Welcome to My Website By Garner Ames.

My name is Garner Ames. I am 20 years old and a Criminal Justice Major at Southwest Texas State University. This website is dedicated to my interest in cars.

My History of 9C1's.

9C1 is the RPO code for the Chevrolet Police Package. Since I was 16 years old, I have owned 4 Caprice 9C1's. I had an '88, '89, '90and I now have a '94.
1988 CHEVROLET CAPRICE 9C1

In June of 1998 I got my first car. It was a 1988 Chevrolet Caprice 9C1. It had the (LG4) 305 4bbl. V8 engine, 700R4 Transmission, and a 3.08 limited slip differential. When I got the car, it had a clogged converter, so I took it to Mienike in San Antonio and had them put on true dual exhuast with 2 chamber flowmaster mufflers, and 2" pipe. All 77-93 Caprices only came from the factory with single exhaust so Mienikie cut a notch in the left side of the transmission cross member to run the left exhaust pipe. This was not to my likeing, so I eventually got a crossmember from a '95 Caprice in a junkyard. This crossmember is set up for dual exhaust. The exhaust made a huge difference in performance. I also had the trans rebuilt with a shift kit. (The front pump started wineing at 256,000 miles) My best time at Alamo Dragway in San Antonio was 15.996 @85.97 MPH. This was a great running car. I drove this car till the middle of my Senior year of highschool when an old man in a Dodge dually pulled out in front of me when I was going 60 MPH on the access road. By the time I hit him, I was doing 35-40 mph according to the police report. The car did not do bad considering what I hit. I could have fixed the car, but State Farm gave me thirty-eight hundred dollars for the car and I thought that was a good deal considering the car had 284,000 miles on it. I bought the car back from State Farm for six hundred dollars so I could keep the good parts. I took the rest of the money and bought another, yet almost identical Caprice.

1989 CHEVROLET CAPRICE 9C1

I got this car in February of 2000. It was equipped with the (LO3) 305ci TBI V8, 700R4 Transmission, and a 3.08 limited slip differential. I put the exhaust and transmission from the '88 9C1 in the '89 9C1. The LO3 (170hp) is rated higher than the LG4 engine so I thought the exhaust would help this car perform better than the last one. However, it did not. The 4bbl. on the LG4 flows better than the throttle body on the LO3 so I think that is why the exhaust helped the '88 more than the '89. My best time with the '89 9C1 at River City Race Way in San Antonio was 17.010 @ 81.57 MPH. When I got this car, I put new springs and shocks all the way around. I also put on poly-graphite bushings on the front sway bar. This car handled good and it had great brakes. The brakes were just like the 88's. The front rotors were 12" and the rear drum's were 11". I used Bendix Met-lock fleet brake pads and shoes. I got 4 wheels from a '95 9C1 in a junkyard and put them on my car to replace the old chrome wheel covers. With the wheels, 235/70R15 tires and the Setina push bar, this car looked pretty tough even though it was slow. I put a steering wheel from a '92 Suburban in it. That looked pretty cool. I loved this car, but I have always wanted an Impala SS or newer Caprice. I liked the way they look so sleek and fast. They have not made these cars since 1996 and they still look modern. In June of 2001, I sold the 1989 9C1 for with 219,000 original miles and it was still running great. Two weeks later, I bought my present car.

1994 CHEVROLET CAPRICE 9C1

In June of 2001, I got this car from a small dealership in San Antonio, TX. The car was a TXDPS car untill January of 2000 where it was sold to an individual who had it for about a year and a half until I got it. When I bought it, it had the Impala SS graphics, emblems, grill, spoiler, and he deleted the hood ordernment. He also put 15" Eagle F1 rims on the car that I did not really like so I found some factory 9C1 rims and put them on. I like the grill and the spoiler, but I don't really like the Impala emblems, so I will take them off when ever I am ready to repaint the car. The car is equipped very well. I has the 5.7L SFI V8 (LT1), 4L60E Transmission, 3.08 rear axle ratio, power windows and locks, cruise control, power trunk release, A/C of course, AM/FM stereo (now it has a AM/FM CD player), Transmission cooler, oil cooler, power steering cooler, (V08) heavy duty cooling, heavy duty suspension (7B3) and many other 9C1 features. This car is a far better performer than my previous Caprices. My best 1/4 mile is 14.761 @ 93.59 MPH at Rivercity Raceway in San Antonio. The car tops out just above 140MPH. Much better than the '88 9C1 (122MPH) or the '89 9C1 (119MPH). This car also gets about the best mileage of any Caprice I have had. I got almost 27 mpg last summer when I went Mount Pleasant, TX. It usually gets 14-16 in the city. I plan on keeping this car for a long time since I like it so much and have so many modifications planned for it. My current mods are listed on the "Custom page".

1990 CHEVROLET CAPRICE 9C1

On Feb. 18, 2003 I bought a 1990 9C1 in San Antonio TX. It has the LO5 (5.7L TBI V8) engine, 700R4 trans, and a limited slip 3.42 rear axle. The car only had 93,000 miles, the lowest mileage of any car I have bought yet. I plan to restore this car soon and build the fastest street legal Caprice that I can afford to. It is very bare car. It has A/C, power door locks, and power trunk release. I did not even come from the factory with a AM/FM stereo. It has rubber flooring, non tilt steering column, manual windows, and no rear defrost. It used to be a San Antonio police car, then it was transfered to San Antonio Housing Authority and the red and blue lights were replaced with amber ones. Pics can be found on photopage 6.

1975 PONTIAC GRAND AM.

My dad bought this car for me back in April of 1997. The car had 140,000 miles on it. The car was mostly all original. The front nose was missing and the carpet had been replaced with some kind of aftermarket kind. The paint was decent for a 20+ year old car , but it had no rust which is rare for 1973-1977 GM A-bodies. The interior was great except for some rips in the front driver's seat and some cracks in the top of the dash. It was equipped with the standard 400ci. 2bbl. V8, Turbo 400 automatic transmission, and a 2.56 open differential. The car had some good options, including power windows, power driver's seat, tachometer, AM/FM 8-track, lumbar support bucket seats and intermittent wipers. A few Grand Am features include Grand Prix intramentation, body color sport mirrors and bumpers, Radial Tuned Suspension with larger diameter sway bars (bigger than the ones on my 1975 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442.) and rear window louvers.

We had the seats recovered at Vintage Broadway in San Antonio, TX (1998), the paint job done by Bob Brown in Boerne, TX (1999), and the engine rebuilt by Greg Spreen in Boerne, TX (2000). The seats came out great. All I have to do now to the interior is replace the carpet and the dash if I can find one. The paint also came out great. I have put about 15,000 miles on the car since I put it on the road in 2000 and the paint is starting to show some road rash in a few areas but I keep the car in the garage always when not in use. An interesting thing we did was put a steel nose cone from a 1973 Lemans GT on. As I said earlier, the original Grand Am nose was missing and the cheapest one I could find was eight hundred dollars. I like the 73 nose alot though and don't plan to change it until I come across another 74-75 Grand Am nose and grill for a good price. The engine was running fine before the rebuild but my Dad and I were looking for a little bit more power. We used a Comp Cam, (can't find the specs at this time) a 4bbl intake from a '70 Pontiac GTO, A 795 cfm Edelbrock 4bbl carb, dual exhuast and H-pipe, Headman headers with 3" collectors. The cam is a little too radical for a car this heavy and with 2.56 gears. It does not have a lot of power below 2500 rpms compared to the stock configuration. This is the reason for the high E.T. Best 1/4 mile is 15.0 @97.5 MPH (no tuning with about 2000 miles on the rebuild). Putting the E.T. aside and looking at the MPH, I estimate this engine to be making around 300 HP. My Caprice has an LT1 rated at 260 HP and the car weighs about 100lbs less than the Grand Am but has 3.08 gears and a 4L60E trans which has better gearing than a turbo 400. (3.06, 1.68, 1.00, .70 compared to 2.48, 1.48, 1.00) The cars E.T. almost the same but the Grand Am gets almost 98 MPH compared to the Caprice's 91 MPH. That shows that despite the Grand Am's weight and major gearing disadvantage it still has quite a bit more power to accelarate it to a faster speed in the same distance as the Caprice. Since the last time I raced the Grand AM, I have since put a shift kit in the transmission and installed a 2.56 POSI rear end from my 1975 Olds 442. I have also tuned the car some since then. I have more mods planned. I will update the new 1/4 miles times when I race it next. One day, I plan to build a 455 with alot of goodies to replace the 400. The next thing though is a complete overhaul of the front and rear suspension. I just finished replacing all of the brake system from the power booster to the calipers and rubber lines. I plan on using PST bushings when I do the front end and I might buy Hocthkis rear control arms. The last thing that I may or may not due is fix the A/C. A complete list of modifications is listed on Photo Page 2.

SWT POLICE DEPARTMENT

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CAPRICE 9C1