What's the best full-size Chevrolet This 1970 Chevrolet Caprice 454 V8

Well , hello there and welcome again to Rare classic cars .

Today , we're going to talk about what I at least think is really the best full size Chevrolet ever made .

And in the context of the whole Chevrolet portfolio , of course , there are some really super famous Corvettes Camaros Chaves and those are great bar none .

But if you really want the best full size Chevrolet , I think that this is it .

And I would say in general , the 19 65 to 70 model years for Chevrolet were really the best that they ever produced .

You have relatively modern brakes , power steering systems and certainly plenty of acceleration from the power trains under hood and just absolute smoothness and quiet when you drive them .

So some people are going to say , well , full size Chevrolet is what about the 55 67 ?

You know , those are nice cars , certainly have good style to them .

But I got to tell you , I like this a lot better and a 283 or a 265 cubic inch small block versus what's under hood in this car , which we'll talk about in a moment .

I take this .

So just a little bit about the caprice .

The caprice was introduced part way through the 1965 model .

Here is an up level trim on the impala .

The interior was done by GM interior designer Blaine Jenkins , who also did the 1967 tornado interior update of the original 66 .

He did the 1972 old 98 Regency also did the early nine Corvette interior among many others .

And if you see button tufting on a General Motors interior , chances are he at least had a hand in the design or influenced it as was the case with the caprice .

And as I said , it came out part way through the 65 model year , 1966 was really the first full model year of the caprice and this is a 1970 model .

So this honestly is my favorite model year for the caprice and it's debatable .

I mean , I love the hidden headlight caprice of the late sixties .

Although the 69 with the big loop bumper to me looks a bit heavy handed .

Some people really enjoy the curved back light on some of these caprice that carried through into the early seventies .

I don't particularly care for the super glassy upper and the very formal angular water line D pillar on those cars .

I actually like the four door hard tops better than the two doors in those later 60 years and into the 1970 model year , but 1970 was also a very special model year because it was the first year of the 454 cubic inch engine under hood .

Previously , it was a 427 cubic inch engine .

And this is the only year for the premium fuel , high compression 10.251 454 .

1 year later , it would become a low compression engine that had to run on unleaded gasoline .

So this is really your only choice for the model years in terms of the high compression , absolute great horsepower big block , Chevrolet V eight .

And there were plenty of power train choices offered on the caprice .

In 1970 came standard with a 250 horsepower 350 cubic inch engine with a two barrel carburetor .

It was an optional 300 horsepower 350 .

Then there was an optional 265 horsepower two barrel , regular fuel , 400 cubic inch small block .

Not to be confused with the 400 or 42 big block .

It's the topic of a whole other video .

Then there was 345 horsepower 4 54 which is what this car has .

And then there was the top dog 390 horsepower 4 54 .

So this vehicle I acquired it a couple of years ago in Ontario , Canada .

I had seen it for sale over the years and you know , the guy wanted quite a bit of money for it and it looked pristine and I've never owned a big block Chevrolet before .

This , I've owned Big Block Buicks , Pontiacs , Cadillacs .

Somebody going to say there's not a big block Pontiac or old .

I also owned obviously the 440 Chryslers and the 464 129 Ford Engines .

462 Fords , 430 Ford Mel engines .

So I owned lots of big blocks , but I never have a Chevrolet big block and I really wanted one and I really wanted a 1970 model year particularly because as I mentioned , it's the only the high compression engine .

So this had been for sale in Canada for a number of years .

And finally , the Canadian dollar had depreciated to a point and the seller's desired price had also come down .

And the confluence of those facts allowed me to strike a deal with him .

So I bought it , imported it here to the US .

It is a Canadian car and I have the GM Canada records on this .

This car is one of about 55 0 .

That's it that were made and sold with a 454 under hood .

That's all they sold in Canada , 50 of these .

So it was originally a funeral procession car , a flower car and in Quebec and then it eventually made its hands into the way of made its way into the hands of collectors .

And then finally on its way to me , so pretty decently optioned car has power windows , tilt wheel AM F M power seat .

The one thing that it doesn't have is of course because it was from Quebec air conditioning , but who cares ?

You've got hard top , no pillar , beautiful breeze coming through here .

And I just don't drive it on a 90 degree summer day , so drive it on a nice spring or fall day here .

We're entering fall so perfect time to get this car out .

And it's really , I would say a special automobile , not just because of the engine , but also this full sized chassis .

To my mind is the best General Motors , full size chassis that they made .

The 65 to 70 cars drive supremely well , feel like they are rock solid .

And the next year , the very next year , 1971 and that 1971 to 76 generation , they just feel loosey goosey and squishy and roly poly .

They're just the antithesis of this .

And I love , love the way in particular the 72 caprice looks , but this car to my mind has the great confluence of factors bringing it all together for what I really desire .

Great engine , high compression , 454 great chassis , super solid , full perimeter frame , chassis , great brakes .

This car has got power disc brakes up front , excellent variable ratio , power steering .

General Motors have the best steering gear in the business .

And so let's take the camera off and walk around a little bit and discuss a little bit more about this car .

You can see how beautiful the interior is .

It's a wonderful color combination of black exterior paint , which is all original and a blue cloth interior and the combination is just stunning .

Let's take a look .

All right .

So let's take a walk around of this 1970 Caprice .

I really like the front end .

Some people say it's plain , it definitely is a bit plain , but I enjoy .

It's got this horizontal theme to the grills , a little bit of the egg crate pattern , although very different from what the Cadillacs were using .

Kind of a major minor theme going on with the major theme being these horizontal bars kind of a minor theme with the vertical bars .

Little bit of a 64 Cadillac front end to it with these fender tips extending further out .

I should say the mid section here between the fender and the hood where they meet up extending further out than the fender tip or this corner of the hood here .

I think it's a pretty handsome design and you can see this is a special car in particular because many of these came with 350 cubic inch engines .

This has a big block under the hood also has the rally wheels which have the sombrero hat .

As some people refer to it .

And then this trim ring , this is not a full wheel .

It's basically a trim ring , this center hat portion which you remove to remove the lug nuts and then it's just a standard wheel underneath .

A brilliant way to dress up a cheap wheel .

Even these things like this bumper up here is a single piece bumper and the bumper is just this top portion .

This lower portion here is a Valance panel and these gills here as I like to call them are just the surveillance panel folded over a little bit three times .

So relatively cheap way of doing this .

But it looks good here though , I think is really where this car shines great kind of button tufted interior , similar to the Barcelona chairs .

That was Blaine Jenkins original inspiration for this car as well as the 92 regency .

And yes , this is full wood grain , but it looks very tasteful and this was not cheap to do back in the day .

That was relatively expensive .

Unfortunately , this car is in beautiful shape with a dash panel , completely untracked .

The interior not faded .

It was always loved garage , good back seat room , the front seat is all the way back .

The bottom bolsters on these are very long as compared to today's cars where this bolster would probably be shy by about two or three inches .

So it has overall good room .

You can see the rear window defogger , not the defroster .

It has a blower type rear window defogger in it and an overall handsome roof line as opposed to the very formal d line of the coops head .

This four door has a really nice back light with a rake to it out back , we have Chevrolet was doing on the upper trim models , the three tail light theme in these years that continued on for a number of years , even all the way into the nineties on the Lumina , but an overall handsome design .

And then in the driver's seat , the steering wheel in this car is in great shape .

As is the dash .

As I mentioned , it's a no ac car .

So there's no vent there .

It does have these vents for just fresh air and it's got two poles down there , one for event that's in the kick panel and then a separate one for this one .

It has that on both sides , you can see the two poles there .

This does have an interesting climate control set up here .

In order to operate the fan , you move this all the way over here and then it will start kicking the fan on low , medium and high .

It's kind of goofy .

This is of course , the temperature switch here .

This is for the defroster .

So this three set up , it's all done with Boden cables and I'll just call it an interesting choice of how to operate the overall H VAC system , but it works work just fine .

This car does have the original Chevrolet floor mats .

It's in really nice shape and 46,000 original miles .

It does even have a map light here .

You can't really see it in the daytime , but you switch it on there at the base of the light here or at the base of the mirror .

Let's take a quick look under hood and then we'll check out the trunk as well .

Great door panels , by the way , on these very rich looking and the doors on these closed very well too .

But this is really the star of the show for this particular caprice .

And that's this 345 horsepower big block V eight under hood and look at how clean this car is and it's just wonderfully clean .

I have a detailed under here .

It does have a quadrajet carburetor .

As I said , this was one down from the top dog in .

This is a 345 horsepower 454 .

There was a 390 horsepower as well .

Let's start up so you can hear the sound of a big block in the morning .

I'll do my reach and start here and it's cold so fast .

I will be on a little bit .

Doesn't that sound great ?

And I've put duels on this .

He actually came from the factory with singles but does have duals a great sounding a idle so smoothly .

Listen to that verbal .

Don't need a radio in these cars just listen to the exhaust and yeah , it uses some gas , shall we say ?

But it's not bad on the freeway .

It gets about 15 around town .

8 to 10 .

Not great .

You can see the trunk here with the original spare Firestone , 8 78 15 , double stripe , non radio trunks .

Decent size in these .

I wouldn't call it overly huge .

I mean , it's 20 cubic feet .

It's huge by today's standards .

But back by the time , if you got a Cadillac or something , that was even bigger , this car rides on 119 inch wheel base , the Cadillac was on 100 29 inch wheel base .

So the wheel base alone on the Cadillac was 10 inches longer , but overall just a spectacular car .

And in my opinion , like I said , the best full size Chevrolet ever made this Craven still has its T three headlights in it all four of them .

Thanks for watching and stay tuned for a drive .

Thanks for watching this video highlighting my 19 70 caprice with the 4 54 .

Stay tuned for a video coming soon where I drive the car on the road and talk a little bit more about it .

Thanks again for watching .

Until next time .

Take care .