1966 Chevrolet Caprice Series

The Chevy Caprice name was introduced in mid-1965 as a luxury trim package for the Impala four-door hardtop. A year later, it became its own model line consisting of a 4-door hardtop, a coupe, and a 6- or 9-passenger station wagon. The Custom Coupe had a formal roofline while the station wagons had special wood-grained body-side trim. The four-door hardtop Sport Sedan had a bench seat in the front with a Strat-back front seat being offered as optional equipment. The interior was done in plush cloth. Vinyl or cloth was available in the two-door coupes while the station wagons were given all-vinyl interiors.

On the exterior, the Caprice had its nameplate on the front fender and deck. There were wraparound tail lamps with bright horizontal ribs, Caprice wheel covers, roof rear quarter emblems, and wide ribbed body sill moldings.

The Chevy II was a compact model with a 110-inch wheelbase and priced in the low-$2000 range. The intermediate-sized Chevelle used a 115-inch wheelbase with prices that ranged from the low-$2000s to $3,000s. The full-size Chevrolets had a 119-inch wheelbase and included the entry-level Biscayne, the slightly more expensive and better equipped Bel Air, the Impala and Impala Super Sport, and the range-topping Caprice. While other full-size Chevrolet's came standard with six-cylinder power (except for the Impala Super Sport), the Caprice was offered solely with V8s. The coupe had a base price of $3,000, the four-door hardtop listed for $3,065, and the six-passenger station wagon was $3,234. The nine-passenger wagon was approximately $100 higher.

Power was from an overhead valve V8 engine with hydraulic valve lifters, five main bearings, and a 283 cubic inch displacement offering nearly 195 horsepower. An optional 396 CID V8 brought horsepower to an impressive 325 BHP. Six-cylinder engines, and the 283-CID and 327-CID V8s came standard with a three-speed manual with column shift. A heavy-duty three-speed manual with floor shift controls was optional. When the engine bay was fitted with the 396-CID and 427-CID V8s, the heavy-duty transmission was required, and a Turbo Hydra-Matic was optional. Overdrive was optional for standard engines, and a four-speed manual transmission was optional for V-8 engines. The close-ratio version could be ordered with the 396 and 427 V8s. Powerglide two-speed automatic transmission with column shift was also optional, and a floor lever version was available for bucket-seat equipped vehicles.

Chevrolet's list of available V8s included 263 CID Turbo-Fire V8 (RPO L77) with 220 horsepower, the PRO L-30 Turbo-Fire 327 with 275 horsepower, and the RPO L35 396 CID TurboJet with 325 horsepower. The RPO L36 Turbo-Jet V8 was a 427 cubic-inch unit with 390 horsepower. The RPO L72 Turbo-Jet 427 CID V8 delivered 425 horsepower. These large engines were often shoe-horned into the intermediate and muscle cars, but full-size cars could still be so equipped. The only way to get the solid-lifter L72 was to buy a Corvette or to have it installed in a full-size vehicle, including four doors and wagons. The Biscayne was the lightest, cheapest, and had the most potential to be the quickest. For 1966, Chevrolet installed the L72 427s into 1,856 examples of its full-sized vehicles.

The most popular full-size Chevrolet for 1966 was the Impala with 654,900 examples built, plus an additional 119,300 Impala Super Sports (these figures do not include station wagon production). 83,200 were Biscaynes, and 236,600 were Bel Airs (again, excluding wagons). Sales of the Caprice were respectable, with approximately 181,000 units built (sans wagon). This was higher than the 124,500 units built a year later.

The Caprice nameplate would remain with Chevrolet for many years, from 1965 through 1996, and then from 2011 to 2017.

by Daniel Vaughan | Oct 2017