Speedboat: Impala SS Runs 9-seconds on the Drag Strip!

The turbocharged LS in this 1990s B-Body makes serious horsepower and beats up on cars that weigh a half-ton less.

Everybody loves B-Bodies. I think we can pretty much assume that’s a true car-enthusiast statement at this point. GM’s used it as a platform for both cop cars and for luxury cruisers, both optionable with the Corvette’s LT1 engine for some years. It’s no surprise, then, that we love this monstrous 1,000-horsepower Impala.

We can’t think of a better setup for a 4,200-pound behemoth than a turbo LS combination. That’s good, the owner says, for about 1,000 horsepower at the flywheel. That number seems about right from the high-9s it ran at Street Car Takeover in Charlotte.

The engine is a 6.0-liter Vortec LS with stock 317 heads with a Borg-Warner S480 turbo setup. Everything looks super clean and tidy under the hood, too. This is a nice-looking build all-around. That power leaves the 6.0 through a Cahall Performance Turbo 400 transmission. This build is not unlike the General Motors Performance Parts Impala build.

With a high 9-second run, we have to say that we’re awfully impressed. Getting an overbuilt 4,200-pound Impala SS down the track is no small feat. However, the owner Alex has flogged it up and down the East Coast.

From the Cahall Performance page and a Super Chevy article, we see that Alex initially ran the LT1 on nitrous for years. With his three-kid pit crew, Alex told Super Chevy that he needed a family hauler. His wife suggested an Impala SS and that was it.

From there, Alex built it up on a budget using an LT1 block, lots of mild or stock internals, two kits of nitrous, and several junkyards’ worth of stock 4L60Es. He eventually switched to a Cahall 4L60E and blew the LT1 up spectacularly running 9.91.

In the time,  he switched to the super clean turbo 6.0-liter setup and the big-booty B-Body blasts down the strip reliably in under 10 seconds.