The 1967 Impala Fastback

Where the fastback came from

General Motors had been experimenting with semi-fastback rooflines across its divisions in the mid-1960s, and Chevrolet's own Chevelle and Corvette had already shown how a long, tapering rear glass could change a car's entire read from the side. When the Impala was restyled for 1967, Chevrolet applied the same logic to the Sport Coupe, extending the roofline into a shallow fastback. The effect was calculated. Buyers responded to a silhouette that looked like it belonged on the street, at a track, or parked outside a drive-in, without giving up the back seat room a family still needed.

How it differed from the notchback

The formal-roofed Custom Coupe was a Caprice-only model in 1967 and did not join the Impala line until 1968, so telling a fastback Impala from a formal-roof coupe at a glance comes down to the rear window rake and the shape of the trunk lid. The fastback's glass runs nearly uninterrupted from the base of the roof to the trunk, while the notchback keeps a more traditional break between roof and deck. For the SS buyer chasing the sportiest possible look, the fastback was the obvious choice, and Chevrolet marketed it accordingly.

The engines that suited the look

A fastback body without power under the hood is just a shape, and Chevrolet made sure the Impala SS had the muscle to back up its profile. The 427 cubic inch big-block, rated at 385 horsepower, came standard with the SS 427 package (RPO Z24), and the 396 rated at 325 horsepower sat below it. Buyers who wanted the fastest street Impala Chevrolet built could combine the SS 427 package with the Sport Coupe body and come away with a full-size car that could embarrass plenty of smaller machinery at a stoplight. It was never marketed as a pure muscle car in the way a Chevelle SS was, but the combination of body and engine gave it real credibility.

Why the fastback disappeared from later years

The Sport Coupe kept its fastback roof for 1968, when the formal-roofed Custom Coupe joined the Impala line and the SS became an option package instead of a separate model. That makes the 1967 and 1968 fastback Impalas a genuine snapshot of a specific styling moment.

The fuller context behind this generation, including how the body evolved before and after the fastback's introduction, is covered in the whole picture, which traces the years surrounding this particular roofline.

"I've pulled build sheets on a dozen of these cars over the years, and the ones that get people excited at a show are never the base sedans. It's always the fastback SS, because that roofline did exactly what Chevrolet designed it to do. It still looks like motion when the car is parked."

- Tom Ramirez

Collectibility and what buyers should watch for

Because the fastback Sport Coupe is the most desirable non-convertible body style from this generation, it is also the one most frequently targeted by cosmetic-only restorations that gloss over deeper issues. Buyers should check the roof stamping and rear window trim carefully, since panel replacement on this roofline is more involved than on a flat notchback, and shoddy work here is harder to hide than on flatter surfaces. Rust in the floor pans, trunk floor, and lower quarters is common on cars of this age, and the base of the rear window deserves a close look too, and a careful inspection of those areas tells you more about a car's honesty than the paint job ever will.

Documentation matters just as much as sheet metal. A fastback SS with a broadcast sheet or dealer invoice carries a real premium over an undocumented twin, and buyers chasing this body style should expect to pay for that paperwork when it exists. Numbers-matching big-block cars in particular have become difficult to find without some history of engine work, since these were driven hard by original owners who bought them precisely because they wanted the performance the fastback promised.

Finding one today

The fastback Impala SS remains one of the more attainable big-block muscle era classics, priced below its Chevelle and Camaro contemporaries despite offering a similar driving experience in a larger, more comfortable package. That value gap has narrowed in recent years as buyers rediscover the body style, but it still represents a way into genuine 1960s Chevrolet performance without competing directly against the most inflated corners of the muscle car market. Anyone ready to compare current listings against everything discussed here can shop classic Impala listings and see how fastback examples are priced against notchback and sedan variants from the same years.

Fastback SS engine options for 1967

Matching the right engine code to the right fastback body is part of what makes this generation interesting to research. A 327 fastback and an SS 427 fastback share the same roofline, and the badges, hood, paperwork, and careful inspection separate a genuinely rare performance car from a well-dressed six-passenger cruiser wearing the same roofline.

A shape that still holds up

Six decades on, the 1967 fastback Impala reads as confident rather than dated, a rare quality for a full-size American car from this period. Chevrolet took a risk applying sports car styling cues to its bread-and-butter full-size line, and the payoff was a roofline that collectors still chase specifically, by name, rather than settling for whatever Impala happens to be for sale. That specificity of demand is the clearest sign a design decision succeeded exactly as intended. It is also a reminder that good proportion never really goes out of style, even when the rest of a car's era has been reduced to a period photograph in a dealer brochure.

Sources and notes

• 1967 Chevrolet Impala SS Sport Coupe 327 275-hp Specs - Automobile Catalog
• 1967 Chevrolet Impala SS Sport Coupe 396 325-hp Specs - Automobile Catalog
• Chevrolet Impala (fourth generation) - Wikipedia
• 1967 Chevrolet Full Size Cars Fact Sheet - Over-Drive Magazine
• 1967 Chevrolet Impala Series Specifications - conceptcarz.com
• 1967 Chevrolet Impala SS 327 4-Speed - Barn Finds

Updated November 4, 2026: Corrected: the top 1967 Impala SS engine was the 385 hp 427 in the SS 427 package (2,124 built), not a 375 hp 396. The 1967 Impala was a restyle of the 1965 body, and the formal-roof Custom Coupe joined the Impala line in 1968.