Ghost in the Machine: 1996 Callaway Supernatural 450 C9 Impala SS

After my brother briefly drove my dad's 455-equipped 1975 Trans Am and found out how terrible it was on gas, he switched to a 1995 Chevrolet Caprice 9C1 decked out to look like an Impala SS. Furthermore, my dad worked at a junkyard where the owner has a 1995 Callaway C9 sitting in his yard, albeit rotting away. To summarize, I've been a huge fan of 1994-1996 Impala SSs for a long time now, especially ones modified by Callaway. This 1996 Impala SS is not only a Callaway C9, it's also been upgraded to a Supernatural 450 model. Find it here on Hemmings in Leesburg, Virginia, with an asking price of $50,000 obo.

After getting his start as a driving instructor for Bob Bondurant's driving school in 1973, Reeves Callaway got his start in modifying cars by making turbocharger kits for BMW through Car and Driver's Don Sherman. After Sherman told Callaway that he had neither the manpower nor the equipment to build the turbos, Callaway founded Callaway Cars, Inc. in 1977. Callaway later built turbo kits for Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and Alfa Romeo, before developing HH's Indy Car V8 engine. In 1987, Callaway began fitting Corvettes with twin-turbos, which was made available through Chevrolet dealers as factory option RPO B2K. In 1994, Callaway began modifying Impala SSs as the Callaway C9; overall, 18 Callaway C9 Impala SSs were built from 1994 to 1996.

This Callaway C9 is a 1996 model, and has been owned by the third and current owner since 2003. The first owner upgraded the car to a Callaway Supernatural 400, while the second owner had the car upgraded to a Callaway Supernatural 450. The third and current owner says that Giselle (his nickname for the car) had been driven from California to Denver in 2005 and from Denver to Washington, D.C. in 2015; otherwise, with the exception of a few drives to work here and there, the car has been mostly garaged I love the black cherry paint with the tinted windows and Forgeline aluminum wheels with black and red bowtie emblem wheel caps wrapped in Hankook tires shinier than a diamond in a goat's ass. 

Though regular Impala SSs were powered by a 260 horsepower 350 LT-1, Callaway modified the LT-1 by stroking it to 383 cubic inches, installing Corvette heads and intake manifold, creating a custom cam and computer program, raising the compression to 11:1, and installing equal length tubular exhaust headers. In Supernatural 450 tune, the 383 makes 450 horsepower and 412 lb-ft of torque, and is backed by a four-speed automatic transmission. In 2015, the seller had Purifoy Chevrolet, a Callaway dealer in the Denver area, replace all the belts, hoses, tires and shocks; when the seller got to D.C., however, the water pump blew a gasket and drenched the optispark that sits just underneath. The seller swapped in a new water pump and a water proof distributor from ACCEL. If I were to buy this car, I would shelve the original exhaust system and swap in a Borla exhaust system.

Out of all the three years the Impala SS was available, the interior in the 1996 model is my favorite. The 1996 Impala SS interior features an analog gauge cluster, floor shift, console, tachometer, and other visual upgrades. In this Impala SS, the interior is mostly stock, with the exception of an aftermarket radio. There's a slight rip in the carpet part of the back of the front seat, so I would repair it. Though this Impala SS is expensive, considering the rarity and condition of the car, I would negotiate the price a bit and enjoy this car much like the seller used to. What are your thoughts on this rarer-than-hen's-teeth Callaway C9 Supernatural 450 Impala SS?