GM may bring Chevrolet Caprice here from Australia
GM has made no secret of the fact that it plans to use its far-flung global empire as a source of new cars for North America, so it shouldn't surprise anyone to learn that the company is working on a V8-powered rear-drive sedan called the Chevrolet Caprice Royale.
The new four-door model will be a variation on the Caprice that GM's Holden operation sells in Australia now, featuring several North American touches, including the famous Chevrolet bowtie badge on the front.
GM has not announced this car for production yet, but I saw one while visiting the company's testing grounds in Milford, Michigan.
It was left-hand drive and has several cosmetic touches that clearly differentiate it from the Australian model.
Should GM decide to produce the Caprice Royale, it will be the biggest car in the Chevrolet fleet, running 5193 mm on a 2939-mm wheelbase and weighing in at about 1780 kg.
The Caprice uses Mac struts up front with a sway bar and progressive-rate coil springs, and a control-link independent rear which also gets a sway bar and coil springs, though it's likely that the Caprice will get a suspension retuning of some sort before it comes to the North America.
In the Pontiac GTO, which GM takes from the Holden Monaro, the 5.7-litre V8 delivers 350 hp at 5200 rpm and 365 lb.-ft. of torque at 4000 rpm through a four-speed automatic, so we can probably expect something like that in the Caprice.
There is of course a chance that we will not see the Caprice in Canada even if it comes to the U.S., since GM of Canada currently does not import the GTO.
