Two Number Mk 3 Ford Capri Ghia’s at Mattersons
Discussion
I decided a few years ago that the classic car scene wasn’t really for me and I would continue with my life long passion for motorcycles.
However, with me deciding to stop riding this year, I will have more time on my hands.
Over the last few days a couple of videos have appeared on YouTube for Capri Ghia’s to be auctioned at Mathewsons this week that really caught my attention. There is something about the Ghia Specification Capri that I always really liked and unfortunately never got to own one.
The cars in question are a Silver 82 X Plate 2.0 Manual and a Gold 79 V Plate 3.0 Auto.
Whilst I’m not a fan of Gold Cars, it looks quite period and whilst far from my first choice of colour would be acceptable. The 3 Speed Auto is however not really my thing, but again would be acceptable. The Silver Car has the smaller engine and I do prefer the colour and manual gear box.
Both seem to have great providence which is very important to me and I’d be happy to own either of these highly appealing cars. Their guide prices are above £15,000 which I’m sure is right for such beauties.
I’ve given it a lot of thought over the past few days and I’m still not quite ready to buy a classic, even though rarities like these are unlikely to appear again.
What the whole thing has done it get me seriously thinking about a Classic Car purchase in the short term.
However, with me deciding to stop riding this year, I will have more time on my hands.
Over the last few days a couple of videos have appeared on YouTube for Capri Ghia’s to be auctioned at Mathewsons this week that really caught my attention. There is something about the Ghia Specification Capri that I always really liked and unfortunately never got to own one.
The cars in question are a Silver 82 X Plate 2.0 Manual and a Gold 79 V Plate 3.0 Auto.
Whilst I’m not a fan of Gold Cars, it looks quite period and whilst far from my first choice of colour would be acceptable. The 3 Speed Auto is however not really my thing, but again would be acceptable. The Silver Car has the smaller engine and I do prefer the colour and manual gear box.
Both seem to have great providence which is very important to me and I’d be happy to own either of these highly appealing cars. Their guide prices are above £15,000 which I’m sure is right for such beauties.
I’ve given it a lot of thought over the past few days and I’m still not quite ready to buy a classic, even though rarities like these are unlikely to appear again.
What the whole thing has done it get me seriously thinking about a Classic Car purchase in the short term.
Edited by Rob 131 Sport on Wednesday 15th March 06:59
Edited by Rob 131 Sport on Wednesday 15th March 09:20
Edited by Rob 131 Sport on Wednesday 15th March 09:21
Found the gold one in the online auction list but took me a while. I wish Mattersons would separate the cars, bikes, automobilia and general landfill into different categories to make searching easier. They probably need to decide whether to focus on pork sausages or classic vehicle auctions tbh. Too much diversification going on 
Anyway it looks great to me (the gold Capri), the extra driving lights would need to go but other than that it’s great, including the colour and even the auto box adds a bit of a different character.
Trouble with classic cars, and especially browsing auction listings is that there’s always a few cars you ‘quite fancy the look of’. Let’s be honest though, classics are a pain in the arse to own so you have to separate the few you really want from all the others you just quite like. Otherwise you could easily end up not gelling with the car and maybe even resenting it.
PS ran out of steam after finding the gold one in the list but silver doesn’t sound as good to me anyway. For some reason I’ve always associated these cars with that lovely period gold colour.
Anyway it looks great to me (the gold Capri), the extra driving lights would need to go but other than that it’s great, including the colour and even the auto box adds a bit of a different character.
Trouble with classic cars, and especially browsing auction listings is that there’s always a few cars you ‘quite fancy the look of’. Let’s be honest though, classics are a pain in the arse to own so you have to separate the few you really want from all the others you just quite like. Otherwise you could easily end up not gelling with the car and maybe even resenting it.
PS ran out of steam after finding the gold one in the list but silver doesn’t sound as good to me anyway. For some reason I’ve always associated these cars with that lovely period gold colour.
I had a 3L Capri Ghia back in the day, think I got around £1300 for it when I got rid and I thought I'd done well...Rob 131 Sport said:
I decided a few years ago that the classic car scene wasn’t really for me and I would continue with my life long passion for motorcycles.
However, with me deciding to stop riding this year, I will have more time on my hands.
Over the last few days a couple of videos have appeared on YouTube for Capri Ghia’s to be auctioned at Mathewsons this week that really caught my attention. There is something about the Ghia Specification Capri that I always really liked and unfortunately never got to own one.
The cars in question are a Silver 82 X Plate 2.0 Manual and a Gold 79 V Plate 3.0 Auto.
Whilst I’m not a fan of Gold Cars, it looks quite period and whilst far from my first choice of colour would be acceptable. The 3 Speed Auto is however not really my thing, but again would be acceptable. The Silver Car has the smaller engine and I do prefer the colour and manual gear box.
Both seem to have great providence which is very important to me and I’d be happy to own either of these highly appealing cars. Their guide prices are above £15,000 which I’m sure is right for such beauties.
Gold one for me as it's a 3.0L. I wouldn't give garage space to any non-V6 Capri.However, with me deciding to stop riding this year, I will have more time on my hands.
Over the last few days a couple of videos have appeared on YouTube for Capri Ghia’s to be auctioned at Mathewsons this week that really caught my attention. There is something about the Ghia Specification Capri that I always really liked and unfortunately never got to own one.
The cars in question are a Silver 82 X Plate 2.0 Manual and a Gold 79 V Plate 3.0 Auto.
Whilst I’m not a fan of Gold Cars, it looks quite period and whilst far from my first choice of colour would be acceptable. The 3 Speed Auto is however not really my thing, but again would be acceptable. The Silver Car has the smaller engine and I do prefer the colour and manual gear box.
Both seem to have great providence which is very important to me and I’d be happy to own either of these highly appealing cars. Their guide prices are above £15,000 which I’m sure is right for such beauties.
By the end of the 3.0L era, you had to buy a 3.0S to get a manual box, the Ghia was auto only. These days that would be OK for me, as a left shoulder injury means driving a manual is only OK if its LHD!
The Oyster Gold is a great colour. Only issue with this 3.0L Ghia, is as said above the extra lights, which would need to go, and the issues with the saggy seat material.
The silver 2.0 Ghia has a better condition interior, other than that ghastly passenger grab handle that's been fixed to the dash, and thus ruined the dash with a couple of big holes, if removed!!......plus its newer, but its just a 2.0L, and I'd also be slightly concerned that it doesn't have a current V5 as well, and how old the 'old' V5 is that comes with it. Likely its been punted around a few traders perhaps since its last 'real' owner?
Edited by aeropilot on Wednesday 15th March 11:28
aeropilot said:
Rob 131 Sport said:
I decided a few years ago that the classic car scene wasn’t really for me and I would continue with my life long passion for motorcycles.
However, with me deciding to stop riding this year, I will have more time on my hands.
Over the last few days a couple of videos have appeared on YouTube for Capri Ghia’s to be auctioned at Mathewsons this week that really caught my attention. There is something about the Ghia Specification Capri that I always really liked and unfortunately never got to own one.
The cars in question are a Silver 82 X Plate 2.0 Manual and a Gold 79 V Plate 3.0 Auto.
Whilst I’m not a fan of Gold Cars, it looks quite period and whilst far from my first choice of colour would be acceptable. The 3 Speed Auto is however not really my thing, but again would be acceptable. The Silver Car has the smaller engine and I do prefer the colour and manual gear box.
Both seem to have great providence which is very important to me and I’d be happy to own either of these highly appealing cars. Their guide prices are above £15,000 which I’m sure is right for such beauties.
Gold one for me as it's a 3.0L. I wouldn't give garage space to any non-V6 Capri.However, with me deciding to stop riding this year, I will have more time on my hands.
Over the last few days a couple of videos have appeared on YouTube for Capri Ghia’s to be auctioned at Mathewsons this week that really caught my attention. There is something about the Ghia Specification Capri that I always really liked and unfortunately never got to own one.
The cars in question are a Silver 82 X Plate 2.0 Manual and a Gold 79 V Plate 3.0 Auto.
Whilst I’m not a fan of Gold Cars, it looks quite period and whilst far from my first choice of colour would be acceptable. The 3 Speed Auto is however not really my thing, but again would be acceptable. The Silver Car has the smaller engine and I do prefer the colour and manual gear box.
Both seem to have great providence which is very important to me and I’d be happy to own either of these highly appealing cars. Their guide prices are above £15,000 which I’m sure is right for such beauties.
By the end of the 3.0L era, you had to buy a 3.0S to get a manual box, the Ghia was auto only.
Edited by aeropilot on Wednesday 15th March 11:28
I could live with the Auto and the Gold, not that I’ll be bidding on either.
Rob 131 Sport said:
aeropilot said:
Rob 131 Sport said:
I decided a few years ago that the classic car scene wasn’t really for me and I would continue with my life long passion for motorcycles.
However, with me deciding to stop riding this year, I will have more time on my hands.
Over the last few days a couple of videos have appeared on YouTube for Capri Ghia’s to be auctioned at Mathewsons this week that really caught my attention. There is something about the Ghia Specification Capri that I always really liked and unfortunately never got to own one.
The cars in question are a Silver 82 X Plate 2.0 Manual and a Gold 79 V Plate 3.0 Auto.
Whilst I’m not a fan of Gold Cars, it looks quite period and whilst far from my first choice of colour would be acceptable. The 3 Speed Auto is however not really my thing, but again would be acceptable. The Silver Car has the smaller engine and I do prefer the colour and manual gear box.
Both seem to have great providence which is very important to me and I’d be happy to own either of these highly appealing cars. Their guide prices are above £15,000 which I’m sure is right for such beauties.
Gold one for me as it's a 3.0L. I wouldn't give garage space to any non-V6 Capri.However, with me deciding to stop riding this year, I will have more time on my hands.
Over the last few days a couple of videos have appeared on YouTube for Capri Ghia’s to be auctioned at Mathewsons this week that really caught my attention. There is something about the Ghia Specification Capri that I always really liked and unfortunately never got to own one.
The cars in question are a Silver 82 X Plate 2.0 Manual and a Gold 79 V Plate 3.0 Auto.
Whilst I’m not a fan of Gold Cars, it looks quite period and whilst far from my first choice of colour would be acceptable. The 3 Speed Auto is however not really my thing, but again would be acceptable. The Silver Car has the smaller engine and I do prefer the colour and manual gear box.
Both seem to have great providence which is very important to me and I’d be happy to own either of these highly appealing cars. Their guide prices are above £15,000 which I’m sure is right for such beauties.
By the end of the 3.0L era, you had to buy a 3.0S to get a manual box, the Ghia was auto only.
Edited by aeropilot on Wednesday 15th March 11:28
I know manual was a no-cost option on the 3.0 Ghia for the Mk.2 as a mate of mine had a P-reg one in around 1982-ish.....Arizona Gold with a brown vinyl roof.....was a really nice car. I remember him saying that it was a rare find back then, almost all were auto's.
I just had a vague recollection that by the end of the 3.0 era Ford had dropped the manual option for the Ghia as so few ordered a manual Ghia, as they bought the S instead...?
It certainly was possible to have a Mk3 3.0 Ghia manual, a chap I know had a very nice V plate (so '79 / '80) example.
He bought it from his uncle who'd owned it from new so it was definitely a genuine factory job, it had never been converted from auto or mucked about with in any way.
He bought it from his uncle who'd owned it from new so it was definitely a genuine factory job, it had never been converted from auto or mucked about with in any way.
Nothing wrong with a gold Mk3 which particularly suits the Ghia I think, I had an Oyster Gold 3.0S and a Solar Gold 2.0S (pic 1986), preferred Solar which I think this Ghia is. Still have the 3.0S (sort of).
Looks like it's had strut tops done and a quick blow over in places, would be having a good look underneath.
Looks like it's had strut tops done and a quick blow over in places, would be having a good look underneath.
I've seen several Mk3 (Mk2 facelift if you go by Ford's Series X literature description, but we all know what we mean !, 1978 onwards) Capri Ghia's with the automatic delete option.
One was a well known green Ghia in Essex that had every Series X option fitted including the flared wheel arches. The door moldings were removed so it looked right. I can't remember if it retained the original Ghia seats. Basing a X Pack Capri on a manual Ghia rather than a 3.0S meant you got all the extra sound deadening & padded door trims etc. The then owner used to show the car with a copy of the original bill of sale, needless to say a very expensive Capri !
The S door trims were quite plain. Ford sensibly based the 2.8 Injection interior on the Ghia model, with new colours and Recaro seats.
The Police used to be able to order 'sun roof delete' on the 2.8i .
There are always some unusual cars out there !
One was a well known green Ghia in Essex that had every Series X option fitted including the flared wheel arches. The door moldings were removed so it looked right. I can't remember if it retained the original Ghia seats. Basing a X Pack Capri on a manual Ghia rather than a 3.0S meant you got all the extra sound deadening & padded door trims etc. The then owner used to show the car with a copy of the original bill of sale, needless to say a very expensive Capri !
The S door trims were quite plain. Ford sensibly based the 2.8 Injection interior on the Ghia model, with new colours and Recaro seats.
The Police used to be able to order 'sun roof delete' on the 2.8i .
There are always some unusual cars out there !
I had a couple of 2.8i Capris back in the 80s and wouldn't consider a 2 litre one. I had a couple of Pintos in a MK2 Escort RS2000 and a MK2 Granada and it was a pretty agricultural lump!
If I was buying a 3 litre I'd definitely want an S or a manual Ghia but I'd still prefer a 2.8i for a bit more grunt, fuel injection and electronic ignition.
Mine were both 4 speeds which were reportedly slightly quicker than the 5 speeds and if prices weren't so mad I'd happily have another, or a Special for the LSD. Haven't mentioned Brooklands as their prices are on different level!
Anyway I can't see what the 5 speed really added to the mix apart from more relaxed Motorway cruising as the first 4 gears were pretty much the same as the 4 speed, and my 4 speeds didn't have a problem cruising at 85/90mph back when that was possible.
I think some Capris have been fitted with the 24V Cosworth engine from the MK3 Granada and whatever the purists say I'd love one of those.
If I was buying a 3 litre I'd definitely want an S or a manual Ghia but I'd still prefer a 2.8i for a bit more grunt, fuel injection and electronic ignition.
Mine were both 4 speeds which were reportedly slightly quicker than the 5 speeds and if prices weren't so mad I'd happily have another, or a Special for the LSD. Haven't mentioned Brooklands as their prices are on different level!
Anyway I can't see what the 5 speed really added to the mix apart from more relaxed Motorway cruising as the first 4 gears were pretty much the same as the 4 speed, and my 4 speeds didn't have a problem cruising at 85/90mph back when that was possible.
I think some Capris have been fitted with the 24V Cosworth engine from the MK3 Granada and whatever the purists say I'd love one of those.
Mr Tidy said:
I had a couple of 2.8i Capris back in the 80s and wouldn't consider a 2 litre one. I had a couple of Pintos in a MK2 Escort RS2000 and a MK2 Granada and it was a pretty agricultural lump!
If I was buying a 3 litre I'd definitely want an S or a manual Ghia but I'd still prefer a 2.8i for a bit more grunt, fuel injection and electronic ignition.
Mine were both 4 speeds which were reportedly slightly quicker than the 5 speeds and if prices weren't so mad I'd happily have another, or a Special for the LSD. Haven't mentioned Brooklands as their prices are on different level!
Anyway I can't see what the 5 speed really added to the mix apart from more relaxed Motorway cruising as the first 4 gears were pretty much the same as the 4 speed, and my 4 speeds didn't have a problem cruising at 85/90mph back when that was possible.
I think some Capris have been fitted with the 24V Cosworth engine from the MK3 Granada and whatever the purists say I'd love one of those.
I’m still at the ‘Classic Car Consideration Stage’ and if I do take the plunge it will be the Autumn. These 2 Ghia’s appealed because of their providence which is so important to me. If I was buying a 3 litre I'd definitely want an S or a manual Ghia but I'd still prefer a 2.8i for a bit more grunt, fuel injection and electronic ignition.
Mine were both 4 speeds which were reportedly slightly quicker than the 5 speeds and if prices weren't so mad I'd happily have another, or a Special for the LSD. Haven't mentioned Brooklands as their prices are on different level!
Anyway I can't see what the 5 speed really added to the mix apart from more relaxed Motorway cruising as the first 4 gears were pretty much the same as the 4 speed, and my 4 speeds didn't have a problem cruising at 85/90mph back when that was possible.
I think some Capris have been fitted with the 24V Cosworth engine from the MK3 Granada and whatever the purists say I'd love one of those.
I can see them making significantly more than their Guide Prices.
Rob 131 Sport said:
I’m still at the ‘Classic Car Consideration Stage’ and if I do take the plunge it will be the Autumn. These 2 Ghia’s appealed because of their providence which is so important to me.
I can see them making significantly more than their Guide Prices.
So thinking about dipping a toe in the water. Which is definitely a better idea than just jumping right in!I can see them making significantly more than their Guide Prices.
History is priceless, and everything seems to make silly money these days.
Good luck if/when you take the plunge.
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