RATIO REFRESH

How to install a quick-ratio steering box on a GM B-body.

- JOHNNY HUNKINS

General Motors built the last of its full-size, body-on-frame, rear-drive passenger cars at its Arlington, Texas, plant in 1996, some 27 years ago, but interest in these long-discontinued vehicles endures. Used by families, retirees, law enforcement agencies, and taxi fleets, the final version of General Motors' B-body ran its course from 1991 to 1996, with over 200,000 produced under the Buick Roadmaster banner. (Chevy had the Caprice and Impala SS; Oldsmobile the Vista Cruiser wagon; and Cadillac had the Fleetwood D-body, a lengthened B-body with a 6-inch-longer wheelbase.) Most of the GM B-bodies had no high-performance inclination until Chevy got the great idea of dropping the C4 Corvette's LTI V8 into the Caprice to create the 9C1 police package for 1994.

That move caught the eye of Chevy performance head Jon Moss, who quickly co-opted the plan to turn the police package 9C1 Caprice into a cash-crop performance model-a reboot of the classic Impala SS. Using the Corvette V8, but detuned for the heavier B-body with a torquier cam and iron heads instead of aluminum, the Impala SS sported more aggressive springs and shocks, a grippier wheel-and-tire combo, and a quick-ratio 12.7:1 steering box. To the benefit of all B-body buyers (Oldsmobile bowed out of the B-body in 1993), the Corvette LTI small-block found its way as standard equipment into the Buick Roadmaster and Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham between 1994 and 1996 and became an option on Chevy Caprice those same years. Unfortunately for the Buick Roadmaster, Cadillac Fleetwood, and LT1-optioned (non-9C1) Caprice, the standard 16:1 steering box was the only option.