Car Of The Day: July 21, 2011

Today's car of the day comes from Firehawk73's collection and is Racing Champions' 1992 Chevrolet Caprice.

The Chevrolet Caprice is a full-sized automobile produced by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors in North America for the 1965 through 1996 model years. Full-size Chevrolet sales peaked in 1965 with over a million sold. It was the most popular American car in the sixties and early seventies. which during its lifetime included the Biscayne, Bel Air and Impala. Introduced in mid-1965 as a luxury trim package for the Impala four-door hardtop, Chevrolet offered a full line of Caprice models for the 1966 and subsequent model years, including a "formal hardtop" coupe and an Estate station wagon. The 1971 to 1976 models are the largest Chevrolets ever built. The Caprice was renamed Caprice Classic for the 1973 model year, but the Caprice nameplate returned—added in 1986 replacing the Impala. The downsized 1977 and restyled 1991 models were awarded Motor Trend Car of the Year. Production ended in 1996.

In 2011, the Caprice nameplate returned to North America as a full-size, rear wheel drive police vehicle, a captive import from Australia built by GM's subsidiary Holden—the police vehicle is a rebadged version of the Holden Caprice. From 1999 to the present imported Holden Statesman/Caprices built by Holden have been marketed as Chevrolet Caprices in Middle Eastern markets.

For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: Chevrolet Caprice

A nice police car offering from Racing Champions.

The 1991 model was completely restyled — It replaced the 1977-based rectilinear design with rounded, more aerodynamic sheetmetal. While the body and interior were all new, excluding the Anti-Lock Braking System — the chassis and powertrain were carried over from 1990. and several major components (including the floor pan) are entirely interchangeable between 1977 and 1996.
Motor Trend awarded the new Caprice Classic Car of the Year. Two trim levels were initially offered - Caprice and Caprice Classic, replacing the previous Classic and Brougham models. General Motors had hoped to regain the top spot as America's favorite automobile with the new aerodynamic styling of their full-size offering.

The last-generation Caprice was not well received by critics[citation needed] and did not hold on to high sales numbers. The car's styling was criticized with car aficionados calling it a "beached whale" and "an upside-down bathtub"). For 1993 there were some revisions, the most obvious being the removal of the skirted rear wheel wells in favor of more conventional, open wheel wells. This applied only to the sedan model; station wagons retained the skirted wheel wells. In 1995 minor modifications were made to the C-pillars

In 1994 the Caprice received the new-generation GM engines, including an optional detuned version of the Corvette's LT1 350 cu in (5.7 L) engine that put out 260 hp (194 kW) and 330 ft·lbf (447 N·m) of torque. The standard engine in all sedans, including the 9C1 police cars, was the 200 hp (150 kW), L99 263 (4.3 L) V8. The LT1 was optional in the 9C1 police-package and standard in the wagon. The LT1 350 was standard in the civilian sedans, with the addition of the B4U towing package. The towing package also gave a heavy duty suspension nearly identical to the 9C1 police car suspension. 2.93 gears, heavy duty cooling, heavy duty rear drum brakes and positraction were standard with the towing package. The 265 (4.3 L) L99, and 350 (5.7 L) LT1 look nearly identical externally. Many 4.3 L99 equipped sedans are passed off as 5.7 LT1 cars. The 8th digit in the VIN number is the Engine code. W: 4.3 L L99, P: 5.7 L LT1. The 1994 Caprice's interior had a redesign which featured a Camaro steering wheel, digital speedometer and a new console.

The Caprice 9C1 with the LT1 engine became one of the fastest and most popular modern day police vehicles. This vehicle established such strong devotion by many police departments that a cottage industry thrived in refurbishing Caprices for continued police service after GM discontinued production of the car.
The car's production was stopped in 1996 from sales pressure from the mid-size Chevrolet Lumina, financial troubles at General Motors and consumer demand shifting from full-sized family sedans to the increasingly popular sport utility vehicles. The Arlington, Texas vehicle assembly plant (used for Caprices, Buick Roadmaster, Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, and Cadillac Fleetwood) use moved to produce the higher profit margin SUVs GMC Denali and Yukon, Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, and Cadillac Escalade and Escalade EXT. In 1997, the Lumina LTZ would take the Caprice's place as Chevrolet's premium passenger car. Total production of 1991-96 models was 689,257 with production ending on December 13, 1996.

With the exit of the Caprice, the Ford Crown Victoria and its corporate siblings (Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Car), continued as the sole traditional rear-drive, body-on-frame, V8-powered North American sedans. Thereafter the Crown Vic. dominated police vehicle sales. Chrysler would introduce the unibody Dodge Charger in 2006, the company's first rear-wheel drive sedan since 1989.
The Chevrolet Impala name badge was reintroduced to the American passenger car market in 2000 as the marque's premium offering, albeit in a front wheel drive configuration.