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The new Caprice PPV makes it easy to drive hard.
As big as a Crown, as fast as a Camaro-that's the new Caprice. And that should not surprise anyone. The mid-1990s police Caprice was larger than the Ford Crown Victoria and as fast around a road racing course as a police Mustang. It also had a higher top speed arid much better brakes than the Mustang.
We had a chance to drive the near-production Caprice PPV on the famous "Black Lake" at GM's Milford Proving Ground in Milford, Mich. Just for firn, GM Fleet also provided a new Camaro SS to drive. What GM intended as play, this group of fleet managers treated as serious work. At the end of the day, nearly 90 percent of the drivers preferred the handling and overall performance of the Caprice over the Camaro!
GM Fleet introduced the Australian-built, police package, 2011 Caprice Pl'V at the 2009 IACP conference in Denver. Check out the full details of the Caprice at www.hendonpub.com: click Resources, click Article Archives and then search for "Caprice."
True "Large" Police Car
At 112 cubic feet, the Caprice PPV has a much larger interior than even the full-size 107.5 of the Ford CVPI. The amount of front seat hip room, critical for duty-belted officers, is the same for the Caprice as the Ford CVPI. The new Caprice has police-specific seats, which have been under development longer than the police package for the Caprice! The 17.4 cf Caprice trunk is a bit smaller than the 20.6 cf CVPI trunk. However, the Caprice's full-size spare is below a flat load floor.
The 2011 model year will be a short one for the Caprice PPV. The 2011 Caprice PPV will come in two versions: the police package 9C1 and the detective retail-appearing 9C3. Delivery of the detective Caprice 9C3 will be around April 2011, while the police patrol version Caprice 9C1 will be available around June 2011.
For 2011, the Caprice PPV will be powered by a 355 hp, 6.0L V8. This will have Active Fuel Management (cylinder deactivation) and be E85 FlexFuel compatible. For 2012, the Caprice PPV will come standard with the 3.6L "direct injection" V6 used in the Cámaro and Cadillac CTS. The 6.0L V8...