The pandemic of 2020 wreaked havoc on businesses and industries worldwide. Many companies folded and shut their doors for good, while other companies found ways to remain in business and are experiencing exponential growth in the post-2020 economy. One such business is Sac Speed Shop of Sacramento, California, and thanks to its owner, Alex “Sleepy” Hernandez, the business survived the craziness of the pandemic and has been flourishing since then. His ProCharged LS-swapped 1971 Chevrolet Caprice is not what we typically feature here at LSX Magazine, but when we saw this gorgeous Donk in person we had to photograph it and find out more.
This Caprice showcases the creativity and quality of Sac Speed Shop. This beauty takes every aspect of a build to the next level.
Alex has an unrivaled passion for the custom automotive culture. His company, Sac Speed Shop, builds high-end custom cars with a style that is recognizable and known far beyond the West Coast. From classics and “old schools” to fourth-gen F-bodies and C6 Corvettes, Sac Speed Shop builds a variety of car flavors, all to a high standard. “We have a reputation for building high-level cars using only the best products,” Alex says. “Sac Speed has the reputation it has because we work with the best companies in the industry, so our customers know they’re going to get a high-quality build.”
Alex’s Donk shines from every angle and the license plate is fitting as this Caprice build is what others will be compared to.
Turning Struggle Into Rose Gold
As I mentioned before, the pandemic in 2020 turned things upside down. For many custom car builders, progress on existing projects came to a halt due to the lack of parts availability and not having employees available to work on the builds. Such was the case with this ’71 Caprice Donk build. According to Alex, the build began for a customer right before everything shut down in 2020. “The pandemic really killed this project in the beginning,” he says. Even after 2020, parts availability plagued the build over the next two years and kept progress at a snail’s pace. In 2022 the customer made an offer Alex couldn’t refuse and sold him the Caprice. Although the unfinished car was already well-known among the big-wheel custom community, now that he was the owner, Alex made a few changes to take his Donk to a whole new level. “This was a no-expense-spared build from the beginning, and once I bought the car I knew I wanted to replace the motor and transmission to make even more power and still be a cruiser,” Alex explains.
While looking the car over, it’s easy to see that Alex is telling the truth when he says “no-expense-spared”, and although this style of build receives mixed responses at car shows and events, the level of quality and attention to detail on this Caprice is second-to-none.
I want to bring our style to the rest of the country and show people that these [Donks] can be built at a very high level like other customs. — Alex Hernandez, President/Owner Sac Speed Shop
It takes a lot of work to fit 26-inch diameter wheels under a car and still be able to drive it. The QA1 big wheel suspension package adds performance and ride quality.
To start, the Caprice was stripped down to its bare frame, where it was cleaned up, and any unnecessary tabs or brackets were removed before it was coated with Rose Gold paint while the underside of the body was sprayed with black Cerakote. To prepare the car for its 26-inch diameter wheels, a complete QA1 big wheel suspension package was installed with new upper and lower control arms in the front, along with coilovers at each corner. The rear received a narrowed fabricated Moser Engineering 9-inch rearend to hand the four-digit horsepower this Caprice makes and allow the rear wheels to tuck nicely into the fender well. Once the chassis was reassembled, the body could be re-mounted before heading over to Alex’s friend, Jay, where it was worked over to be laser straight before being coated in its beautiful custom Rose Gold hue. Additionally, every piece of trim was straightened, smoothed, and coated in fresh chrome before being reinstalled on the Caprice.
The prototype Forgiato by Wade wheels are a gorgeous focal point of this build and and the Rose Gold finish accents the car's paint.
On any big-wheel build, the most eye-catching part is typically the wheels. Alex’s Caprice Donk rolls on a set of first-run prototype 26×10-inch Forgiato by Wade custom forged wheels finished in Rose Gold with polished barrels and floating center caps. The steering wheel is also from Forgiato and matches the design and color of the wheels. Behind the wheels are custom Baer brakes featuring 16-inch diameter drilled and slotted rotors along with six-piston calipers that are engraved with the Sac Speed Shop name. “The calipers are a custom touch, and we use the Baer brake package almost exclusively on our builds,” Alex says.
The huge Baer brakes fill look right at home behind the 26-inch wheels and provide plenty of stopping power for this 1,500-horsepower beast
Turning Beauty Into A Beast
When this build began, a 408 cubic-inch LS engine was installed with an F-1A ProCharger, and the plan was to keep it turned down to around 750 wheel-horsepower for cruising. However, once Sleepy took possession of the Caprice, that engine was pulled, along with the 4L80 transmission in the car. Like everything else on this Caprice, the engine is as over the top as the rest of the car. A 434 cubic-inch LS was assembled by Geordie at LS Garage using an LSX iron block as the foundation. The rotating assembly consists of a Callies Dragon Slayer crankshaft, Callies connecting rods, and Diamond pistons. Controlling the valvetrain is a Brian Tooley Racing camshaft, and to complete the engine, a pair of Lingenfelter Performance Engineering cylinder heads were bolted to the short-block assembly along with a Frankenstein Engine Dynamics billet intake manifold.
The ProCharged LS engine in Alex's Caprice is a monster and adds to the over-the-top nature of this build.
Instead of reinstalling the F-1A ProCharger, Alex wanted even more boost and horsepower on tap. Working closely with the experts at ProCharger, it was decided that an F-1X unit was just what the donk needed. According to Alex, the combination is good for approximately 1,500 crank horsepower, although he keeps the actual number to himself. “Even though we cruise the streets in this car I wanted plenty of power for when I go to the drag strip,” he says. An upgraded 4L80 automatic transmission and Circle D torque converter transfer power to the rearend.
A polished ProCharger F1-X supercharger adds the boost necessary to push this LS engine well over the 1,000 horsepower mark.
The interior of the Caprice Donk is adorned in black leather and Rose Gold accents. Builds like this are typically full of details that can capture your attention for hours, and Alex’s Caprice Donk is jam-packed with custom touches that make it one-of-a-kind. Aside from the wheel-matching Forgiato steering wheel, the interior features door locks, sill plates, vents, strikers, and a rear-view mirror from Sandman Designs that are custom engraved and coated in Rose Gold. The dash, center console, door panels, and the rest of the interior are all custom-made by RK Customs. A Holley EFI digital screen that is connected to the Dominator ECU is mounted in the dash to keep an eye on the engine’s vitals. And no custom car of this magnitude would be complete without a custom sound system. In the trunk of the Caprice are two Ground Zero 15-inch subwoofers a Soundigital 8k amp. The custom enclosure along with the rest of the stereo, wiring, and lighting, was completed by Car Audio Engineers in Sacramento, California.
A Caprice Donk Unlike Any Other
We could have continued looking over Alex’s Caprice for hours finding small details that put this custom build on par with more traditional high-end show vehicles. At the end of the day, the passion, time, and effort that goes into a build like this deserves praise and attention from automotive enthusiasts. The best part is that Alex drives the wheels of his Caprice. He has raced it on the drag strip, performed in burnout shows, won countless awards at some of the biggest car shows in the country, and recently drove the Caprice on the Hot Rod Power Tour. This Donk is no trailer queen, although it looks better than many of them. Alex takes his Caprice to as many events as he can. So if you happen to see this gorgeous Rose Gold ride, I highly suggest you take a closer look at it.
