Whatever the 1965 Z16 Chevelle SS396 MUSCLE MACHINE lacked in head-turning styling, it more than made up with tire-shredding performance!
Musclecars were big news in 1965, but for me personally, it was one of the biggest years in my career as an enthusiast automotive magazine editor! Not long after having access to 1965 high-performance test cars, I suggested to Mel Jacolow, editor of CARS magazine, that he change the name of the award “American Classic of the Year” he presented annually to carmakers. With production cars getting quicker and faster and carmakers targeting the burgeoning youth market, I felt we needed something more relevant. My suggestion was “Top Performance Car of the Year”. It was not an easy sell. Shortly after agreeing to the name change and after we started test-driving suitable candidates, Jacolow abruptly resigned.
Five years after becoming editor of Custom Rodder and CAR Speed and Style, I was tapped to take over CARS. My first issue would be April 1965 – our annual award issue. I hired Fred Mackerodt as assistant editor. Later I changed the title to Hi-Performance CARS and was named the company’s editorial director.
Chevrolet had been slow to bring a high-performance midsize car to market. Toward the end of the 1965 model year, they revealed the potent 1965 Z16 Chevelle SS396 MUSCLE MACHINE, powered by an all-new Mark IV 396 big-block. While somewhat boxy, it was the most powerful car in the highly competitive Supercar Sweepstakes. But there was a problem. Chevrolet General Manager Bunkie Knudsen’s foray into the market dominated by Pontiac was hardly noticed. Because of its late entry in August, production was limited to 200 plus a single convertible. Since the SS396 Chevelle was built around a convertible chassis with big-car brakes and front and rear stabilizer bars, it would have been a simple matter to produce convertibles. But time was not on Chevy’s side.
There was a small Z16 press event at GM’s Mesa Proving Ground in February 1965. The word was that the big-block coupe was fast, but visually paled by comparison to the GTO. Since so few were produced, only key dealers were given opportunities to place orders, and Z16s sold out quickly. Several GM executives drove Z16s, as did celebrities like Dan Blocker, Hoss Cartwright on TV’s Bonanza. Chevrolet loaned Blocker a yellow Z16 coupe. Performance feedback from Mesa indicated that the Engineering-prepared 1965 Z16 Chevelle SS396 MUSCLE MACHINE could sprint to 60 mph in the low 6.0s; quarter-mile times of mid-high-14s at close to 100 mph.
The 1965 Z16 Chevelle SS396 MUSCLE MACHINE came with an all-new, big-block, displacing 396 cubic inches and rated at 375 horsepower at 5.600 rpm with a whopping 420 pound-feet of torque at 3,600 rpm. It showcased an HD block, heads with canted valves, forged steel crank and rods, 11-to-1 pistons, and an aluminum intake manifold with a big Holley four-barrel. It was a one-year-only RPO L37 hydraulic-lifter engine unique to the Z16 with an option price of $1,501. The Z16’s hydraulic lifter camshaft featured a split duration and a slightly less aggressive profile than its solid-lifter Corvette counterparts, generating .461-inch intake lift. Full-size Chevys could be optioned with 325 or 425 horsepower Mark IV engines. The death knell had sounded for the outdated 409 engines, yet 340 and 400 horsepower versions were still available.
According to OVER-DRIVE Magazine’s Bob Gerometta, “GTO may have started the musclecar ice cream sundae, but Chevrolet put a cherry on top with the Z16! And they continued to offer the 375 horsepower 396 V-8 through 1969. Sure, there were a lot of quick cars in the 1960s; there’s no doubt of that. But it was Chevrolet that put “race” motors in midsize cars right from the outset.”
Check out the midsize 1965 Chevrolet Fact Sheet @ https://over-drive-magazine.com/2023/09/21/1965-chevrolet-mid-size-cars-fact-sheet/