the winners
Adrian Flux 'Win £15K'
competition. Now, our £5,000 prize winner, Matt Purdon, has been out and bought his prize, and he's brought us up to date on the purchase so far. But first, here is his second-place-winning entry:
"This is NOT another X-Factor sob story! My dad was a lot of things to me, awesome father, sailing supremo, superstar engineer and most of all a complete petrol head (definitely hereditary). One of my earliest memories is sitting in his Mk3 X-Pack Capri, a car built from scratch that summed him up perfectly but was sold in the early 90's after me and my sister arrived. Sorry about that, dad. We built my first car, Bernard (a 1952 Land Rover) together just before he passed away. It's massively sentimental to me; i love it to bits and cuddle/drive it daily, but i've always wanted that iconic dad-car. I know where the original is, but it means as much to the new owner as it did to him and so will probably never be for sale; but i also know the exact spec and modification list like the back of my hand from pictures and how he used to talk about it. From the brilliant white paint to the filled inner arches, over-bored 3.2 V6 to the single leaf rear springs and bilstein suspension so hard it almost sent my grandad through the roof once. All the parts for a perfect replica are still available, but Capris themselves are soon going to be out of my price-range. I'd love to get started on a new project to build an awesome homage to the greatest bloke i ever knew. My family and everyone we know would love it."
This 1979 3.0 S fit Matt's bill perfectly
"The search started almost as soon as I got off the phone to Garlick. I mean, who waits after being handed a budget and told to find a car? The perfect car had to be an early Mk3 Capri with a 3 Litre Essex. Dad's base was a late 1978 3.0 Ghia, so it made sense to stay close to that if possible.
"I searched the usual places, starting off at PistonHeads, then other classified pages, eBay and eventually Retro Ford. I couldn't believe how scarce these cars have become; it was only a few years a go that friends of mine were buying them for a few hundred quid with easy pickings of any model. Just finding a good one is now a hard task, let alone a good one to fit my criteria.
"In the midst of my largely unsuccessful search, I did stumble upon a very smart looking 1979 3.0 S, which had been off the road a while but looked well kept (supported by an absolute mountain of paperwork) and was booked in for an MOT the next week. Up for £5,500, I figured it was just out of reach and would surely be snapped up by someone pretty quickly.
Fishnet Recaros - yup, we got 'em!
"The car kept following me, slowly appearing in more and more places online before finally appearing on the PH Classifieds for the magical figure of £5,000. I took it as a sign, and had to get in touch."
Buying it
"The buying process was a strange one! For starters, the car was 300 miles away, which made viewing impossible. I had to make sure the car was right from the start so as to make just one trip; luckily for me, fellow Capri addict Dave Gallagher came up trumps and offered to view the car for me.
"After reading the longest, most detailed review of a car I'd ever seen, I knew it was the one; an utterly solid shell, a beautiful engine and almost all the important bits intact.
Classic shape still looks great today
"From start to finish, nearly 70 emails passed between myself and the vendor, Ken. Every question was answered and there were reams of photos. Eventually, some magic happened; he got some pounds, and the car was taken off the market."
Collection drive
"The collection was the most rushed plan in human history. We decided to go for the two-birds-one-stone approach and deliver an engine on the way. From Brighton to London, then on to Southend; load up (yes, you can fit a Rover V8 into the boot of a Peugeot 306 and retain the use of the rear seats); drive to Peterborough, then sleep. A 'spoons breakfast the next day; tax the car; drive to Rotherham and deliver the engine; head to Liverpool, stop for a cuppa at 'Grandad' Stig's, and make it to Liverpool, where the Capri was waiting, for half four.
"If that wasn't enough, Jon had to be at the Hammersmith Apollo by 9pm to see Saxon. So I brimmed the tank and we hit the road to a soundtrack of an Essex V6 singing through Janspeeds. By 8:50pm, the Capri was parked outside the Apollo."
The conversion awaits - onward!
"Next up are a few necessities. I've already had the brakes apart and given them a good clean and bleed. The next job is to replace the mirror, which decided that being in one piece is way too mainstream. After that, it's back into our workshop for a new clutch. I also need to make the radio work, but that's pretty trivial.
"When these jobs are done and I've finished Uni for summer, I'll start collecting parts for the build. The shopping list currently includes X-Pack arches, a whole lot of time with grinders, welders, fiberglass and filler, new suspension, better brakes, wider wheels and a new driver's seat. Cosworth V6s are also looking awfully tempting, but I'll concentrate mostly on the bodywork and suspension first; the Essex is more than enough for now.
"All in all, I'm one very happy, very lucky guy. Can't wait for what's to come!"
Our first place winner John Crook continues his search for the ultimate Integrale, and as he is adding a large chunk of his own money to the pot, he's viewing, driving and researching as many examples as he can before agreeing to buy. We hope to keep you updated as soon as a suitable car has been found.
Thanks again to sponsors Adrian Flux.