1969 Chevrolet Caprice 427 V8: Fast Luxury For The Masses

Today we're going to talk about luxury for the masses, this beautiful 1969 Chevrolet Caprice two-door hardtop. Now the Caprice was a vehicle that was introduced partway through the 1965 model year by Chevrolet and only on four-door models for that particular model year as a response to Ford's LTD, which really had a great sales success by over-contenting, let's call it, the Ford Galaxy and providing a lot of luxury features on the interior in particular. So Chevrolet designers for 1965 tried to emulate that philosophy and launch the Caprice and by this point the Caprice was really becoming a mainstay of the entire Chevrolet lineup. And while you could get only a four-door Caprice in the inaugural year of 1965, by 1966 Chevrolet had a two-door hardtop available. In fact, the 1966 Caprice two-door hardtop had its own unique roofline with a more formal roofline than its sister and lower-priced Impala that still had the fastback roofline. Now by the time we get to 1969 the Caprice still really hewed closely to that C-pillar that had the formal style vertical upright kind of nature to it. And that was something that I think Chevrolet was trying to take that cue from Cadillacs and luxury cars that historically had that very vertical C-pillar because it provided the rear seat passengers way back in the coach building days with privacy. And that continued on into the styling philosophy in particular for Cadillac for years to come. But the Caprice, as I mentioned, had that and its own unique roofline beginning in 1966. And by 1969, as you'll be able to see here in a minute, that formal style kind of three-box design perpetuated with the Caprice. But the car that you see here, this front end, was all new for 1969. This is an exposed headlamp Caprice with the big loop bumper. Loop bumpers were all the rage during this time frame at General Motors as well as other companies including Chrysler. And that was because they were trying to convey safety. Remember this was the time frame in which Ralph Nader had published the Unsafe at Any Speed book. And so designers were trying to kind of telegraph to customers that cars were safe. And what better way to do that than having this big loop bumper up front that, well, maybe it provided a bit more protection. It certainly wasn't the protection that the five mile an hour bumpers would provide vehicles. And those would come out in 1973 in the front and 1974 in the rear of American cars. Now as we rotate to the front three-quarter view of this Caprice, you'll notice a couple distinct styling features. You can see that bumper did extend pretty far there into the fender. Behind the bumper you'll notice a badge that says 427. We're going to talk about that a little bit more. It's one of the things that makes this car very special. But you also see the W-shaped front end. Very popular during this time frame to have this W-shaped front end. And that just means it looks like a W when you're looking from a bird's eye view above. Hidden wipers, of course, something that was in vogue particularly on General Motors vehicles during this time frame, certainly gave the car a nice look and an uncluttered look up front. But I think it was kind of a love it or hate it relationship with those for people who lived in the cold weather climates because they would kind of tend to pack the snow down in that area and you'd have to clear it out. So kind of a good idea, kind of not, dependent on your perspective. You have the Chevrolet road wheels that are effectively just kind of a standard steel wheel with a trim ring and the sombrero hat portion in the middle. You have these oval circle style wheel arches that were unique to the Caprice as well as I should say unique to Chevrolet as well as these bulges, these kind of very slight bulges where the body pulls out from the wheel. It's a little bit hard to see in this picture. I think you can see a little better if you look at the rear wheel, but that was something that would continue on the Caprice also for the 1970 model year. And one thing that I think Chevrolet borrowed from Cadillac was this large body side molding on the side of the car that I'm sure was anathema to designers. But one of the things that luxury car buyers wanted to do was protect their cars and make sure that they didn't get dings and dents. And so you often found body side moldings on Cadillacs as standard equipment and that was because it was viewed by Cadillac divisional management that those had to be on there in order to help protect the resale value of the car because people wanted to protect obviously their expensive investments. And I think that might have been one of the reasons why you also see it on this Caprice. Now as we rotate along to the side view here, you'll see a couple other elements and probably some that I've discussed in detail previously a little bit better. Of course that formal style C pillar and even the daylight opening has this very fine crease that outlines the rear quarter window just kind of accentuating the overall vertical nature of that sail panel. You of course have the side marker lamps that were mandatory beginning with the 1968 model year and you can see them in particular out back. I kind of marvel at how long the rear overhang is in this car, but this was something that was typical for the time and it is a very long rear overhang, but a short front overhang. Fords tended to have the long overhang in the front and the rear, kind of a more symmetric overhang, but not so with Chevrolet. Now the Caprice, maybe one of the reasons for the overhang is that the wheelbase was shorter than other luxury vehicles of the era from General Motors. 119 inch wheelbase versus an example 127 inch wheelbase if you got the Oldsmobile 98 or Buick Electra and even longer if you got the Cadillac. And it was really during this time frame that it was felt that the more you paid for the car, the more car you should get. Hence the Chevrolet's having the shortest wheelbase and then the Cadillac having the longest. But 119 inches was still a pretty good sized car and I don't think anybody's going to call this a small vehicle, but you know it was smaller relative to the other luxury cars that you could get at the time. And I think that Caprice was a great value in general as we're going to see in the interior of this car. It's absolutely stunning, especially when you consider the price point. Now one thing that is interesting to me about the Caprice styling is you have, you know, the symmetry here. You have relatively flat fenders, relatively flat quarters, but you do have the lead-in. Notice how the quarter kind of has this 45 degree angle where it dips down to the bumper. The leading edge of the fender has the same. That was a very GM trait to have that lead-in as opposed to having both of those be just completely flat all the way to the edge of the car, which is what you would have seen with a Ford. You never really saw Fords that had that kind of lead-in except maybe the Mark 4 a little bit in the rear in particular. Now as we transition to the rear of the car you notice the three tail lamp theme, the w-shaped rear just like the front, that lead-in that I was mentioning where you can see the quarter panel kind of diving down toward the bumper at a angle. And the three tail light theme was started on the Impala in 1958 and continued on for Chevrolet for many many years into the 90s even. But it was kind of at home here with the tail lamps inset in the bumper. Of course the most notable feature here is the backlight, this concave backlight that the Caprice got during these particular model years and that would continue on into the early 1970s. But 1969 was the inaugural year for this concave backlight and I have to say I'm surprised that the bean counters let the Chevrolet designers get away with this. I mean this after all was kind of a lower priced car, it was an upper-end Chevrolet. I suspect they allowed them to get away with it because the car was profitable, it was produced in volume, it was a great seller, Chevrolet division had the volume to kind of accommodate this. But still I'm sure it made finance people shudder a bit and particularly given that it continued on in through the mid-1970s. Here by the way is a better view of that backlight and I think one thing that's interesting about this is a lot of these curved backlights, although many were convex as opposed to concave, had this hot wire bend in the middle. There is no hot wire bend on this and the Caprice for whatever reason would kind of continue with these funky backlights for a number of years even on the generations after this. I mentioned that this would continue on the subsequent generation that began in 1971 and then with the 1977 Caprice Coupe on that particular vehicle you had a double hot wire bend backlight. So it wasn't concave like this but it did have this complex form and I don't know why Chevrolet designers got into that but they probably wanted to drive the bean counters crazy. It does look cool, interesting, distinctive certainly for the time frame. I suppose that's why they probably did it and I'm sure that Chevrolet made money on this car especially since that feature perpetuated for many many years thereafter. Now let's talk about the interior and remember I was mentioning to you that the Caprice really started out as a an up-level trim package with a fancier interior than the Impala and the fanciness continued let's say. The Caprice had this fake wood everywhere on the steering wheel, on the IP, on the center console, on the door panels and it was fake but I have to say it looks rich and it wasn't cheap. I mean putting fake wood in was also not cheap but you also see there's pretty expensive and intricate door panels and seats and the overall materials and the fit and finish of the Caprice was really quite good. I have to admit if I were a buyer in 1969 and I had money even to afford a more expensive car I probably would have opted for the Caprice with the 427 engine just like this car has because I think it's a stunning looker. They drive great, they're quiet, they're smooth. I would have actually liked the shorter wheelbase and shorter length. You know it's really hard to say that I would have wanted to spend more on anything else because these cars really were fantastic vehicles particularly the 1965 to 1970 generation. Now as we pull back and take a look at the bucket seats this car is rare in a number of respects. A beautiful condition Caprice coupe from this era with a 427 under hood and bucket seats with the center console. Wow and in a great color combination too. Red with the black top and black interior. This car is just stunning but look at you know even the the stitch pattern on the seats there. Complicated, intricate and you know something that you wouldn't necessarily find in lower price cars. So Chevrolet just did an absolutely fantastic job with the Caprice and it's really no wonder why it was such a successful seller. And now we rotate to the under hood area and this is one of the things that makes this Caprice especially special and that is the 427 cubic inch big block Chevrolet v8 under hood. This was the last year for the 427 before it would be enlarged to 454 cubic inches for the 1970 model year and that would be the last year for the premium fuel 454 cubic inch engine before all General Motors engines in 1971 were able to run on regular unleaded fuel. Now this was the 335 horsepower variant you can tell by the small diameter air snorkel there. There also was the top dog engine the 427 that made 390 gross horsepower that would have been super awesome under hood here. But in the Caprice you could get a whole range of v8 starting with a standard 235 horsepower 327 cubic inch v8 then there were a pair of 350 cubic inch v8s that were optional making between 255 and 300 horsepower. The top 350 was a premium fuel four barrel 300 horsepower v8. Then interestingly there was this odd duck regular fuel 396 cubic inch big block v8 topped with a two barrel carburetor that made 265 horsepower and a nine to one compression ratio a lower compression ratio. Chevrolet was kind of trying to create a engine that had the big block torque but used regular fuel and it just was kind of strange. I mean you made a lot less power than the 350 but you know that was the engine lineup and interestingly car and track and Bud Lindeman from the time if you look up car and track in 1969 Caprice or Impala I can't remember which he tested he said that 396 couldn't punch its way through a wet Kleenex which I thought was kind of a great analogy but needless to say you could get the premium fuel 427s like this one under hood and they certainly motivated these cars quite strongly. You know I have to say having I've never driven a 427 1969 Caprice I have driven 350 cubic inch powered cars and boy the 350 is just a sweet engine in the car particularly the 300 horsepower 350 it's peppy lively quiet smooth I do have a 1970 Caprice there's a 454 under hood and it's all the same adjectives peppy smooth quiet you know these big block Chevrolets of the era and the big block engines from General Motors were absolutely fantastic and of course you see the big frigid air a6 air conditioning compressor that was ubiquitous under hood in air conditioning cars from General Motors of the era nothing would freeze you out better than General Motors air conditioning during this time frame to the point that Ford would later procure it from General Motors for use on a number of its cars. I think GM had the best air conditioning certainly better than Ford Chrysler air temp was also pretty gosh darn good but Ford was really the laggard during this era in terms of its air conditioning system they just didn't have the capacity that the GM systems have I think this probably is four to four and a half pounds of R12 refrigerant that nice super cold refrigerant that will definitively freeze you out. So what do you think of the 69 Caprice I think this one's got to be just an absolutely stunning example and a rare one at that for the reasons that I mentioned with the option content that it has would love to have this one in my garage but alas well that's not going to happen. In any case thanks again for watching and be sure to put a comment in the comment section. Until next time, take care.