I Bought 2Pac's 61 Impala
CHECK OUT this awesome ride made famous by Tupac Shakur and now reimagined, repurposed and driven by low rider fanatic Lloyd, from Long Beach, CA. The Tupac fan jumped at the chance to own a piece of the late great artist's collection and this 61 Impala is arguably as rare as it gets. The car boasts a 616hp chevy 350 engine, Dayton 13” tires, measures 16ft and weighs a whopping 38,000lbs and of course has hydraulics. Prominently placed in Tupac's "To Live and Die in L.A" hit record, the car clearly turns heads wherever Lloyd drives it. Speaking to FutureStudiosCars, he said: "I’ll drive down the street and someone will roll down the window and go, 'Is that the Tupac Live and Die in La car?' And the conversation starts from there. What makes this car unique is that he passed right after they used it and nobody ever put it back on the street."
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MotorTranscript
00:00I'll drive down the street and someone will roll down the window and go, is that the Tupac
00:03Live and Die in L.A. car? And the conversation starts from there. What makes this car unique
00:09is he passed right after they used it and nobody ever put it back on the street.
00:19I remember the first time I was ever in a hydraulic car, I was hooked. I would do anything
00:23to get it.
00:24So when Lloyd found the car for sale two years ago, he couldn't wait to buy it and drive
00:28it home. But the current owner suggested he towed it.
00:31I said, man, anything that starts, has wheels on it, you don't even need brakes. I can drive
00:35it, no problem. He's like, no, I wouldn't recommend it. So he towed it to my house.
00:38I paid the guy the money. He dropped it off the trailer. The car started, ran, everything
00:42sounded perfect. As soon as he leaves, I tell my friends, hey, jump in, let's go for a ride.
00:46We make it about a mile. Everything's seized. The engine turns off. I hear all this noise
00:50in my transmission. The planetary gears completely explode.
00:53Ironically, when the 61 Impala was featured in Tupac's video, it wasn't a true low rider.
01:00The production team had just made it look low by loading it with sandbags. But Lloyd
01:05wanted his car to be the ultimate L.A. ride. So he swapped out the engine and transmission
01:11and fitted the car with some top-end hydraulics.
01:14I added all the gold Chevrolet pieces, the gold wings, the purple halo headlights to
01:20give it that Los Angeles Lakers flavor.
01:23I went over to this performance shop. I really wanted to add a new heart to it because it
01:28originally had the 283 V8. And no matter what I did to it, I wasn't getting the power that
01:33I wanted. And I bought this Blueprint 350. I got a 350 turbo transmission, the upgraded
01:39power steering, the Champion's aluminum radiator. We're low riders and we like to go slow and
01:43low. But every once in a while when I need to get over in traffic, I give it some gas
01:47and I can feel the power. It's a lot better than that 283.
01:54Those are my favorite wheels, 13-inch gold Daytons. I had the chips custom made. Usually
01:59Dayton comes with red lettering. I had this one done in yellow to match the car. I had
02:04the custom console made and I had the steering wheel dipped in gold. I added the purple cabin
02:09lights in the trunk, the cabin, and on the tips of the antenna just to kind of continue
02:13that Laker vibe all the way through.
02:16And this is my hydraulic system. These are the motors. These are the tanks. And inside
02:24here is the gear. If you're ever going to do any low riding and want to hop, you want
02:28a Versace gear and an 8X to the front. And these are the slowdowns. Both of these control
02:32the speed at which your car drops. This is where all the power's at, right here.
02:39To be able to say it's a Tupac car, obviously I love Tupac, but to me it being a 1961, bright
02:45yellow, convertible, gold, everything, that's what makes it special to me. It's hard not
02:50to notice. I took it to the next level because that's just how I wanted it. I don't ever
02:55want to just have average. If I'm going to have it, I want to have the best of the best
02:58or at least be up there with the best. When I pull up to a light and there's a bunch of
03:02kids and they're into low riders and they say, hit the switch, I'll bounce it right
03:05there and they're all cheering and laughing. I love that part of it.