This Crazy Caprice Wagon Once Served as a Corvette Chase Car

Cool Story

The automotive world is one full of cool and interesting stories - some of which are common knowledge at this point, while others are a bit of a mystery. The story of this Corvette-chasing Chevy Caprice wagon is one that isn't exactly a secret - given the fact that it originally ran in Car and Driver magazine back in 1986, but it's one worth telling again for a number of reasons.

Photos: Aaron Kiley for Car and Driver

Support Vehicle

Back in the 1980s, the Corvette development team was out testing a group of Corvettes on a road trip, which is typically when they would have some sort of support vehicle tagging along carrying their gear. For some time, the team used diesel-powered Suburbans for this task, but there was just one problem - the big SUVs couldn't keep up with the sporty Corvettes.

Photos: Aaron Kiley for Car and Driver

Prototype Builds

A solution for this particular problem presented itself in 1983, when GM decided to install a handful of L98 V8s from the Corvette in a few Caprice models - one of which was a wagon - for testing purposes. The Corvette team managed to wrangler the wagon away for its own use, then proceeded to make some additional modifications to it.

Photos: Aaron Kiley for Car and Driver

Performance Upgrades

That modifications list included a dual exhaust system, a limited-slip differential with 3.23 rear gears, Bilstein shocks up front and air units in the rear, larger anti-roll bars, quick-ratio steering from a Camaro Z/28, and Corvette wheels wrapped with 255/S0VR-16 Goodyear Eagle VR50 tires. The Corvette theme continues inside with a pair of buckets from the fiberglass sports car, too.

Photos: Aaron Kiley for Car and Driver

Hard Use

A Corvette steering wheel and auxiliary gauges capped off the build, which turned out pretty amazing in our book. However, it certainly wasn't babied, racking up 35,000 hard miles of chasing Corvettes in just a couple of years. Performance, for its time, was impressive as well - 0-60 took around 7.2 seconds, while the wagon topped out at 121 mph.

Photos: Aaron Kiley for Car and Driver

Rare Instance

Today, this Corvette-powered Caprice wagon is a mere piece of forgotten history, but it's one worth remembering. After all, automotive manufacturers typically don't do things this crazy, but deep down, we all wish they would!

Photos: Aaron Kiley for Car and Driver

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