Chevrolet Caprice

The Chevrolet Caprice was a full-sized car produced in North America for the 1965 to 1996 model years. Full-size Chevrolet sales peaked in 1965 with over a million sold. The Caprice was the most popular American car in the sixties and early seventies, which, during its lifetime, included the Biscayne, Bel Air, and Impala. The Corgi car is a 1979 model as far as I can tell, the modelling is not that precise. A number of variations were produced by Corgi Toys from 1980 onwards. It appears not to have survived the Mettoy demise in 1983, on the whole it is not that successful as a model.

The first release was 327 the taxi or more properly Yellow Cab. It was released in May 1980 and remained in production at the time of the Mettoy crash. Also released in 1980 (according to the Great Book of Corgi Pocket Book) for export were a civilian version in green metallic (325) and a Police model (326), I suspect the Police model was also released in the UK market, possibly the green metallic too. There is a silver & blue version of the civilian model not mentioned in the Pocket Book but is shown as being released in 1981 in Ramsay.

The racing version (341) was released in April 1981 and remained in the range for one year. Last of all was the Fire Chief car (C1008) released in June 1982, this car was a Corgitronics release with working lights and sirens.