Sheriff Resurrects 20-year-old LT1-powered Chevrolet Caprice

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

An Illinois sheriff knows a barn find when he sees one.

According to the Northwest Herald, McHenry County Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Stadler spotted an old parade Chevrolet Caprice with 4,000 miles gathering dust in a shed and decided to bring it back into service.

The 20-year-old, LT1-powered police cruiser — which sports none of the modern police cruiser amenities including USB ports, massive touchscreen or even traction control — was pressed into service when Stadler’s Impala was retired.

“I could see the diamond in the rough,” Stadler told the newspaper. “Your non-car person would look at this thing and think, ‘Why would I want this 20-year-old thing covered in dirt?’ Where I was, ‘I really want to clean this thing up.’”

Hell yes.

Stadler said the car needed about a month of work to bring it up to service-duty snuff, including installing radios and a laptop, but said that the one-of-a-kind Corvette-powered Caprice will run until the bitter end. He’s put about 30,000 miles on it over the last year he’s used it, which include full, 40-hour work weeks.

“Those cars were on the road for 10 years,” Stadler told the Northwest Herald. “I don’t know if this one will be around for 10 years on the road, but I’m sure going to enjoy it as long as I have it.”

According to Stadler, the car has been named “Christine” after the possessed Plymouth Fury of the same name.

Click through for a video about the car.


Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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  • Seanathin Seanathin on Jan 27, 2016

    Cool article. I just did something very similar myself with a 96 Impala SS. I thought of it as somewhat of a rescue mission since it's super rare to see one not ruined (either from neglect or opposite of neglect)

  • -Nate -Nate on Jan 27, 2016

    Pretty cool ! . Good use of Taxpayer Dollars too . Pity about the salt , though . -Nate

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    • Aycaramba Aycaramba on Jan 28, 2016

      @CJinSD Agreed. There's a part of me that admires making use of what you've got. Then there's a part of me that screams about what a waste it was in the first place. Especially as a taxpayer in the jurisdiction that's the subject of the article.

  • Brett Woods Brett Woods on Jan 28, 2016

    Right arm! They are no better now than they were then. You got luck getting to keep an LT1 Caprice Classic. Relax, stretch out and keep givin' 'er. You're not trashing the sky any more than you would be in an "Eco" boost. 'Course like Arthur Daily says, there were even airier, softer, wider, sweeter and more comfortable cruisers in the uncongested low population past. Long live the King. http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_401125-Plymouth-Fury-1972.html

  • CJinSD CJinSD on Jan 28, 2016

    The quality of the story in the NorthWest Herald is a classic example of why it isn't worth reading most news sources. "Stadler drives a 1995 Chevrolet Caprice, a car that was produced for only three years and was one of the first performance vehicles made for police." That's far from the truth, as any fan of Chrysler's squad cars of the '50s, '60s, and '70s could tell you. The car I used during driver's ed on the range at AHS was a 1976 Pontiac LeMans Enforcer with a 400-4 barrel V8 and a set of performance option badges glued to the dashboard. The fact-checker of the year goes on to write the the Caprice has 350 hp, perhaps aware that the actual figure of 260 hp wouldn't impress people much today, or perhaps not. Either way, such writers are worthless for learning much about the world.

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