Family Wagon Gets Turbocharged and Stick Shift Swapped (Pushing an LT1 Caprice to the LIMIT!)

One of the beautiful things about racing is that one could theoretically race just about anything. From a Mustang that was built for speed all the way to the family station wagon, nothing is off-limits. In fact, some might even argue that there’s a certain mystique about a competitor that wasn’t originally built for speed.

With that concept in mind, we check in with the 2019 rendition of Hot Rod Drag Week. The event certainly gave a stage to an incredibly diverse group of cars. Among them, we found everything from a 5-second car all the way to one that was over 100 years old. Somewhere in the middle of that continuum, we find a Chevrolet Caprice station wagon. The fun part about this car is that, to the vast majority of people out there, it’s just another daily driver. However, it turns out that the owner of this machine has made it something really special.

Making use of the original LT1, an engine that was shared with the Corvette of that era, this big and heavy machine goes to work. The owner seemed to indicate that, with a little bit of help from a turbocharger, that he would push the limits of the old school combo. In addition, things get even more interesting when we find out that the machine is being propelled by a stick shift as well! That’s certainly a factor that’s pretty rare for a caprice of this era, let alone a wagon! Manual transmissions and heavyweights normally don’t get along too well.

By following along with the BigKleib34 video below, we get to take a closer look at the wagon. Sure, it wasn’t the fastest machine on Drag Week. It was, however, something that threw a little bit of a plot twist at the competition. We think that this is one to really be appreciated!