So finally we have both our Adrian Flux competition winners with their cars!
John Crook now has the Integrale of his dreams after winning our £10,000 first prize back in April. Runner-up Matt Purdon managed to source a Capri fairly soon after winning, and has been busy creating his perfect car. He’s been to Sunday Services, local Ford meets and all over Britain picking up parts. Here’s the place to catch up.
We'll hear from John soon also, providing he has stopped driving his Delta long enough to actually write something!
Thanks again to Adrian Flux for sponsoring the competition.
Matt writes: When Garlick dropped me a message this week to see how I was getting on, it came as quite a surprise to see that the last update I’d written was four months ago. Four months! With my dear friend Bernard the Land Rover off the road since August, the Capri’s been seeing near-daily use, racking up almost 3,000 miles since purchase and swallowing an awful lot of cash through the carburettor.
More local meets followed a Sunday Service
July saw Tony (Or Essex Tony from Dagenham, to use the Capri's full name) at his first public appearance; the Sunday Service at Vauxhall HQ back in July. If anyone here hasn't been to one of these, they’re highly recommended by me. For what is largely a group of strangers in a car park, the atmosphere is incredible. Everyone’s your mate within minutes and all parties are just there for the pure enjoyment of it – but I guess it takes a special kind of person to leave the house at 6:30am on a Sunday to talk about cars! I’d also like to publically apologise to the Monaro boys who were following me when my satnav decided it wanted to see what was going on back in London.
The rest of the day was spent on motorways, going to Northampton to collect a Ford 'turbo tail' spoiler, then back down the long way around the M25 for Tony try some new boots. Seeds of an alternate path for the Capri’s future had been planted in Luton, but fitting the 9x15 Compomotive split rims definitely sealed it.
I had planned to fit one of the period Ford X-Pack body kits, but for what is already quite a wide car, I couldn’t believe how much extra width the kit would give. In the real world, in my world, the reality of the conversion would completely ruin the car.
A girlfriend that cleans the car? She's a keeper
As it stands, I’ll jump in, fuel up and go anywhere without a second thought – with the body mods, I’d have to walk the route first with a tape measure. Paying several thousands of pounds for the privilege? No thank you. I’d still love to own or build one at some point in my life (or better yet, own my dad’s – come on Stephen, send it my way!)but for now it’s just far too impractical.
Sunday Service also sparked some kind of inner need to get out to as many local meets as possible. A good friend of mine is quite involved in the local scene so served as an easy introduction to a lot of new people. Surprisingly, it really isn’t all bad body kits and baseball caps here in Essex. The monthly meet in Rayleigh brings out a very eclectic mix ranging from an Audi A4 on airbags and Bentley wheels to Cosworth Sierras, wide-body V12 Jaguars, Mk1 Escorts and a mad home-brew P100 pick up with a twin-turbo 24v under its lime-green bonnet.
Nice Granada 2.8, apparently
Surprisingly for me, the Capri is still more than capable of drawing a crowd of all ages among the modern and the mad; testament to what an icon it is, even if one guy did tell me how nice my 2.8 Granada was…
Tony was also introduced to a significant amount of water last month. My town has three routes out, two of which dip under railway bridges and one is at a very low point next to a reservoir. According to the weather, we had six months' rainfall in three hours – both under-the-bridge escape routes had cars in up to their roofs, and I had my surrogate parents’ anniversary/ birthday shindig to get to. Not to worry, it’s just like driving a little Land Rover thought I, chug through a shallow bit and it’ll be fine. Oh how wrong I was.
We're not entirely sure what's going on here!
Climbing out of the driver’s window in a suit to push my car out of a stream is one of the least fun things I’ve ever had to do, especially with several people taking pictures of the whole episode. Luckily, Tone being the trooper he is shrugged off swimming in water that it submerged his stripes, and barked up again quite happily after having a few minutes to dry out, tackling the next bit of water like a champion. Lesson learned; wading is Bernard’s job.
Away from the polish and the drama, I’ve been continually wielding spanners and fresh oil, giving the Capri a full service, tightening up wheel bearings, adjusting brakes and fixing the blow in the exhaust. The engine has unfortunately started to show its age and is using a fair bit of oil. Not ideal, but with my 21st just around the corner I can start hunting for that 2.9 Scorpio to serve as an engine donor.
X-Pack cash now invested elsewhere
The eagle eyed amongst you may also notice the addition of a front splitter in the photos. I always thought the car looked a little high at the front, like it had a cleft lip or something. Luckily for me, a Renault Megane gave up its splitter for five whole pounds, and with a little chopping, drilling and ingenuity the car looks a lot more balanced aesthetically.
This subtle little modification serves as a precursor to what now lies in store for the car. As I touched on earlier, the X-Pack really isn’t for me at this moment in time, however an “OEM+” future is definitely on the cards. Money earmarked for the bodywork has instead been put into coilovers and -2in Leda de-cambered springs, big brakes and 15x8 Revolutions as preparation for his new heart, but you’ll have to wait ‘til the next update to hear about those.