Classic Impala brings back California dreams

Barry Youngston was just 12 years old when he was caught up in the excitement of his parents moving to Southern California.

As a car-crazy kid, the prospect of living in Culver City, outside Los Angeles, was a dream come true. He knew the custom car and hotrod culture in California was at its peak from the magazines he read. Better yet, his parents planned to buy a very special car when they arrived.

Tommy Youngston receiving trophies in recognition of his mechanical skills in preparing stock cars to race at Burnabys Digney Speedway.
PNG Merlin Archive, Driving

Tommy Youngston had been a well-known mechanic in Vancouver, supporting champion stock car drivers Larry McBride and Don Bennett at Burnaby’s fabled Digney Speedway. When the lease expired on the service station he operated at 28th and Main Street in early 1959, Tommy took a partnership offer from a friend who had moved south to take over a Texaco station in Culver City.

It was February 1960 when Tommy, his wife and young son Barry climbed aboard the southbound Great Northern Railway train in Vancouver. The family changed trains in Seattle and Sacramento, finally arriving in Los Angeles two days later.

Dealer Invoice: Culver Motors in southern California sold a two-year-old 1958 Chevrolet Impala that had traveled just 4,000 kilometers to Tommy Youngston for $2,200 [PNG Merlin Archive]
PNG Merlin Archive, Driving

Thus, on Feb. 27, 1960, Tommy Youngston went to the local Ford dealer — Culver Motors at 8960 Washington Ave. in Culver City — and paid $2,200 cash for a recent trade-in. The car was a silver blue 1958 Chevrolet Impala with the optional 348-cubic-inch engine producing 250 horsepower. It had travelled just 4,000 kilometres. Barry says his father had considered buying a silver blue ’58 Chevrolet Impala convertible, but it had the optional 280-hp 348-cubic-inch engine with triple carburetors.

“Despite the fact that my father was a mechanic,” Barry says, “he thought kids had owned the car and had hopped up the engine. He didn’t buy the car because of that. Dad didn’t realize that was a factory optional engine. If that hadn’t happened, his car could have been a convertible with tripower.”

The 1958 Chevrolet Impala was a revolutionary car for General Motors with one-year-only styling that looked like a much higher priced car than it was. The first Impala was longer, lower and wider than its predecessor and, with the 348-cubic-inch engine, much more powerful.

The blue Impala became the Youngstons’ family car in California. When the partnership at the Culver City Texaco station didn’t work out, Tommy Youngston moved the family north in California to Santa Maria, where he became a mechanic for the local telephone company.

But, by the summer of 1962, California was wearing thin.

“Mom never drove and there was no bus service where we lived. And Vietnam was heating up. Dad said it was time to go,” Barry says.

The family packed up the Impala and headed north. They bought a house in south Vancouver near the Oak Street Bridge because it had a big garage where Tommy could practice his trade.

The Impala was used only for special occasions.

Tommy’s shop truck was a well-used 1948 Mercury pickup — the only vehicle young Barry was allowed to drive regularly.

He was only allowed to drive the Impala on a 10-block round-trip to pick his mother up at the bus stop at Knight Street and Marine Drive after she finished work.

The car would go to Barry after his father passed away in 1994.

“It was his only car, used very sparingly and he would never consider getting another,” Barry says.

Recept: The receipt for the $2,200 Tommy Youngston paid for a two-year-old 1958 Chevrolet Impala at Culver Motors in southern California [PNG Merlin Archive]
PNG Merlin Archive, Driving

He found some body rust over the back wheels that needed attention.

“My dad used to take us driving in California on Pismo Beach and went through the salt water,” Barry says.

Still, the rust was surprising, because every time his father drove the car, he would hose off both the outside and underneath.

Barry’s restoration of his father’s Impala stalled in the late 1990s.

“It sat in the garage until about four years ago, when I finally got back to it to finish the restoration,” he says.

That restoration has now been completed, and the results are stunning. Barry inherited his parents’ home in White Rock, so the Impala is stored in the same garage it occupied for years.

“I will never sell this car,” he says. “When I get in the car, I see me in the passenger seat and my father behind the wheel.”

Tommy Youngston was inducted by the Greater Vancouver Motorsport Pioneers Society in 2006 for his contribution to local oval track racing.

His son Barry says he would be proud that his cherished Impala is still in the family looking like it did the day he bought it in Culver City nearly 55 years ago.

Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company. aedwards@peakco.com