Vintage Car Life Review: 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu SS396 Z16 – “First Of The Red-Hot Malibus”

The first of Chevrolet’s big-engined intermediates, the rare, limited-production 1965 Malibu SS396 Z16 was a complete performance package, featuring only the hot 396/375 engine, but also an upgraded chassis, wheels, and brakes. Was it the most well-rounded American muscle car package of the mid-’60s? Here’s Car Life‘s take from September 1965.

 

Probably the biggest complaint levied against the midsize muscle cars of the 1960s (or “Supercars,” as they were more commonly called at the time) was that their raw engine power was often completely out of proportion to their handling and stopping power. The Pontiac GTO was very quick even in standard form, but its “tuned to the open road” suspension was still very soft, and it had the same undersized drum brakes as a six-cylinder Tempest. The Oldsmobile 4-4-2 had a more comprehensively upgraded chassis, but the same dinky drums and slow manual steering. Some of these limitations could be fixed with extra-cost optional equipment while others couldn’t, but there was a lot to criticize in how manufacturers designed and packaged these cars.

What about Chevrolet’s first stab at this market, the limited-production 1965 RPO Z16 package for the midsize Chevrolet Malibu?

The Chevelle/Malibu had debuted a year earlier, offering a selection of sixes and small block V-8 engines. There was a Malibu Super Sport, but it was really just an appearance/trim package, with bucket seats but no performance equipment. A Chevelle or Malibu with the optional 350-horsepower L79 Turbo-Fire 327 (5,354 cc) V-8 and four-speed gearbox could be a formidable performer, but you had to put it together yourself with a careful perusal of the options list, and it didn’t yet have the image or identity of a GTO or its big-engine rivals from Oldsmobile and Buick.

Car Life mused:

The question remained, what could Chevrolet do?

The answer wasn’t long in coming. The Chevelle, which shares its basic structure with its GM A-body counterparts (Tempest, F-85 and Special), obviously only needed a whopping big engine and some trimwork to be competitive. When Chevrolet unveiled its new 396-cu. in. V-8 early in 1965 the whopper was available. Presto! Change-O! The Chevelle 396 Supercar!

The surprise was that it wasn’t instantly made available to the general public. Certainly Chevrolet management must recognize the demand potential inherent in runaway GTO, 442 and GS sales. However, because of some obscure problem, such as the unavailability of large quantities of 396 blocks, the Chevelle 396 is at present a limited edition. Only 200 [eventually 201] have been produced and these went into what the zone men call “Brass Hat” service; i.e., they are being driven (and tested) by the press, shown and clucked over by various VIPs, and, in a few cases, run in dragstrip competition. The general car enthusiast can’t buy one—yet.

The limited availability of the new Chevrolet “Turbo-Jet 396” engine was probably due to the vagaries of switching over Chevrolet’s engine production lines from the older W-block 409 engine, which remained available until roughly the middle of the model year. My guess — which I must emphasize is just a guess — is that Chevrolet had originally planned to introduce the new engine for the 1966 model year, but market pressure led general manager Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen to order its introduction accelerated as much as possible, resulting in the midyear introduction during 1965.

 

Car Life continued:

As an image-builder it should serve Chevrolet well. Box-boys at the local supermarkets (you know the type—drop-outs who have to wrestle grocery-sacks to make their new-model car payments) fell down in awe at the sight of the “396” labels on the Malibu’s flanks. “Wot’ll-She-Do-in-the-Quarter!” was their favorite question and one told us he’d already tried to order a 396 Chevelle only to have the dealer tell him it couldn’t be done; so he was buying a 327 Chevelle.

Even if those covetous onlookers had been able to order the Z16 package, many probably couldn’t have afforded it: The list price for the option was a harrowing $1,501.05 including federal excise tax — almost 60 percent of the base price of a 1965 Malibu hardtop — and that didn’t include features like tinted glass ($31.25) or the test car’s “Comfortilt” adjustable steering wheel ($43.05). The as-tested list price on the spec panel was $4,586, around $500 more than a 1965 GTO convertible.

 

(Incidentally, while Car Life kept referring to this car as a Chevelle 396, it was actually badged as a Malibu SS 396, and Chevrolet literature described it as the “Chevelle Malibu SS 396”; see VinceC’s further discussion of the confusing trajectory of the Chevelle SS/Malibu SS nameplates.)

 

The Z16 used the L37 version of the new 396 cu. in. (6,488 cc) Turbo-Jet engine, sharing the 11.0 to 1 compression ratio, big intake valves, and large Holley carburetor of the 425 hp version in the 1965 Corvette, but with a slightly milder hydraulic-lifter camshaft. Its official ratings were 375 gross horsepower at 5,600 rpm and 420 lb-ft of torque at 3,600 rpm. So far as I’ve found, Chevrolet didn’t publish net ratings for the L37 engine, which differed in a number of respects from the similarly rated L78 engine offered in later model years. (The L78 had solid lifters, a different camshaft with less duration and overlap but more lift, and a smaller carburetor.)

 

Car Life found the L37 both flexible and powerful. Lifter pump-up made its rev limit about 6,000 rpm, but they noted that it “begins to run out of power at just about its rated rpm, so that further flogging to a higher rpm gains naught in acceleration.” They thought a cold air intake and headers would further boost its output, but they remarked, “We found no pressing need for additional power as the car’s over-the-road capabilities are impressive enough.” The Z16’s 0 to 60 times weren’t extraordinary (6.5 seconds), but from there, it really took off, hitting 100 mph in only 15.4 seconds. It’s not clear if the 130 mph top speed listed in the data panel was an observed or calculated top speed, but Motor Trend‘s July 1965 test of what I think was the same car recorded an observed top speed of 135 mph.

Although all (or early all) of the 201 Z16 cars built in 1965 were hardtop Sports Coupes, the Z16, like the Oldsmobile 4-4-2, used a modified version of the stiffer convertible frame, which was further reinforced between the front control arm pivots (probably in a similar manner to the B02 heavy-duty frame offered for taxicabs) and had two additional body mounts. The rear axle was a heavy-duty 8.875-inch unit borrowed from the full-size Chevrolet, with a 3.31 axle ratio.

One of the various reasons the Z16 package was so expensive was that it included a four-speed manual transmission, which was an extra-cost option not only on the small block Chevelle V-8, but also on the GTO, 4-4-2, Buick Skylark Gran Sport, and even the contemporary Corvette. It was a pricey option, listing for $184.30 according to the June 1965 Chevelle price list, but it was obviously desirable with a high-winding engine like the L37, and with so much torque, a heavy-duty clutch was essential.

 

With Pontiac already offering both higher numerical axle ratios and close-ratio four-speeds for its hot cars, the Z16’s wide-ratio four-speed and mandatory 3.31 axle was a bit surprising. Chevrolet apparently considered this a good all-around compromise — the same ratios were used with the hotter 327 engines in the Chevelle — and, judging by the car’s performance, they had a point: This car was capable of running the quarter mile in 14.9 seconds at 98 mph, but the engine was turning a reasonably relaxed 2,800 rpm at 65 mph.

 

Car Life was not too keen on the shift linkage, however:

Somewhat stiff and sticky, it would hang up in neutral whenever full-on shifts were attempted. The problem was particularly severe in the 2-3 shift—which was when we found the engine would rev to 6000 rpm without damage. Chevrolet has rid itself of the characteristic buzzing linkage rattle apparent in all older design 4-speeds, but in the process has made the shifting process more difficult—a tragedy for such a fine 4-speed transmission. Another point of criticism is the long throw between gates.

Also borrowed from the full-size car were the Z16’s power-assisted 11-inch drum brakes, which offered 328.3 square inches of swept area, compared to 268.6 square inches for the standard 9.5-inch Chevelle drums. Deceleration rates with the big drums were no better than the 1964 Olds 4-4-2 or 1965 Skylark GS Car Life had tested earlier, and actually a bit worse than a six-cylinder Mustang. The Z16 did manage three stops from 100 mph with “only a minute or so of cool-off time between” before the brakes faded badly, whereas the Olds and the Buick had barely survived a single stop from 80 mph. However, the 11-inch drums still left a lot to be desired, which wasn’t really surprising — they were barely adequate in the full-size cars, and the Z16 was only about 80 lb lighter than an Impala SS with a 327. The Car Life editors recommended ordering the metallic linings ($36.85), lamenting that installing the superior four-wheel disc brakes from the Corvette “might be prohibitively expensive.”

 

To complement its big engine and heavy-duty frame, Z16 package included a heavy-duty suspension with firmer shock absorbers and stiffer springs. The springs were stiffer than the standard Chevelle’s, but not nearly as stiff as the 1965 Olds 4-4-2. (Spring rates for the Z16 were 320 lb/in front, 120 lb/in rear, compared to 425 lb/in and 144 lb/in for the Oldsmobile.) However, Chevrolet specified much bigger anti-roll bars: 1.0625 inches in diameter front and rear, compared to 0.9375 and 0.875 inches for the 4-4-2.

 

Motor Trend‘s road test of the 1965 Malibu SS396 two months earlier had made the curious assertion that the package’s rear stabilizer was “[n]ot actually an anti-roll bar,” noting that it “only comes into play when one wheel tries to lift” (which is … how an anti-roll bar works). Car Life acknowledged that the rear bar “also helps combat the torque reaction “unloading” of the right rear tire, and subsequent slippage, under hard acceleration,” but the anti-roll bars’ principal function was to “give considerably more roll stiffness to the chassis, without the use of unduly harsh springing” and “ameliorate, to some degree, the detrimental effect on good handling that the very front-heavy chassis must have.”

 

On paper, this all sounded great, but Car Life was not blown away by the Z16’s suspension:

It makes cornering seem, because of the lack of body roll and its attendant “plowing” sensation, much more stable than it really is. Despite some 58% of the vehicle’s weight on its front wheels, which produces a strong understeering condition, the disguising effect of power steering and the lack of body roll make low-speed cornering seem positively nimble. It is when less than smooth roadway is encountered that the instability becomes apparent. When cornering is attempted on a rippling pavement, the rear wheels hop, skip and jump toward the outside of the roadway in their own sort of non-track meet; the front, of course, stays anchored by that preponderance of weight.

The gross inequity of the weight distribution manifests itself in yet another manner: Pitching. When the car is driven down a secondary road, the front and rear ends pitch up and down in dissimilar cycles. This is caused by the widely differing spring rates and shock absorber valving necessary because of the weight imbalance. This vertical oscillating, if not totally objectionable, is at least annoying. To be fair, we must cite similar motions in the 442 and Gran Sport, caused by the same condition.

I wonder if the Malibu’s fat anti-roll bars may have exacerbated this sensation. Anti-roll bars don’t generally cause pitching, but they can provoke a kind of waddling motion over some surfaces, which becomes more pronounced with a stiffer bar. However, Car Life felt that these ride and handling limitations were an unavoidable effect of the “10-lb. sledge on a 3-ft. handle” effect of the weight distribution: The heavy 396 engine put 58 percent of the car’s static weight on the front wheels. “The driver, we feel, should be aware of these things before he buys the car,” they remarked.

The editors felt the Z16’s handling did benefit from its wider (14×6-inch) wheels and 7.75-14 tires — the same size Oldsmobile specified for the 4-4-2 — although they found it helpful to increase the front tire pressures by an extra 4 psi to compensate for the weight distribution.

 

One area where the Z16 improved on the 4-4-2, GTO, and Skylark GS was steering. Not only was power steering included as part of the package (which it wasn’t on the others), Chevrolet specified a 15.0 to 1 steering ratio rather than the 17.5 to 1 gear usually specified with power, giving 3.5 turns lock-to-lock, compared to 4.06 turns for the regular Chevelle power steering or 5.5 turns with manual steering.

 

Overall, Car Life found the Z16’s road manners rather ho-hum:

As a car, it suffers from the same banality of bigness that afflicts its GM cousins. It seems to accomplish things more by brute force than by sophistication of its systems. It is strong on straightaway performance but only mediocre at covering curving roads at velocities more than 40% of its potential. In short, it does what others of its ilk do, not much better nor much worse.

They were similarly underwhelmed by the interior, which differed from the regular Malibu SS only in minor ways. Bucket seats and a center console were of course standard, as were the incongruous dash-mounted clock and, commendably, front and rear seat belts. (The woodgrain sport wheel was a separate $31.60 option.)

 

There was a 160 mph speedometer in the instrument panel’s left pod, with a tachometer in the center. The tach was placed reasonably well, but Car Life complained that the glass was highly susceptible to reflections, making the instruments difficult to see in some conditions.

 

Under the dash were the control knobs for the U69/U79 AM/FM multiplex stereo system, which accounted for a big chunk of the Z16 package’s lofty price. The Delco stereo conversion system was a new and very rare option on the Chevelle in 1965. It doesn’t appear at all on any of the Chevelle price lists I’ve seen, but the similar system offered in the full-size cars added $99 to $107 to the $146.90 price of the AM/FM radio itself, so it was in the realm of $250 (around $2,500 in January 2025 dollars!).

 

Contemporary reviewers, including Car Life, were impressed with the system’s sound quality, but it wasn’t cheap, and it might have been better appreciated in a quieter car like the new Caprice.

Although the Z16 package was very expensive, Car Life noted, “Without power equipment, special radio and those grotesque hubcaps, the price probably could be cut in half.” Based on the list prices of the various features included in the package that were also available separately on the Chevelle (which totaled around $700), that was probably true, but it strikes me as misleading: Except for the multiplex stereo system, most of those features were either essential or things most buyers would want anyway, like the fast-ratio power steering. It was much the same with the GTO, 4-4-2, and other contemporary Supercars: Offering desirable features on an à la carte basis made those cars seem cheaper than they really were in practice, and with the individual markup on options, well-equipped cars may have been even more expensive than they would have been if that stuff had been standard equipment.

 

As Car Life predicted, the SS396 became a regular Chevelle sub-series for 1966, now listing for only $276 more than a Malibu. The milder 325 hp L35 engine was now standard in place of the hotter L37 (although the 375 hp L78 version was optional). Equipment like a four-speed gearbox, power steering, and power brakes was moved to the options list, which was perhaps defensible, barely, from a merchandising standpoint, but almost all of the Z16 package’s special chassis features were simply dropped. You could no longer get faster-ratio power steering, bigger drum brakes, or a rear anti-roll bar on an SS396 unless you had unusual pull with the factory or bought the parts on the aftermarket or dealer parts counter and installed them yourself. Front discs weren’t offered until 1967, and it wouldn’t be until 1970 that Chevrolet again made the SS396 a (mostly) comprehensive performance package.

 

Although the Z16 was a better package than most of its successors and contemporary rivals, the truth was that its various upgrades only partially mitigated the inherent limitations of the big-engined Supercar breed. Despite its heavy-duty suspension, anti-roll bars, and 11-inch drums, the SS396 still didn’t handle or stop very well — which makes it seem all the more cynical that Chevrolet had no qualms about letting later cars go out the door with even weaker brakes and soggier suspensions. (How much more would it have cost to continue using the bigger drums, which were essentially a parts-bin item? Even if they were optional, I can’t see them costing more than about $40 retail as an RPO.)

 

None of those flaws kept the SS396 from selling well until rising insurance rates made it untenable in the early ’70s, and none of it has affected the status of the Z16, whose rarity has made it a valuable collector’s item, with a high survival rate. As Car Life observed back in 1965, “The things that make the car appealing probably outweigh the things that detract.”

Related Reading

1965 Chevelle SS396 Z16: 201 Built, And A Common 396 Engine Misunderstanding Finally Resolved (by Paul N)
Chevelle SS or Malibu SS? – An Overview of Chevrolet’s Intermediate Super Sport (by VinceC)
Vintage Review: 1964 Chevelle Malibu SS – Not So Hot, Yet (by Paul N)
Curbside Classic: 1964 Chevelle Malibu SS Convertible – The Belle Late For The Ball (by Laurence Jones)
Car Show Outtake: 1965 Chevelle Malibu Super Sport With A Six, Three-Speed Column Shift And Fender Skirts – “Rarest SS Chevelle Built”? (by Paul N)
Curbside Classic: 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu Super Sport Convertible – Hot Fun in the Summertime (by Mike Butts)
Curbside Classic: The Very Rare 1965 Chevelle Malibu SS Two-Door Sedan (by Paul N)
Car Show Classic: 1965 Chevy Chevelle Malibu – Absolute A-Body (by Perry Shoar)