1962 Chevrolet Biscayne Series

The 1962 Chevrolet Biscayne was available as a 2- or 4-door passenger car or as a 6-passenger station wagon. They came equipped with small hubcaps, heater and defroster, dual sun visors, ashtray, coat hooks, color-keyed vinyl-coated rubber floor coverings, parallel action windshield wipers, front door armrests, and crank-operated ventipanes. The interiors were finished in cloth and leather grain vinyl with all-vinyl sidewalls. In the front of the Biscayne was an anodized aluminum grille with pairs of flanking headlamps. In the back were four taillights. Located on the rear fenders was the series script.

By the early 1960s, the Stock and Super Stock ranks of drag racing had become highly contested between the factory, all of which were busy supplying new developments to eager racers seeking more horsepower and speed.

Although the Pontiac GTO is often considered the start of the muscle car movement, stuffing a large engine into a smaller-sized vehicle had been going on for decades. Sometimes owners had to get creative, such as leaving things off the option list, such as the radio and heater. Among Chevrolet's lightest full-size models for 1962 was the Biscayne two-door 'post' sedan, which could be stuffed with the 409 horsepower, 409 CID Turbo-Fire V8 (introduced near the close of 1961) with dual four-barrel carburetors. A 1962 Chevy Biscayne 409 with Ault and James Speed Shop sponsorship, and Dave Cates as the driver, gained national drag racing prominence in drag racing prominence in Stock Eliminator, running against other 409 Chevys driven by such all-time greats as 'Dyno Don' Nicholson, Ronnie Sox, Dave Strickler, and Hayden Proffitt.

Popular stock car setups included the full-race 'W-Head' 409 CID engine outfitted with the requisite dual four-barrel Carter AFB carbs, aluminum intake manifold, high-lift performance cam and new-for-1962 lightweight valve train. Quarter-mile elapsed times were in the 12-second range and terminal speeds reached 120 mph.

The 409 engine was a factory option across the entire full-size model lineup, including the Biscayne, Bel-Air, and Impala and was available in two versions, the 308 HP and 409 HP. Both came equipped with solid lifters, dual exhaust and 11.0:1 compression ratio. The difference was the dual 4-barrel carburation set up on the 409 HP version, as opposed to a single 4-barrel on the 380 HP version.

Another rare option was the Z11 package, with between 12 and 18 examples built. It came with a list of modifications that included the following: split flow exhaust headers, redesigned cylinder heads with raised intake runners, unique two-piece dual plane high-rise intake manifold, Carter AFB carburetors, stroker crankshaft (4.313' X 3.650' raising displacement to 427 cubic inches), block off plates for the radio and heater delete, aluminum hood, fenders and inner fenders, and much more.

by Daniel Vaughan | Feb 2020