I am sure that you know that Chevy has a team competing at the Nextel Cup Series. And I am also sure that you know that the Impala is the selected machine by Chevy to compete in the very popular stock car racing. And I am also sure that some of you are wondering just what is the difference between the road-bound Impala and the track-bound car. Aside from the fact that the Impala car used in NASCAR races are covered with sponsor decals and has no headlights, there are a lot of things that vary between these two Impalas.

The engine, for example, is different. This should not be surprising since the Impala for NASCAR races is employing an engine that should be much more powerful than its production version. The Impala SS uses a 5.3-liter small-block V8 engine. In comparison, the Impala NASCAR uses a race-prepped 5.7-liter V8 unit. The 5.3-liter engine used by the road-bound Impala produces as much as 303 horsepower at 5,600 revs per minute. The Impala NASCAR, on the other hand, produces an astounding 825 hp at 8,500 rpm. As far as the puling power is concerned, the Impala SS’ engine produces as much as 323 lb-ft at 4,400 rpm while the track-bound Impala’s engine produces as much as 525 lb-ft at 7,500 rpm.

Plenty of differences right there eh? But the powerplant is not the only thing that these two Impalas differ in. The tranny that they are using is also different. The production Impala uses a Hydra-Matic HD four-speed automatic transmission while the racing Impala, for better performance uses a race-prepped four-speed manual transmission. The two Impalas also differ in length although the difference is just an inch or two. The entire length of the street Impala is 200.4 inches while the track Impala measures only 198.2 inches. The wheelbase is also different. While the Impala SS’ wheelbase measures 110.5 inches, the Impala NASCAR measures 0.5 inches less at 110.0 inches.

As for the weight, the Chevy Impala driven by superstars like Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. weighs about 3,400.0 lbs without the driver. This is significantly less than the weight of the Impala SS which weighs about 3,790 lbs. The wheels that these cars use are also different. The factory wheels that come with the street Impala are 18-inch machined aluminum wheels. The NASCAR Impala meanwhile uses 15-x9.5-inch steel race wheels which is designed to take on the demands of high speed racing.