There is an individual who used to post to the 9C1 Group on Yahoo Groups about a vehicle he claims to be under development called the Studebaker Marshal Law Enforcement Vehicle (LEV).
He claims that his company, Studebaker, LLC, has bought tooling from General Motors for the B-carline. According to him, his company is currently developing a law enfocement only vehicle based upon the Caprice 9C1. It allegedly will have improvements over the Caprice 9C1 in areas of horsepower, braking, handling, etc. - all the things that are important traits in a police car. Allegedly, it will also have different front and rear clips to give it a seperate visual identity from the late model Caprice 9C1. He also claimed that after law enforcement agencies were finished with said vehicle, his company would buy it back to keep it from "falling into the wrong hands".
In a recent post, he claimed:
The program is very much alive and well. We are working on the interior components for the vehicle now. We are running two 95 9C1's in the Midwest as performance evaluation vehicles so police agencies that have not run caprices for a while can see the differences between the current offering and the "old" Caprice--from which our vehicle is based.
Keep in mind; many officers on the road today have never driven a 9C1 Caprice, or at the least have not been in one for some time. They get used to the Ford and start believing Ford advertisements. THEN, we let them drive our cars. Both are in excellent condition and are fully equipped police vehicles so they can run them in-service and get a good feel for them. I love hearing the comments. They usually go something like these:
"Why did they ever stop building these?"
"Were these always this fast?"
"What can't Ford build something as good?"
"How soon till we can get one?"
Working with the new Department of Homeland Security has been very good for us. We are budgeting several millions of dollars for final prototype manufacturing early next year. An ad campaign has begun to take shape, and we have narrowed down our choices for the plant locations in the Midwest.
If all continues to go well, we plan to offer a late 2004 model or an early 2005 model.
Improvements over the Caprice at this time include:
4 wheel Disc ABS Brakes with dual piston calipers on all four wheels,
13" Front Rotors w/11" rears
LS1 V8 from GM for 325 HP rated
Improved lighting systems
all new interior tub
and many more improvements...
Please understand that I can't go into much greater detail than this. Suffice it to say that if the program fails, I'm man enough to let you all know what happens and why. There are people who say that there's never enough time to do a job or task, but there always seems to be enough time to do it over! If this program is successful, it will be because we have take the time to do it right the first time.
I have received some criticism from some who think we're going about this all wrong; or that if THEY were doing this, things would be different. All I can say is I haven't seen them building any cars, or risking their family's futures or personal fortunes developing their car. For every task one may think needs to be done to build this car, there are hundreds more that have not been identified, let alone achieved.
So for now, we are busy getting in the business of getting in business!
Thanks for asking, and please keep us in your prayers.
Happy Holidays to all!
Chris Baker
Studebaker, LLC
I believe this whole Studebaker Marshal LEV thing is a crock of crap and that this is some kind of scam. Studebaker has been tits-up since the 1960s. To think that they could come back to life as a limited liability corporation and take on a project such as this is simply unbelievable. Add to this the fact that GM has never sold any of its GM300 (B-body) tooling to anybody for any reason!
According to Chevrolet Police Cars 1955-1996 by Ed Sanow, RCI, Inc. tried to buy the B-body tooling to continue producing "modified police cars". Quoting Sanow's book, page 198-199:
"As early as August 1994, RCI, Inc. expressed interest in buying Caprice body, suspension, engine, and frame components to make modified police cars. RCI is owned by Michigan Congressman Richard Chrysler (no relation to Chrysler Corporation). RCI, Inc. and its Cruisers, Inc. subsidiary outfits police cars and performs special, off-line work for all the automakers. RCI's plans were for a Caprice-based vehicle made specifically for cops, much like mail carriers now use vehicles designed specifically for their needs.
After the February 1995 GM announcement [that it would discontinue the Caprice], RCI increased the pressure on Chevrolet. Richard Chrysler's plans were now to buy all the tooling and continue to build the Caprice, or a Caprice-like police vehicle at a Canadian auto factory. Chevrolet Fleet had repeatedly told RCI "no" and in August 1995, GM made it official. It would not sell its GM300 tooling."
-From Chevrolet Police Cars 1955-1996. Edwin J. Sanow. Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications. 1997.
Sanow was not the only author to write about the RCI attempt to continue to manufacture the Caprice or a Caprice-based police vehicle. In Chevrolet SS, page 45, Robert Genat writes:
"An interesting sidenote to the demise of the 1996 Caprice was the effort of RCI, Inc., a Michigan-based company that outfits police cars. RCI wanted to buy the tooling for the Caprice, because it wanted to continue production of the popular sedan at a factory in Canada. General Motors refused, and the Caprice and Impala SS were laid to rest."
-From Chevrolet SS. Robert Genat. Osceola, Wisconsin: MBI Publishing Company. 2000.
If you carefully read the passages from Sanow's and Genat's respective books, you will see that they are describing exactly what this individual who claims to be from "Studebaker, LLC" says his company is actually doing! However, in August 1995, GM indicated that it would not sell its GM300 (B-body) tooling. This poses a very serious question: who is telling the truth?
You can view the "Studebaker, LLC" guy's first post at http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/9c1/message/51213.
I am beginning to think more and more that this guy is some sort of disillusioned Studebaker lover looking for a way to bring his cars back in some sort of role playing fantasy (although this is mere speculation on my part). It just sounds too bizarre to be real. Companies that died forty years ago just don't pop back up as limited liability corporations and decide they're going to start turning out twenty-thousand units a year within the space of two to three years' lead time. Also take into account the fact that GM has never allowed any company not wholly owned by GM to produce its automobile designs.
It would be nice to think that this guy would put his whole livelihood on the line just to produce a good police car, but that just can't be true. Anybody who has any fiscal sense, brains, or business knowledge - as this guy would have to have to be involved in such a venture - would never take such a gamble, especially in today's economy.
Look at all the corporate big wigs. No matter what happens, they all have their golden parachutes. People like this guy claims to be just don't exist in the business world. Business is about making money, not about goodwill and sacrifice. It sounds cold and hard, but it is the truth. Want an example? Take a look at Flint, Michigan (another of GM's serial murders). Its nice to think that someone would make such a sacrifice, but come on. Get real. This is the world of the slow, exploding Crown Vic, Enron, Worldcom, and countless other corporate flops, infidelity, and scandal. What this guy is claiming to be is not realistic at all.
A big name manufacturer, most likely Dodge, will probably produce a formidable RWD V8 police car sometime in the not-too-distant future. American law enforcement officers will hopefully be provided for again. There were other times in the not-too-distant past when American police car performance was at a low point, specifically in the early 1980s. The B-body Impala 9C1 of that era, even with the LM1 350 powerplant, ran worse than today's Ford Police Impersonator. Bear in mind that this horrible drop in police sedan performance occurred not long after the legendary 440 Mopars (like Jake and Elwood's 1974 Monaco) and big block Chevys and Fords of the 1960s and 1970s. This is not dissimilar to the horrible drop in performance in the police car market after the Caprice 9C1 was discontinued in 1996. Things will probably (hopefully) get better again, as long as there are high performance cars on the road that law enforcement officers have to pursue in order to enforce the law.
Honestly, I don't want to see America's last real production sedan come back with a nameplate, design, and manufacture that isn't true to its genesis (GM and Chevrolet). Such a sick reincarnation has the potential to be even more blasphemous than affixing the sacred Impala badges onto a unibody V6 front-wheel-drive W-body, and then slapping the sacred and revered "SS" designation onto said W-body. Add to this the fact that the public will not, according to the "Studebaker" guy, be able to buy the cars after they are taken out of service, and you have a real sad case of deprivation of the true American automobile enthusiast and police car collector and hobbyist. No matter how you look at it, it's not right.
"The best never die. They just retire. And sometimes, if they get bored, they find something else to do."
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