RE: The final Ford Capri: Driven

[Christhepostie]

neutral 3 said:

Chris, do you by any chance recall a plum crazy / red metallic 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T SE 383 Magnum in the Balham area in the late 70s and 80s ?
The car had an Oasis mural on the trunk lid.

Ah, sorry. I was 4 in 1980

[Christhepostie]

cerb4.5lee said:

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!).

To be fair, he probably did you a favour: would you still be around if you'd got your hands on that at 17? I doubt I would be..

[fttm]

Had an Oyster Gold 3.0 ltr Ghia with chocolate trim back in the early 80's , awesome at the time . Was dating some posh totty from The Royal Ballet at the time so social circles were somewhat above my league , comments on the car were as can be expected , wkers lol .

[s m]

spice said:

I bought this mint example last year , great fun

That looks excellent

Great pic

[cayman-black]

spice said:

I bought this mint example last year , great fun

Lovely. i bought a new 2.8i in these colours in 1982 4 speed, yours looks like the 5spd.

[cayman-black]

blade7 said:

Always preferred these to the mk2.

RS dream car back in the day.

[cerb4.5lee]

Christhepostie said:

To be fair, he probably did you a favour: would you still be around if you'd got your hands on that at 17? I doubt I would be..

You make a good point there and I even managed to wrap my first car around a lamppost and that only had 49bhp!

[Jimbop84]

I had 5 Capri's
Mk 2 1.6L white
Mk 2 1.6S red (beautiful car)
Mk 3 2.0 Ghia gold
Mk 3 2.0S silver (lovely)
2.8i with pepper pots (ultimate?)
Great cars but I prefer my Audi S3 now!

[Spitfire2]

Was out with a few other Capri owners yesterday. There's a 280 with about 25000 miles and the one far left is a 280 Turbo. Also a few lovely 3.0S including an X-pack

[Spitfire2]

MuscleSaloon said:

The stock brakes often come up for question but I never found them to be 'that' bad. The Princess caliper upgrade used to be a pretty common thing to do though.

Mustang definitely has a bit of Capri DNA in there - if you love Capris you'll love the Mustang.

I use standard brakes with Mintex M1144 pads. Along with ensuring they are in good condition the braking is fine. More of an issue is the ease with which they lock up in wet.

[s m]

1992 - last 2.8 Capri with Manchester police is retired and its replacement alongside

[Rich Boy Spanner]

It's hard to believe sometimes that Ford, the manufacturer of the Capri and the Sierra Cosworth, even more mundane stuff like the 2.8 Granada was so well regarded, and now... There's been very little since that has ever made me think 'yeah I have to have one of those'.

[soad]

Rich Boy Spanner said:

It's hard to believe sometimes that Ford, the manufacturer of the Capri and the Sierra Cosworth, even more mundane stuff like the 2.8 Granada was so well regarded, and now... There's been very little since that has ever made me think 'yeah I have to have one of those'.

I saw a facelifted Scorpio yesterday, with those funny headlights. Remember them?

[s m]

Rich Boy Spanner said:

It's hard to believe sometimes that Ford, the manufacturer of the Capri and the Sierra Cosworth, even more mundane stuff like the 2.8 Granada was so well regarded, and now... There's been very little since that has ever made me think 'yeah I have to have one of those'.

[Bigdek67]

Sat in a new one of these at the local Ford dealer but ended up buying a nearly new Laser (834 miles) which I still own to this day. Was saving a deposit for a flat and my mates 2.8 was doing its best to bankrupt him so 4 cylinders was the way to go. Would love to have one now.

[spice]

Great history , warranted 52k miles , it’s Crystal blue over Stratos silver , most were Mineral blue , registered 1987 on a D plate so one of the last 2.8i Specials , took me nearly two years to find the right one

[spice]

Put one of the last available Janspeed exhaust kits on including manifolds , sounds sweet, and a full detail.

[aaron_2000]

Mr Tidy said:

aaron_2000 said:

I gave up the chance to swap my Leon for one last year. A 1.6 MK2 with a 3.0 V6 swapped in, dark blue. Absolutely stunning car, but I couldn't be arsed driving 200 miles back in it so I passed it up. Still regret it big time. I remember looking at the 2.8i's a few years ago when they were still pretty cheap, I always said I'd buy one as a first car. Unfortunately I didn't have the £10k needed to buy one by the time I was old enough to drive. Maybe one day.

To be honest I think you might be disappointed - they only had a claimed 160 bhp after all!

I always promised myself a FHC E-Type, but they only just got to 150 mph in a magazine road test by skimming the head and fitting 3 carbs.

Whereas my Z4 Coupe also has a straight 6 petrol engine and RWD, but needs a 155 mph limiter - and cost less than 10% of what a FHC E-Type would be. Could the Jaguar really be that much better?

The 3.0 only had around 130bhp, but it's like James May said "Yeah but haven't you always wanted a Capri?"

[anonymous-user]

spice said:

Great history , warranted 52k miles , it’s Crystal blue over Stratos silver , most were Mineral blue , registered 1987 on a D plate so one of the last 2.8i Specials , took me nearly two years to find the right one

Strike Command?

Grew up just down the road, we used to sneak into the bunker site during the build

Lovely car BTW

[blade7]

aaron_2000 said:

The 3.0 only had around 130bhp, but it's like James May said "Yeah but haven't you always wanted a Capri?"

138 bhp. I modified one to around 180 bhp, and bought the 2.8 that I fitted the TT kit to. Ran them both down a long straight, and the turbo left the tuned 3.0 for dead. I stripped the Essex engine and sold all the bits.