During the 2021 SEMA Show, the sleek, black two-door Impala was featured in a position of honor in the lobby of Central Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center. It earned that spot thanks to its victory in the previous year's SEMA Battle of the Builders competition. Before that, the car took home the prestigious Ridler Award from the 2020 edition of Detroit Autorama.

The Impala wasn't done winning trophies at the most recent SEMA Show though. In 2021, the vehicle was selected by General Motors designers to receive the Designer's Choice trophy as part of the Chevy SEMA Design Awards.

"Having gentlemen that are trained and educated in design to choose what we engineered and designed is a compliment," says Brad Ranweiler, proprietor of the shop based in New Ulm, Minnesota. "We're very proud of that."

Show Cars Automotive provides reproduction 348-409 Chevy parts for 1958-1964 passenger cars. Brad Ranweiler runs the shop with his sons, Brady and Cory. As kids, they remember staff building originally restored cars, but they usually didn't receive the same kind of attention as custom vehicles. The Rainweilers' father had also long said he wanted to build a custom car to compete with some of the top builders at various shows.

That dream took its first step in 2010, when Brad Ranweiler brought a 1963 Impala (which he had restored three decades prior) to the 2010 SEMA Show and won the Chevy SEMA Design Award for Top Restored Car. That led to a variety of connections that would aid in the family team's next build – the custom 1963 Impala wagon.

"We had a four-door '63 wagon that was meant to be a shop hauler," Brady Ranweiler explains. "We figured if we wrecked it, because we had little experience with customs, nobody really cared. We wanted to go for a two-door wagon that pretty much anybody, no matter what their occupation, no matter what their lifestyle, would find kind of elegant to drive and ride in."

The Impala is powered by an original iron-block 409 cu.-in. engine, bored and stroked to 509.

"Dad has a vast knowledge of the inner workings of [the engine] and we've been around those cars all our lives so it was just kind of fitting," Brady Ranweiler says.

While the 409 engines are desirable in their own right, the customization element was why the team chose to build a 509. Plus, stroker kits for 409s are one of Show Cars Automotive's best-selling products. According to the Ranweilers, 509 cubic inches is about the maximum displacement that can be achieved from an original iron-block 409.

The engine makes 615 horsepower and is topped with a Hilborn eight-stack EFI system. Exhaust is pushed through stainless steel headers and pipes by GP Headers. Hoses and fittings are by Tech-AFX.

The car is designed to have a seamless flow, with many elements hidden or incorporated into the chassis. The top is chopped three inches and the frame is channeled as well. The car also utilizes a two-door hardtop windshield laid back about seven degrees.

The hood opens up suicide-style under power, with all the mechanisms and wires hidden. In addition, the back gate now opens top up, where the original car would have opened much more like a pickup. The gate is also under power with everything hidden in the sail panel.

Even the fasteners are custom, with Brad Ranweiler explaining that one-hundred percent of visual fasteners on the car are custom cut for the build. Amazingly, all the fastener heads have the same milled design.

The Impala was originally red, but over the years, the Show Cars Automotive team became known for black cars. Confident in their ability to paint, the Ranweilers chose to go with the black exterior to improve their chances at Detroit Autorama, where engineering, design, workmanship and difficulty of task all play a role in the selection of the Ridler Award recipient. Black cars are rare winners since flaws are more easily identifiable.

It's easy to see where the name "Impressive" comes from, and the word appears throughout the build on the thresholds, dash, door, gauges and elsewhere.

Even the team that built the car seems in awe of the work that went into it.

"The amount of detail when you sit there and actually start listing it and talking about it is incredible, I mean it even goes onto the pedals," says Cory Ranweiler. "Both of them are cut to match any type of air louver on the vehicle."

Brad Ranweiler has been involved in the automotive world for nearly 50 years, having started a body shop right out of high school. He began with collision repair and paint jobs, before progressing into classic restorations and finding a niche with 1958 to 1964 Chevrolets. The build on the car known as "Impressive" began in 2010, just after the team finished their last restored car that won a Chevy SEMA Design Award a decade ago.

Brad Ranweiler says winning the Ridler Award still hasn't really sunk in, and now being chosen for a Chevy SEMA Design Award is another accomplishment he holds in high regard.

"It's really nice when we come to [SEMA] and now we get the designers from GM who say, ‘Boy, maybe this is the way we could've done it, and maybe we should've done it,'" he says. "That's awesome. The building has kind of come full circle with winning the first one and now this one."

Impressive, indeed.