1964 Ford Capri for a Life-Changing $10,000!

In The Lotus Eater by Somerset Maugham, a banker chooses bohemian existence on the Isle of Capri over his job. Today, Nice Price or Crack Pipe has a Capri that may bewitch you too — if you've got the bank. More »

Can A Capri Beat A Big Ol' Squealin' Benz At The 24 Hours Of Spa 1971?

Short answer, yes. But still, AMG's böred-und-schtroked "Red Pig" 280SEL came in second place… and first in our hearts! More »

Because You Don't Spend Enough Time Online: Official 24 Hours Of LeMons Forums Have Arrived!

Want to get the latest updates on the Team Dungeons & Dragsters Capri? Looking to join a LeMons team with last-minute personnel shortages? The official 24 Hours Of LeMons Forums have finally gone live! More »

Engine Of The Day: Ford OHC

Ford called the the EAO, or sometimes the OHC… but the rest of us- at least, those of us in North America- know this little workhorse as "The Pinto Engine." More »

Hang-Gliding German Swingers Prefer The Ford Capri!

When you're jumping off a cliff while strapped in your German-flag-colored hang glider and clad in the finest of polyester duds, you don't want your special lady to pick you up in some jive-ass tape-striped Opel. You want her to roar down the mountain in a high-performance Ford Capri! Thanks once again to Franzouse for the tip.

1976 Capri II Wants You To Know It's Not A Mercury, Even As It Awaits Crushing

While Lincoln-Mercury dealers sold the European-made Ford Capri in North America, the cars themselves had no marque. Just to make things more confusing, Ford branded the later Fox Mustang-clone and Mazda 323-based Capris with Mercury emblems. Anyway, none of that matters for this car, which I spotted in an East Bay wrecking yard last weekend, because it has a date with the cold jaws that will get it ready for another spin of the steel-reincarnation wheel. More »

Innovative Swede Builds Tuff Willys Caprichero!

JanTheMan has found this 1980 Ford Capri that's been upgraded to full-on "Tuff Willys" status. We especially like the beautifully crafted custom fender flares, and the cowcatcher in front is a definite keeper. Stock up a few cases of akvavit to keep in the bed and you'll be ready to hoon your way through that long Scandinavian winter in style. If you don't speak Swedish, you can try the Google Language Tools version, which seems to indicate that a "well known rally driver" was involved in the construction of this fine customized motor vehicle. [Blocket.se]

Drive Phoenix To LA Very Slowly In a 1974 Mercury, Get Crap Mileage!

How is it possible that a car weighing just over 2,200 pounds and equipped with a 2-liter engine can drive from Phoenix to Los Angeles at the maddeningly geriatric speed of 50 miles per hour and manage only a pathetic 32.4 miles per gallon? Yes, that's the best the '74 Capri could do! We're thinking it was the weight of several tons of Malaise pushing down hard on the car during the trip (not to mention the restrictive first-gen catalytic converters and miserable engine compression ratios of the era). The six-cylinder Comet made the same trip and grunted out an Saudi-oil-baron-pleasing 26.6 MPG, so we shudder to imagine the sort of single-digit mileage a 460-equipped Country Squire would have achieved.

Berwyn Car Spindle Up For Sale!

We were all quite sad when we learned that the Cermak Plaza Shopping Center overlords had decided to remove the legendary Berwyn Car Spindle from their property. But now the Berwyn Spindle may be relocated... to your front yard! Yes, it's up for sale on eBay, with a starting bid of $50,000 (and a shipping cost of double that, so you'll probably elect to go pick it up yourself. Make the jump for some video of the Spindle. [eBay] More »

Ideal Jalopnik Official Staff Car Located

The Gawker Overlords have so far refused to buy us an Official Jalopnik Vehicle, no matter how much we've tried to convince them that something like a Citröen SM or Tatra 603 would give us such unassailable credibility that our competitors would simply fold their tents and go home. Now we've found what may be the perfect car for the NorCal Jalopnik office (which, conveniently enough, has just one employee): More »

What To Drive In '75: Manta or Capri?

In our last What To Drive In '75 episode, we saw the 1975 Ford Maverick Grabber beat the 1975 Oleg Cassini AMC Matador in the poll. Today we're going for an all-import matchup, though it's a classic GM-versus-Ford contest as well. The Opel Manta and Ford Capri were bitter sales rivals across the Atlantic, and both had sufficient sales in North America that they were not unfamiliar on our shores. So imagine it's 1975 and you need to buy a shiny new fuel-efficient-yet-sporty machine to drive a long distance to the Led Zep show (hey, it's the Physical Graffiti tour- you need the right ride if you want to groove properly on that 3-hour version of "Kashmir" later on!) So, what's it gonna be? More »

Project Car Hell: Firebird or Capri?

We had another close one yesterday, with the '41 Ford eking out a narrow victory over the '51 Merc in the Woodless Woody competition. Since everyone is probably too busy trying to use waterlogged particleboard to "restore" their Woodies, we should probably show some mercy and give you a couple of easy cars to choose from today. However, Hell doesn't work that way. Hell is when you're in over your head on an impossible project and you immediately go out and get another one! So today we're going with a couple of Early Malaise Era classics that need just a bit of TLC... More »

1972 Capri, with Bonus DOTS Format Poll

OK, Capri experts, feel free to bring up the debate about whether the Ford Capri as sold in the USA was really a Mercury or not; it was sold through Mercury dealers, but had no Mercury identifiers on the car. Also feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about the year of this one; I'm pretty sure the '73 had smaller side "vents" and the '71 had a smaller front bumper (and no available V6), but I admit I'm no Capri expert. More »

Ease On Down The Road In An '80 Mercury Capri!

We can look at the 1980 Capri in two different ways. Was it yet another underpowered fake-sporty Detroit rattletrap, or the raw material for countless Fox Ford freaks who would stuff all manner of insane engines into its lightweight chassis? The Fox is the gearhead's friend, so we can't look at this car the way we'd look at, say, a Lynx or Monarch. In any case, this ad scores very high on the Malaise Era Cheepnis-O-Meter.

Monterey Historics IMSA Racing Action Gallery

There is a rawness to vintage race cars sorely missing from their more modern counterparts. The IMSA cars that closed the 2007 Monterey Historics at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca sent this point home in ten laps. Turbocharged and naturally aspirated Porsches tossed it up with V8 Corvettes and Monzas. A BMW, Ferrari, and a Ford were on track for race fan sonic amusement. Chad Raynal of San Jose took the checkered flag in his 1975 DeKon Monza. The symphony of forced-induction compression theatrics and atmospheric RPM was a winning combination for all. Our personal favorite was the lone 1974 Ford Capri RS3100 piloted by John "Ten-Tenths" Norman, who took tenth place.

Happiness is a Hot Monza

In our estimation, the two finest cards of the day at the Monterey Historics fell on Sunday — the resurrection of the Canadian-American Challenge Cup and the retro IMSA class (aka Group 7b in Historics parlance) are the two wish-we'd-been-there, can't-miss events of the weekend. And since commenter jrhmobile requested pics of the DeKon Monzas, we're happy to oblige him, especially considering this particular car, driven by Chad Raynal of San Jose, decimated a field consisting of insanely-turbocharged Porsche 935s, a few RSRs and even a wound-out Ford Capri, whose driver John Norman was one of the ballsiest, hooniest men of the weekend. The three DeKons in the contest all ended up in the top ten, but here're a few photos of the winning Monza shot while we were entering a pleasant haze courtesy of eight internally-combusting cylinders and a heaping helping of race gas. Enjoy the pre-race gallery; on-track action shall follow.

It's Built By Ford And It Goes Like (KABOOM)!

In 1981, the year of this ad, the car sold as the "Capri" in the States was a Mercury Fox Mustang clone. Back in the UK, however, the venerable Ford Capri was still available, and it came with a 2.8-liter V6 that gave it a not-too-bad-for-1981 0-60 time of 7.8 seconds. Check out those painfully-80s graphics! – Murilee Martin More »

Forgotten Mercury of the Day: 1993 Mercury Capri

The Capri went through the same sort of bewildering rebadging/rebranding meat grinder as the Cougar; first it was a European Ford Capri, then a thinly-disguised Fox Mustang, and finally a Mazda 323-based roadster built in Australia. The '91-94 Capri was actually fairly reliable and not unattractive, but couldn't beat the Miata to the showroom floor and was shunned by American buyers in favor of the hot-selling (and rear-drive) Mazda. Chalk another one up to the marketing geniuses in Dearborn. – Murilee Martin More »

Just In Case You Forgot: The Ford Capri

On American shores, the Capri is one of Ford's underloved marques, although it's had a model history that's spanned Lincoln, Mercury, and its own brand that happened to be sold through Lincoln/Mercury dealerships. But on the continent, and especially in the British Isles, the Capri in Euro-ponycar form had a long and fruitful life. And as our cousin Philip once commented, "The way the bonnet comes down over the headlights makes it look a bit cross, doesn't it?" Angry wheels from a simpler time, non? More »