RE: The final Ford Capri: Driven

[av185]

Had a few Capri 3.0 S then a blue siver then white then grey 2.8 Injection.

Then late 1987 ordered one of the last 280 Brooklands from Quicks Ford Bury £11k with discount.

Think the reg was E80 ONA or similar.

Often wonder where it is now.

[warch]

Actually the Yanks couldn't hold a candle to Australia, which made the coolest cars during this era. Like the Falcon XB...

[swisstoni]

I had a nearly new 2.8i for several years after lusting after Capris for a while. It was a really nice car and I only jumped ship for a TVR.

Re. the Mustang, the only thing you’d have wanted out of it at the time was the 5.0.
They looked like this;

[languagetimothy]

My first car was a mk11 1300 cortina that was more than a bit tatty. My next car, just about three years old, a mk3 2.0 Ghia Capri, metallic silver. Loved it and kept it for a few years, and my then GF took ownership when I moved up to a 944.

[cerb4.5lee]

Christhepostie said:

cerb4.5lee said:

That is exactly what my Dad did! He test drove a 3.0s Capri but ended up buying a 1979 Mustang 5 Litre V8 Cobra instead. He had it for 10 years from me being 7 to 17...fantastic memories of that car for sure and the noise/exclusivity were off the scale.

He also had a couple of Capri's too...a Gold 2.0GL and a Blue GXL(or similar I can't remember as I was only a baby!).

He got rid of it as you turned 17? Was he telling you something? I'd still be fuming..

I was absolutely gutted to be fair and it did feel pretty unjust!!

As you can imagine I loved the car so much and the car played a big part with me growing up.

Couple of poor pics(ignore my sis!).

[MalcolmSmith]

By the time I could drive these were deeply uncool and worth nothing. Never been impressed by these.

My cousin had a late one as a company car, Bodie and Doyle 2.0S. Hated it, she swapped it for a Scirocco, which was very unreliable, and was sent back for a Golf GTI mk1.

[themule]

My best friend at school got a gold coloured Capri AND driving lessons for his 17th birthday. He enventually wrote it off when loosing the back end turning into the main university gate (trying to impress girls) and hitting the gate post full on. The car had a v shaped bonnet and wrecked engine. The gate post was thankfully unharmed.

[J4CKO]

832ark said:

Surely if you want a nice 80s coupe you get a 635 CSi?

No, if you want a 635 CSi, you buy one of those, if you want a Capri, you buy a Capri.

These purchases arent always on the relative merits of the cars, it is mainly nostalgia and what got under your skin when you were younger, a 635i CSi was probably three times the price of a Capri in the eighties so there are many more folk with a Capri yearning than a 635 CSi one.

Back then Capris were everywhere, my dad had a 1969 1600 GT XLR until 1989, which is when I got it as a first car, next door had a few MK3's, usually special editions which were usually a 1600 L with some stripes, six series BMW's were pretty thin on the ground unless you lived somewhere quite upmarket, seriously upmarket car where the Capri was all over the place.

I had a MK3 1.6 LS later, nice interior but slow, then I got a 1.6 Laser which was also slow, but having had a MK1 Golf GTI for a while before I couldn't cope with how gutless 73 bhp felt so that lasted about a month.

[wab172uk]

Have a soft spot for Capri's. My childhood was growing up with my dad owning Capris.

Some came and went, but I always remember his white (with black roof) 3.0S. `RPT 370V.` He owned that for a good few years. It got stolen, so he bought a 2.8 Special. Had that about a month when that got nicked to. He got fed up and bought the all new Sierra 1.6GL instead. Worst car he ever bought, and incredibly never got stolen, no matter how much I wished it did.

Shame Ford can't bring the Capri back. Every concept they've shown was always based on the Mondeo, which was always too big. Yes the had the Probe, but awful design and rubbish engines put paid to that.

Get a Mustang? No thanks. Far to big and not very sporty.

[motco]

av185 said:

Had a few Capri 3.0 S then a blue siver then white then grey 2.8 Injection.

Then late 1987 ordered one of the last 280 Brooklands from Quicks Ford Bury £11k with discount.

Think the reg was E80 ONA or similar.

Often wonder where it is now.

ONA was a brand of condom (or dooby as they were known in the sixties) with similar brand awareness to Durex at the time. As a teenager in the 1960s there were only the two makes available...

[Helicopter123]

832ark said:

Surely if you want a nice 80s coupe you get a 635 CSi?

Of course you do.

But if you wan't a Capri, I guess you have to have a Capri.

[Sheepshanks]

foliedouce said:

I bought a 1.6 LS in light blue with my student loan in 1992 (sensible!) - underpowered but still miss that machine.

Had my best mate help me to add a boot spoiler, as you do. Learnt to do doughnuts in it and ultimately crashed it into a ditch on a sharp bed

The sharp bend bit I can understand - I had one of the first mk2 2.0S and its understeer was horrendous, almost undriveable in the wet on the Michelin ZX tyres of the day. I don’t recall ever losing the backend though - doing doughnuts in a 1.6 must have taken some effort!


I think it’s hard for today’s ‘youngsters’ to realise just how cool these cars were in the day - the girlfriend I had at the time hated it because of all the attention it got.

[blade7]

av185 said:

Had a few Capri 3.0 S then a blue siver then white then grey 2.8 Injection.

I had a few V6 Capris too. The 2.8 Injection that I fitted a Turbo Technics set up to matched the new Sierra Cosworth up to 140. And the engine had much less lag under 3k revs.

[Johnny5hoods]

Ford should recognise the demand for quality RWD coupes, and bring back the Capri. The BMW 3 series Coupe seems to have done rather well. Nowadays we've got the 2/4/6 series coupes, a coupe version of the Merc C Class and the 4WD Audi TT, blatantly all profitable ventures for their manufacturers. Plus, a (quality) RWD coupe would strengthen Ford's brand image. Just don't give us another FWD wannabe!

Why did the 2.8i get a bad rep as a sad 70's throwback, a medallion man's car? Because Ford refused to develop it. They appear to have convinced themselves they'd be scoring an own goal having two cars doing a similar thing - 2.8i, and 3dr XR4i. But the Sierra wasn't as pretty nor as low slung.

During the 70's, the Capri dominated the market for 4 seater(ish) "affordable" sporty cars. Then, in the 80's the hot hatch stole that sector of the market.

So let me pose a question. Did the Capri die out because people really wanted hot hatches instead, or did it die out because Ford, essentially, left it largely unchanged all the way from 1974 to 1987???

[Nabbott]

Thought these to be naff as feck at the end of their production (could never quite rid myself of the mental image of a chest wig & medallion..... bag of cement in the boot, as far back as it go, in an effort to try and make it ‘handle’) - I think time has been incredibly kind to Capris, can’t help but appreciate the shape on the very rare occasion you get to see one.

I’m happy that there are committed fans out there driving and restoring them, even if I’m not one of them.

[Helicopter123]

Johnny5hoods said:

Ford should recognise the demand for quality RWD coupes, and bring back the Capri. The BMW 3 series Coupe seems to have done rather well. Nowadays we've got the 2/4/6 series coupes, a coupe version of the Merc C Class and the 4WD Audi TT, blatantly all profitable ventures for their manufacturers. Plus, a (quality) RWD coupe would strengthen Ford's brand image. Just don't give us another FWD wannabe!

Why did the 2.8i get a bad rep as a sad 70's throwback, a medallion man's car? Because Ford refused to develop it. They appear to have convinced themselves they'd be scoring an own goal having two cars doing a similar thing - 2.8i, and 3dr XR4i. But the Sierra wasn't as pretty nor as low slung.

During the 70's, the Capri dominated the market for 4 seater(ish) "affordable" sporty cars. Then, in the 80's the hot hatch stole that sector of the market.

So let me pose a question. Did the Capri die out because people really wanted hot hatches instead, or did it die out because Ford, essentially, left it largely unchanged all the way from 1974 to 1987???

Didn't Ford replace the Capri with the Probe though and then later, the Cougar?

Just no demand although will be interesting to see how the Mustang goes.

Cars like the Toyota GT86/Subaru BRZ show how small the market is for a cheap Coupe.

[Number_Six]

My old one, NEM747S. 24v Cosworth, Sierra gearbox, Hi Spec Performance brakes and Pro Alloy fuel tank as all the secondhand ones kept leaking. Apparently off the road at the moment, anyone know if it's being restored or just rotting away?

[ZX10R NIN]

I had a 2.8i (it had been stroked out to 3.1 before I bought it) for 3 months while my Cosworth was having a lot of upgrades added I genuinely enjoyed driving it as it was just a fun car nice torque very predictable handling wise, it didn't compare to the cossie but it had it's character.

[Klippie]

Some time back in the 80's our local used car dealer took me for a spin in a 2.8 Injection Special...it was an instant want moment, I could afford to buy one but I balked after getting an insurance quote.

I've always regretted not having one...I loved the look of them in red.

[blade7]

ZX10R NIN said:

I had a 2.8i (it had been stroked out to 3.1 before I bought it) for 3 months while my Cosworth was having a lot of upgrades added I genuinely enjoyed driving it as it was just a fun car nice torque very predictable handling wise, it didn't compare to the cossie but it had it's character.

My 2.8 Injection turbo Capri running 10lb boost, with a slipper, a lot of uprated RS Escort suspension and 15" wheels with P7 tyres was comparable to a standard Cosworth, up until the 2.8 ran out of revs in top gear. The Capri cost the same to insure in 1990 too.

Edited by blade7 on Sunday 5th May 12:24