When I lived in Los Angeles about six years ago, I tried to attend as many Petersen Museum events as possible. It was always a treat to see the wavy exterior design of the building, and of course, the cars inside are incredible. On July 23, 2016, the Petersen celebrated 30 years of Chip Foose design, and I was there to snap some photos of his past custom projects, including the Imposter.
- Car: Chip Foose Imposter (2009 Chevy Corvette turned into a 1965 Chevy Impala)
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
- Photog: Tony Markovich (Instagram + Twitter: @T_Marko)
- Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T5i, 18-55mm IS STM lens
Foose brought a handful of his customs to the Petersen, and each one was vastly different from the rest. The Hemisfear was there, as was his 1956 Ford F-100 and the featured photo car, the Imposter. Foose gave it this name because this car started as a 2009 C6 Chevrolet Corvette and was customized to look like a 1965 Chevrolet Impala. “The theme for this build is ‘what if’ Chevrolet’s Corvette studio modeled a muscle car in 1965 as well as the sports car we all know and love,” his website says about the project. To accomplish the task, Foose shortened the Corvette chassis by seven inches and shortened the Impala body by 14 inches.
Underneath the front-hinged hood, there’s a large flash of gold, which is a painted Magnuson supercharger. One of the most interesting aspects has nothing to do with the visuals, though. Because this car was made to actually be driven and used, Foose and his people claim they left the original functioning equipment alone, so if a problem arose, the vehicle could be taken into the shop and plugged in as usual.
For more info on the build, check out Foose’s build series on Youtube.
