Monday 10th October 2011

YKYWT... 1972 Ford Capri 'Perana'

A very cool fast Ford. Even if it's not quite the real thing...

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Sadly, it appears that Basil Green didn't keep a record of how many Perana Capris his company built in South Africa, although 500-550 seems to be a popular estimate.

So if you wanted to do some historic racing with one of the only V8-engined Capris which Ford sanctioned, your options are to either find one of the remaining cars in South Africa - or have one built yourself, preferably from an original Capri XLR.

The latter is what the owner of this car did, and it looks like he wasn't shy with the chequebook. The XLR body shell appears to be as-per the shells used to create the very last Peranas, while a similar Mustang V8 and rear axle have also been pressed into service. After that though, all the parts have been selected strictly with racing in mind.

So if the new owner does decide to engage the car in competition the AP pedals and brakes, Bilstein springs and dampers, and a six-link, rose-jointed rear end should give them a reasonable chance of keeping it pointed in the right direction despite the five litres of cast iron Detroit (...actually this motor appears to come from Windsor, Ontario, but let's not split hairs) snortage up front. Having said that, in some of the pictures it looks like the car is sporting a bit of a nose-heavy 'rake' which may need sorting with a ride-height and corner-weights session.

As good as the car looks (and probably goes), it still isn't a genuine Perana. And as such the asking price of £62,500 does seem a bit strong, although it has been built from the ground-up reportedly with brand new quality components throughout.

There will always be a market for old Fast Fords, and racing this car in historic competition against 911s and such like sounds like lots of fun. The strictly-classic brigade would consider it sacrilege to turn a bona-fide Perana into a racer anyway, so if you do want to race a Mk1 V8 Capri then this is the way to go, Shirley?

[thewheelman]

Yes, i do want it........but at over £60k........fk no!

[GTRene]

thats a very nice build Capri.

[anonymous-user]

That is completely immensely beautiful.

[jagnet]

I like that, I like that a lot but...not quite £60k's worth of like.

How much does that colour suit it?

[Garlick]

[thewheelman]

Much prefer this one, didn't even reach its £37k minimum at auction....


Oh, & this one is genuine.
http://www.silverstoneauctions.com/ford-capri-pera...

Edited by thewheelman on Monday 10th October 12:06

[Truckosaurus]

Lekker.

[rev-erend]

That and the orange one look fantastic .. but not 37K / 60K beautiful.

[pSyCoSiS]

Nice!

That colour really suits the car.

[Alfanatic]

Looks nice, but I'd have thought you could get an original for less money than that. I've never seen one with fat arches before though, perhaps those are rarer and more expensive.

[shoestring7]

Lovely, but spoilt by the giant rims.

SS7

[anonymous-user]

As for the price IF I had the money I don't think I'd want to pay more than £25-27k. Even though it is stunning.

[andymadmak]

Shirley? Shirley?

[GingerWizard]

I would have that but paint it black and matt black the stripes.

I bet it sounds wonderful!

[sidaorb]

Nice looking but outragiously overpriced. Go back 10-15 years and there were shed loads of V8 powered Capris floating around, many Rover V8s but still not to be sniffed at. I had two mates with V8 MK1s while mine was only 3.1 ;

[Daggerpie]

Now that is one awesome looking Capri, regardless of silly cost.

andymadmak said:

Shirley? Shirley?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A5t5_O8hdA

[theJT]

Magnificent. Always wanted one of those... will have to go on wanting too at that price

[roberthiggs]

what the hell does YKYWT stand for.. really bugging me :/

[EggsBenedict]

Lazy journalism on the engine - usual 'big lump of yankee cast iron blah blah'. The engine in this car clearly has ally heads (just look at the photos), the block for this engine is actually pretty light - Ford pioneered a technique called 'thin wall casting' with this block. You can easily pick up a bare block on this engine with no issues at all with weight. The crank/cam/rods are no heavier than any other v8, and given the heads are made of ally, then this is again, no heavier than any other v8 of similar capacity.

Nice car, but 62K? Not on your nelly!

[SWoll]

roberthiggs said:

what the hell does YKYWT stand for.. really bugging me :/

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