallest of the General’s new A-body cars by corporate edict, it wasn’t much smaller inside than a full-size Chevy, but it was a whole lot lighter. Lighter than the tri-five, too. That made it a natural for a Super Sport variant, and very quickly, performance builds of cars with and without SS badges. This ‘65, with that raked stance and low rear end, looks just like a hot Chevelle would have in the late 1960s. The first two Chevelle years, 1964 and 1965, were ones of very clean lines, done under Chevrolet style chief Clare MacKichan before he departed for Opel, where he had his designers craft similar styles. With the big Chevies ever larger and the only thing beneath them the much smaller Corvair and Chevy II, the Chevelle was a big hit, but at first the SS packages were mostly cosmetic. The original Chevelle SS packed a somewhat tepid 220-hp 283 in the face of Pontiac’s snarling 325-hp 389 GTO on the same platform. Late in the year, #Chevy upped its game by adding 250 and 300hp versions of the 327 V8, but the big advances came in 1965; by which time all the divisions had added GTOs of their own to their A-bodies. Chevrolet’s was the L79 package, with a 350 horse 327 with a hydraulic cam, and the fanciest version was the #MalibuSS (L79s could also be ordered as a non-SS). A very tiny number (201) of big-block 396s were also built late in the ’65 model year with the code Z16, offering 375 hp and suspension and steering upgrades that were extended to the rest of the lineup. Because the other hot Chevelles were mostly options, there aren’t exact tallies of their builds. The (non-Z16) Malibu SS was still not quite in the GTO’s league in 1965, but given the proliferation of Chevy performance parts, it didn’t take much to upgrade it. https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ6s7EYFDeq/?igshid=o3w0hmydudyj