I felt like a kid on Christmas morning that summer day in 1990 when my new car magazine arrived with a first road test review of a new-for-'91 Chevrolet Caprice (our subject here is a 1994). I hadn't even seen a glimpse of what these were going to be except reading oh-so-vague teases about the wonderful design innovations Chevrolet had in store for the first major update of the venerable Caprice since 1977. I was put off by the lack of a coupe but the fact that Chevrolet was coming with a new, rear-wheel-drive, V-8 powered Caprice was enough to make me feel as though I was living through the glory days of GM and it was 1960 all over again. In a good way.
Talk about being led to believe Santa's was bringing you a puppy and you clothing instead. These things hit Chevrolet showroom floors in late 1990 with a profound thud.
Heralded at first as GM at it's finest with regards to design and engineering, their much bally-hooed 1977 downsized full-sized cars had grown very long in the tooth, make that very, long in the tooth by the time they finally updated them starting with the Caprice (and Buick Roadmaster) for 1991.
Unlike GM of the '50's and '60's with a near revolution of design of their wares seemingly every year if not two and no longer than three, changes to the "class of '77" were incremental if not anecdotal over the years. And then 1991 came around.
Looking somehow larger than they actually were, they were only about an inch longer than the 1977-1990 Caprice's they replaced but they were almost two inches wider. The jokes started flying immediately about how much they looked like whales. Beached whales.
Nicknamed "Shamu" after the famous killer whale, Chevrolet did their best to alter the appearance for 1993 by removing their most distinctive styling detail, the pseudo-rear fender skirts that made the back ends look like '49 Nash's. Careful what you wish for.
You'd think the revised rear quarters would have resulted in a Caprice resembling a 1992 Ford Crown Victoria, as if that would've been a good thing but it would have been an improvement, but if you notice, the rear axle didn't line up with the fender opening resulting in making a wonky design amazingly even more wonky. Doing it "right" would have required a major design and engineering reboot of the rear of the car; a costly and time consuming process that got nixed no doubt because General Motors was going to harpoon these things anyway come model year 1997.
Under the hood things actually got interesting for '94 as General Motors slipped in a somewhat detuned version of of the venerable "LT1" engine first introduced on the 1992 Corvette; please note that's "LT1" not "LT-1" of early 1970's Chevy engine fame. In the Caprice, Buick Roadmaster and Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, it was fitted with iron heads and different intake and exhaust manifolds, purportedly to make less noise, and made 260-horsepower and 330 foot-pounds of torque. Not quite the 300-horsepower the Corvette engine made but it was quite the upgrade. Contemporary road tests clocking the "LT1" Caprice from zero-to-sixty in 6.6-seconds. That's ho-hum today but thirty years ago that kind of performance in family-sedan was borderline hedonistic.
However, not all Caprice's of this vintage were created equal. Our black-on-maroon Shamu here is powered by the "L-99" version or what's referred to as the "baby LT1". Displacing 4.3-liters or 263-cubic inches, with it's shorter stroke and smaller bore, it made 200 horsepower and 245 foot-pounds; about what the engines it replaced made - the throttle-body fuel injected 5.7 making in horsepower and the 5.0 making in torque.
The "L-99" was a bit of an odd and unique duck, or whale, with its mission either to provide better fuel economy than the bigger 5.7 did or was an excuse to charge more for the bigger engine. Spend money to make money, I guess. It was only offered on the Caprice.
The larger 5.7 engine was featured in the big dog Impala SS Chevrolet made from 1994-1996. With it's lowered suspension, meaty tires and monochromatic paint and finish schemes, the funky, skirt-free rear quarters worked quite well aesthetically. The smaller rims, standard suspension and chrome trim on the Caprice doing updated '94-'96 Shamu's no favors.
While the '94-'96 Impala SS is one of the rare '90's sedans, domestic or foreign, that's actually appreciating in value, Caprice's like this are languishing. This one here, despite it's near immaculate condition, is for sale with an asking price of $6,995. An Impala SS in this kind of shape would have an asking price north of twenty-grand if not more.
I'd have a hard time dropping that kind of money for a '94-'96 Impala SS - they're still mid-'90's GM junk inside but that's just me. However, if you've got a hankering for the bad old days of '90's General Motors, comment below and I'll do my best to hook you up with this Caprice. I've seen these were someone has attempted to make them into Impala SS clones and most of them look like what they are; my advice is to keep it as it is and drive it for what it as such.
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