Will be buying as soon as the right one shows up near me

[v8suprcapric]

But I still need to figure out what the right one is....Went and drove a 2011 today (with lightbar and shield on the side and all), it was all I imagined and then some. I'm a big V8 Supercars fan so when I finally find the right Caprice in the $20-25k range I'll buy it and be driving home thinking I'm Jaime Whincup (yah I know not a SS but I'm not about to pay $46k for one of those).
It'll be nice to add another Caprice to my stable, my longtime project and car I'll probably never sell is my '87 Caprice with lots of 9C1 options, a 383 stroker, 700r4, and some 275/60r15's all around.
I'm gunna start looking around the forums, mostly interested in transmission options. Do people put manuals in these? Or are the newest ones with the tap shift really as great as some say? What year did they start having tap shift? Is it really mounted on the back of the wheel rather than the steering column? What the hell? Ok enough of that, I'll go do some reading now and hopefully find the answers to all my questions. Glad to have found this forum!

[Gerome]

Welcome to the forum . You shouldn't have a hard time finding a nice caprice in your price range . I got one for about the same reason (poor man SS ).

[elc32955]

Welcome!

On the tap shift, it was included as standard equipment for all of the 2011-2013 9C3 cars (the "detective" package with the shifter in the middle of the center console with the silver surround). That's one of the reasons why the V8 9C3 cars are so much more desirable. The 9C1 cars did NOT have the Tapshift as a factory-included option and have a different shifter, mounted to the left forward section of a flat console. One of our members (Gregc) has installed the 9C3 console in his 9C1, but at considerable expense and labor. I'm honestly not sure if he has reprogrammed his car to enable the function. You can get other 9C3 cars, but what's available right now is in the V6 model pretty much. Of course it's still a 300hp Caprice with the same motor that's in the V6 Camaro. But if you like horsepower, the V8 is a no-brainer!

So far, no one has installed a T56 that we know of (on your manual tranny question).

But - just remember the V8 cars are becoming more scarce expecially in the 9C3 package. If you find a car, don't wait. Deal hard and hammer it. Or someone will beat you to it....

Good luck!
Eric

[v8suprcapric]

On the tap shift, it was included as standard equipment for all of the 2011-2013 9C3 cars (the "detective" package with the shifter in the middle of the center console with the silver surround).

Thanks Eric! So is this what I'm looking for? This pic is from a 2011. That's the tap shift function when you move the shifter to the right, yes?

[leadfart]

That would be yes!

[elc32955]

That's the money shot! Good hunting!!

[storm9c1]

In summary: pushing the lever to the right first enables sport shift mode. Which is still automatic shifting but will shift more aggressively and will hold the gear when you let off the throttle (only if driving aggressively, it detects this somehow). It does a reasonable job and is fun on very windy, hilly roads (it kinda does automatically what you would normally do if you were driving a manual, downshifting and holding the gear). This mode will also display the auto-commanded gear on the display. It won't go into the manual tapshift mode until you try to manually downshift or upshift. As soon as you do that, it goes out of sport shift and into manual shift. Keep in mind that it will not let you stall the car and will deny shifts that it thinks doesn't make sense (like going to 6th at 20MPH), so even though it's manual, your inputs are buffered to be idiot-proof. It is impossible to go back to sport shift mode from manual mode without moving the shifter back to the left (normal auto mode) and then back to sport shift. That's a little annoying.