5k: 1979 Chevy Caprice; Minty Clean

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The Chevy Caprice isn’t a particularly collected automobile, and frankly most that have had any money put into them are turned into some kind of heinous looking “donk” with 24 inch wheels and Superman paint job.  So, it is unusual to find a mostly stock Caprice for sale in excellent condition too!  This 1979 Chevy Caprice is a restored California car located in Mission Hills, CA and for sale $6,000 buy-it-now on ebay (currently bidding at $4,050 reserve-not-met) with 4 days to go.  (Big thanks to tip from DT regular tipper Jenny O.)

The Chevy Caprice was a full sized sedan from GM built from 1965 through 1996 – and never did succumb to the allure of front wheel drive and downsized engines.  Accordingly, it was used by countless Police departments across the land to taxi drivers who aren’t on the lookout for smokey.  This particular example is a two door and therefore would never been acceptable for perp-transport, but it does look more ‘sporty’ than its 4 door siblings.

This Caprice is powered by a Chevy small block 5.7 liter V8, which wasn’t particularly powerful in 1979.  Originally it would have put out 170 horsepower and 270 ft-lbs of torque, enough to amble from 0-60mph in  roughly 11 seconds, putting it neck and neck with a fully laden UPS truck.  This 350 has been rebuilt and with any luck the owner has upped the compression ratio, and added a few mods to make something north of 250 horsepower, but passing smog could be an issue in California if too many things are added.

The inside of this Caprice looks to have also been fully restored along with the exterior.  It’s not a bad looking setup and the transplanted Buick seats are more set up for comfort and cruising than cornering, which is fine given the likely performance from a mostly stock engine and suspension.

This Caprice represents a lot of car for the money, but it comes from the worst time in the malaise era and we wonder how miserable it would be to drive this thing around.  Fortunately proper performance is only a camshaft and heads away, and proper turning wouldn’t be too hard to achieve with dampers/springs…but it would still be a automatic Caprice.  Bottom line: if you are in the market for something cheap, restored and slow, we think this would be the ticket.

See another cheap full sized slow-boat for sale?  email us here:  tips@dailyturismo.com