1964 Chevrolet Biscayne 409

This was  my favorite Autoliterate car last year. Now that I'm starting to think about Colorado--I'll be teaching (and reading) at Colorado College next month--I decided to post it again. The 2-door Biscayne was the lowest price full-size Chevrolet in 1964, listed for $2363. You know my thing about Plain Janes. (Almost) everything about this car says, in the semiotics of 1964,  "Elementary School Principal". I 'd have loved to order a 2-door Biscayne at my local Chevrolet Dealer,  say Doyle Motors in Verdun, Quebec. Or maybe Harold Cummings Chevrolet on the Decarie Strip. "Delete everything but, uh, give me the 409." My Santa Barbara gearhead pal, automeister Frank Mariani, bought himself a 1962 Impala that way when he was seventeen. It was an Impala, though. I think the buttoned seats were standard on those. My grandmother had one.

Caught this one on a cold morning in Colorado Springs. At a tire shop. Maybe my favorite car. The classic 409 sleeper. The same 1964 Biscayne pillar coupe that my elementary school principal drove. A stripper. But with that 409 under the hood, and the thin red stripe on the tires, c.1968, that meant--from the fire roads to the interstate--hey, look out.