The 1991 Chevrolet Caprice was the signal that things were going horribly wrong at GM. Originally, the big B-body was supposed to bow out at the end of the design cycle (about 1990 or so), but oddly enough, customer demand and requests from fleet and police sales gave the big Chevy a reprieve. Unfortunately, the designers turned the handsome, if a little dated, “box” style into what has since been dubbed Shamu the Chevrolet: it was a large bar of soap with half-cut rear wheel wells, a fat ass, and a lot of visual weight. The emergency 1993 re-skin took care of most of the visual problems (well, if we ignore the not-centered rear wheel location) and gave the car the LT-1 engine over the prior small-block Chevy, but the damage was done. There were three versions of the last B-body Chevy that anybody remembers: Impala SS, cop-spec, and your grandmother’s burgundy sled that only saw Interstate speeds when you drove it unsupervised.
Then there are the sickos in the world that took one look at the aerodynamic nose shape that was blatantly cribbed from the Ford Taurus, realized that the frame is the same one that underpins the 1973 Chevrolet Chevelle, and went, “hmmm…” And bless them for it, too. This particular 1991 was built to take part in the “Beat The Heat” cop racing program.
Here’s the list of goodies this silver whale packs:
725HP/608 ft lb Blown 409 Small Block Chevy Bowtie block
Weiland 6-71 blower
Comp Solid Roller
Dual 750 Edelbrock Carbs
Hooker Headers
7 AL MSD
TCI400 Turbo Transmission w/ line lock
9″ Ford Rear with 4.56 Richmond gear
Competition Engineering 4 link with Koni coil overs
Strange front suspension
Wilwood Brakes
MT Sportsman Tires on Convo Pros
Full Tube Super Comp Chassis, NHRA Legal 10 Point Roll Cage
Add in that it still has power windows and full street legality, and how can you lose?
eBay Link: 1991 Chevrolet Caprice
I see you know your B-bodies Bryan!
Two things I would change are replacing that ugly Caprice grille with the SS version (painted to match car) and radius the rear wheel wells.
Then you have a thing of beauty!
Honestly, I’d leave the grille as-is. Seeing the SS-type grille on the pre-1993 cars is just a pet peeve of mine.
As a guy who likes curves, I have been in love with era of big GM most of my life. And while I do prefer the later LT1 powered towing package Roadmasters, this is simply wonderfull. The worst thing GM ever did was to ditch the frame for disposable uni-body cookie cutter “automobiles.”