In the years we’ve been featuring our weekly Prime Finds – classics that we find for sale while indulging in that favourite classic car enthusiast’s pastime, scouring the internet looking at cars we either intend to buy, would like to buy, or just like the idea of buying, but with one thing and another, never get round to – we have somehow managed never to feature one of the bedrocks of the classic car scene, the Ford Capri. We’ve written about them, photographed them, even considered buying one (briefly) but never had one as our Prime Find.
Well, this week, we have, and it’s in my favourite colour, so that’s another reason – if one were needed – to feature a Ford Capri, and our Prime Find for this week is a vivid yellow 1600GT Mk1.
When it was launched back in early 1969 at the Brussels Motor Show (although production began in late ’68), the Capri was Ford of Europe’s version of the pony car, a market sector created by its US parent when it launched the Mustang five years earlier. While the Mustang would have been too large for the average European, the Capri followed the pony’s template, with its long bonnet, short tail and fastback styling. it was very much aimed at the young, or at least young-at-heart, motorist – Ford originally marketed the Capri “the car you always promised yourself”. It was sold as more than a car; it represented an aspirational lifestyle – sporty, chic and stylish yet practical, with room for four – a family -friendly fastback, especially if you had young children.
Originally intended to be called the Colt (pony car – geddit?), this had to be dropped due to Mitsubishi claiming ownership of that name, Ford delved into their own recent past and resurrected the Capri name, used as recently as the early 1960’s on their Consul Coupé, and one associated with Mediterranean European glamour, something the American advertising fixated on. It also linked very nicely to the car that it was based on, the Cortina, establishing a trend for Ford to use Mediterranean names for their next generation of cars.
Alternatives at the time were not so many – the most obvious competitor was GM Germany’s Opel Manta A (which, to be honest, I prefer), the Rootes Group’s Sunbeam Rapier, Toyota’s Celica, the Renault 15/17 and FIAT’s lovely 124 Coupé, while later, the likes of the VW Scirocco and Vauxhall Cavalier Coupé provided other options, but these came after the Mk1.
A Capri, or one of these?
Like it’s American cousin, it was a roaring success, although not quite on the same scale; nevertheless, over an 18-year period and three different series, 1.9 million Capris were sold, some half-a-million of them in North America.
The evolution and variety of engines and trim levels was too great to go into in detail here but suffice to say there was probably a Capri for every pocket and taste, with trim levels similar to the Cortina and Taunus, with base cars, L, GL and GLX initially, and later, GT and RS versions.
Mechanically the Capri was effectively a MkII Cortina, but visually, it was far removed from that fairly plain three-box saloon. Manufacturing took place at factories in Halewood, England, Genk in Belgium and Saarlouis and Cologne in Germany, making the Capri a proper European car. This was expanded into World Car territory with manufacturing in Australia and South Africa, and in 1970 sales also began in Japan and the US, where it was sold as a Mercury rather than a Ford, and marketed as “the sexy European” (because Americans weren’t sexy, and all Europeans are, obviously…).
To appeal to as broad a market as possible, the Capri was offered with a wide variety of engines from the Cortina in the UK, and the Taunus in Europe, and then with engines from the Pinto in the US. Engine capacity initially ranged from a 52bhp 1300cc to a 2-litre producing 93bhp. Within a short while, this range was expanded to include a 125bhp, 2300GT in Germany and a still more powerful 3-litre V6’s with 138bhp on tap in the UK, while buyers in South Africa were even offered a 5-litre V8 in the form of the “Perana” (though this didn’t come from Ford, but Basil Green Motors near Johannesburg.
A base 1300 cost less than £900 in the UK, with the 2000GT XLR coming in at £1310, making the Capri a very attainable purchase, and 400,000 were sold in the first two years of production, a tremendous figure.
The motoring press were impressed by the Capri – Autocar praised its “quietness, stability and controllability and… the precision and lightness of the steering and gearchange”, although it deemed rear legroom to be a little tight for a claimed four-seater. It was also clear that the chassis could handle the more powerful engines, and high-performance versions of the 2.6. 3.0 and 3.1-litre V6’s were all added to the range in short order. Indeed, Ford campaigned the RS2600 Capri on racetracks around Europe in the European Touring Car Championship, driven by Dieter Glemser and Jochen Mass, each of whom won the ETC Drivers’ Championship in 1971 and ’72 respectively. In 1973, the RS3100 was Ford’s weapon of choice in the legendary duels with BMW’s E9 and all of this motorsport success did no harm to the Capri’s image.
The Mk1 Capri was by far the most successful version of the series, with 1.16m sold across its five-year production run – in fact, twice as many Mk1’s were sold in five years than all the MkII and MkIII’s managed in twelve years – combined. It remains a fairly regular sight at classic shows and events, although in common with many cars that used to be on our roads in tens and hundreds of thousands, only a few hundred remain – in the UK, there are just under 400 of all varieties, with another 295 SORN. Indeed, their numbers have been rising gradually, almost certainly a function of their increasing values, particularly at the higher end – the 2.8i, 3.0S, and RS versions in particular.
Our Prime Find is one of the 47 1600GT’s still on our roads and it looks like a very good example indeed, based on the dealer’s photos and information, although as always, we recommend you try – or at least inspect – before you buy, if you’re interested in this particular car.
This very smart-looking Capri was registered in 1971 and has just 68,625 miles under its Rostyle wheels, a number backed up by both its service history and previous MOT’s dating back to 1989, and although it no longer requires the latter, it nevertheless comes with one that is valid until next year. The service history dates back as far as the mid-1970’s, so is almost complete from new.
It did spend a few years in storage and in recent years has had a fair amount of work done to it to put it back on the road in its current condition. Besides a new clutch, five tyres, a new battery, brake work and a full service, the car has had a complete respray, though it’s not stated whether this was a bare metal job. The interior is said to be in good order, with no cracks in the dash. It’s also claimed that the car starts and drives well and the four-speed manual gearbox is easy to use.
Like most sub 2-itre Capri’s, the 1600GT wasn’t a particularly sparkling performer, although “our” car, being a 1971 model, had been given a modest power boost over the original model – it’s in-line four cylinder puts out 86bhp, propelling the car to a top speed of 160km/h or 99mph, and 0-100 km/h could take up to 13.4 seconds, but so what? In this eye-catching colour scheme, you’ll look good at any speed.
Per our usual practice, we have borrowed a few photographs from the dealer’s website, and you can see the complete advert here. As Capri’s go, it’s not cheap, but nor is it particularly expensive, coming in well under our self-imposed budget ceiling at a pint of beer under £18,000 – if a practical 1970’s sporty (without being sporting) classic is your thing, this might just be the ticket.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us be inspired by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk