Dan Gurney’s ’61 Chevy Impala Saloon Racer Undergoes Restoration
Video looks back to when near-stock Impala beat the Jaguars so badly that Gurney was run out of the series.
Dan Gurney is one of the best-known drivers in the history of motorsports, and the first person to win a race in the world of endurance racing, NASCAR, Formula One, and Indy Cars. He also invented the Gurney Flap, an attachment on the rear spoiler that allowed teams to better tune their aerodynamics, a feature still in use today. What most people don’t know is that in 1961, Gurney took a production Chevrolet Impala to Europe to compete in the British Saloon Car Championship, and it was so good that he was banned before his second race. Fortunately, Gurney’s Impala has been restored and will be making its triumphant return to Goodwood Revival. This video from the Goodwood ‘s YouTube channel tells the whole story of this remarkable and unlikely race.
Goodwood’s Deputy Head of Motorsport Content, Ed Foster, sits down in the storied Impala to talk about the race. Foster’s passion for the project bagan when he had been doing some research on a racer for the Saloon Car Championship and a colleague suggested a Chevy Impala. Foster was confused until he learned all about about Gurney racing an Impala at the 1961 race. Says Foster, “Dan is watching all these 3.8 Jags and he thought ‘If I bought a stock Chevrolet Impala, I could go over and beat them.’ So that is exactly what he did.”
Gurney’s Chevy
The 1961 Chevrolet Impala that Gurney took racing in the British Saloon Car Championship was a standard production car with the 409-cubic inch engine, police car suspension. The engine was tuned up a bit, brake-cooling ducts were added, along with a rear sway bar from a Corvette, but nothing else was changed between the production line and the race track.
In fact, he maintained all of the factory features including the radio, so it was literally a road-going 1961 Chevrolet Impala with a few very minor improvements and Gurney believed that he could compete in the Saloon Championship.
As it turns out, he was right.
Dominating Silverstone
Gurney’s competitors were less that thrilled at the prospect of American muscle on the track. “All the British teams were quite stressed at the thought of this American monster,” says Foster.
Gurney’s first race in the British Saloon Car Championship came at Silverstone, where he grabbed the pole position by turning in a qualifying lap that was more than a second quicker than the second place-qualifying Jaguar of Graham Hill. As soon as the race began, Gurney and his Impala pulled away from the field, setting lap records as he led every lap of the race until disaster struck.
Dan Gurney’s Chevy Impala Dominates European Saloon Racing continued…
