I think you hit the year spot-on, as the '73s had the bumper extenders that pushed them out another six inches or so (per federal law).

A nice one, but your friend is no rapper. Maybe it sounds better with a beatbox background?

I enjoy the gallery format. The page loads faster, too!

Here's more reminiscing from a geezer. I was dating a girl in 1972, for more than a year and she graduated from college with her nursing degree. Her dad surprised with her with a down payment for a new car as a gift and somehow they ended up buying a brand new '72 Capri, red of course. We were married a year or so later and drove that car for a couple of years. It was fun to drive, no AC and the horn was located on the end of the turn signal stalk. I forget the details, but her younger brother ended up buying the car in about 1976 and then promptly totaled it a year or so later. I always liked the looks of it.

I voted for the "old way", 'cause your little captions to the pictures are always a nice read, but I guess you could go with an hybrid version, selecting a couple of pics to caption, and keeping the rest for a gallery. And eh, hybrid DOTS would be following the trend. ;)

I like the comments between the pictures, but it is nice to have big pics available for the purtier cars. Let's see the hybrid tomorrow.

If it ain't broke don't fix it. I like the old way.

I like the captions as well.

The real give-away that it's a '73 model are the rear lights which are much bigger than the original Mk1 Capri. Now my turn to reminisce, when I was going to school my friend Melvin's mother had a 3000 GT which was metalic gold with a black interior. We used to think it was just about the coolest thing on 4 wheels and longed for the days that she would have to pick us up in it

For a while there, I couldn't decide on what was strange about the front end. Something just didn't look right. Quick visit to Google images later...
Apparently, US versions have twin round headlights. The rest of the world had single rectangular ones.
No matter, still a fun car with the bigger engines. Especially the hoontastic creation of those craazy South Africans, the Perana, (Not a mis-spelling) which had a 302 Mustang engine. Went like stink. It was rumoured that one province's Highway Patrol had supercharged Peranas, which could outrun anything on the road. The SA Police took the whole Hot Pursuit thing very seriously indeed.
The Capri was semi-affectionately known in SA as the Crapi. Mostly by non-Ford owners.

I miss the captions. They were humorous and informative.

@X-Zambian: the twin round headlamps also appeared on the European GXL version. Of course at the time American legislation disallowed things like large rectangular ones

I so much prefer the euro version of the capri.. much more elegant

IIRC, the V-6 made it here ot the States for '72.

The '72 and '73 V-6 powered Capris were the best performers, according to the folks I knew back then who had 'em (& loved 'em).

Also IIRC, there were no Mercury badges on 'em, sorta like the 1960 Comet didn't have Merc badges.

In the '70s, all the ads & showroom literature said that Capri was "Imported For Lincoln-Mercury," just like the Pantera.

I voted for keeping the photos the old way, though I suppose a hybrid format may be worth trying for the sake of more/larger pictures.

I enjoy the narrative effect of having the text between photos. And on my laptop the gallery has an irritating habit of requiring me to scroll to see each picture after it opens.

And have always liked the Capri. Was part of a class of reasonably priced, fairly lightweight 2+2 sporting car (along with the BMW 1600/2002, the Toyota Celica, Datsun 510 and Opel Manta and a few others) that seems to be extinct now.

The big photos w/o the insightful analysis are just big photos. Overall, not an improvement.

Definitely the old way. It's easier just to scroll down to see the pics. I like the captions too!

Information and resolution, hybrid!
There's no poll option for this, but it's the best of both worlds. (except the page won't load faster, but that's whiny talk).

Peranas have rectangular lights too, here's about them: [www.capriv8.de]

I am for the hybrid as well.

Now the one thing I wonder would be how hard it would be to Europeanize this car.

A guy near me has a silver one, with dog dish wheels. They are pretty rare here in europe too.

I can see we're going to need a Perana post ASAP!

How about this: One page that looks like the old way, and then a link at the top to a page that looks like the old way, but uses the full size images interspersed between the text in place of the small ones, thereby putting all the large pics and text onto one page. Forget the thumbnails. This is the future afterall, and in a world of broadband wireless, shouldn't we be able to get the full images with text and captions all on one page? I think so. The "old way page" can be for those of us still using rotory phones.

Sadly, there's not much flexibility in the way we can use the gallery feature. Will see about doing a DOTS with the old-style images-with-inline-text plus a small gallery of a few of the prettier photos.

Hybrid would be my first choice, but if that ain't feasible, revert to the old way. I don't have any problem with the load times.

Also, the Capri's rear license plate frame is great, especially since such a seemingly high percentage of dental assistants are quite hot.

I think the

what the hell?

Anyway: I think the European Capri looked SO much nicer.

I LOVE big pictures. But, I know I'll never take the time to look through them each day when I'm at work; it's much faster just to scroll through the page.

The hybrid is the perfect solution, with the photos in "the old way" format as links to high-res images. That way, I could quickly zoom in on only those images I want a closer look at.

Ahhhh,the "Sexy European"!-low announcer voice- "See it at the sign of the cat!".Cue the roaring mountain lion (or puma,or cougar,depending on what you call the same animal in your neck of the woods)on top of the Lincoln/Mercury sign.Methinks I'm dating myself.
Every time I see one,I think of my Argentinian Uncle Bill (married to Mom's sister,hence I grew up with an Uncle from South America,not to mention he had a completely German name yet a spanish accent).When I was little,Bill had an early Capri,that really *fine* brown color,man I thought that car was cool (Auntie Rosie had a black Monte Carlo at the time,but to me,the Capri was cooler).I was a weird kid.These cars were pretty much new at the time.

I recently snapped a quick shot of a Capri II I caught up with on the interstate West of Nashville. I think, like most of you, part of the reason I love the DOTS series is that I've been taking pictures of cars I encounter on the street for years and it's nice to know I'm not the only one collecting those digital images. I think we need a Jalopnik Flickr group to post interesting photos to. Any of the Jalopnik writers want to set one up? I'd be happy to do it but it's probably better if it's an official sort of thing.

BTW, I voted for the old style because I simply do not like the Gawker Media gallery software. I wish Senor Denton would let you all integrate Flickr into these blogs, because their software is much better for photo management and viewing. They're in the photo business, you're in the blogging business. It only makes sense that they'd be better at photos than Gawker. You should let Flickr worry about photos so Gawker can focus on blogging.

The first lesbian I can remember knowing had a silver Capri.

Owned two Capri's over the yeara; a red '72 and a tan '73. Both had the miserable 2000 CC four. (I think it was the "Kent" engine. Bad valve guides made them burn oil.

Bog slow but an excellent handling car for the time. I always lusted for the 2600 V-6.

The rear quarter windows flipped out, and the boffins at Ford had the flip-out latch secured with glue to the window. Glue gives way, window falls out. After I lost one in a driving snowstorm, I wired them shut.

Ah, the good old days...

@west-coaster:

Actually, I need to correct my own earlier post. This is a '73, as the gallery photo "Capri Snout" shows the bumper sticking way out. (The '74s got even worse bumpers, color-keyed to help hide their DOT-mandated ugliness.)

Not sure why, but today's DOTS car just caught me more off guard than past entries. Lord only knows why, maybe because I was somewhat clueless that the US version of the Capri came to the US so early? Or maybe its just that I want one?

Oh wait, nevermind. Im just delirious from the long, enjoyable weekend and mad that I have to go back on the grind tomrorow. Damnit!

It was a really good car, priced fairly but marketed miserably. As an owner, I remember my Dad and I dealing with the stereotypical white patent leather shoe wearing salesperson in a showroom full of Grand Marquis trying to free the misunderstood Capri from its undignified surroundings.

We got it and the dealership is now a Honda store.

Lincoln-Mercury is almost out of business, and Mullally has had the brain fart to sell European (or perhaps "Global") Fords in the USA. Hallelujah and good luck. Stay away from Lincoln-Mercury dealers.

Notice the Capri shared British Leyland era MGB / MG Midget steel wheels!

@negative-ground: Yup, they're called Rostyles. I have 4 if anyone wants to buy them :)

I like the journal format that you do with the pictures followed by a comment, then another picture. But I like to be able to blow them up. Any way to do it like TTAC does it?

I had a '73 V-6 at Humboldt State in the early 80s. Great wheels for a car-obsessed college kid. Handled very well for the time and was great fun driving in the mountains.

IIRC one of my rear windows fell out too...

I think a hybrid format would probably be best. Include the pictures in your normal post, but then also tack on a gallery for higher quality images for those that want them.

That said, if it's either-or, I prefer the old format, mostly owing to the fact that I usually check out DOTS from work where my connection is agonizingly slow. With the old format, I can click on the link, minimize the window, and then come back 10 minutes later when all of the pictures have loaded.

The old format makes for some great reading, but hi-res eye candy is always nice. How about using the old format and linking the small pics to their hi-res origins?

It's as much a Mercury as a DeTomaso Pantera.

@scottydawg:

The ladies n gents over at www.fordsix.com would be interested if you really are willing to sell!

I had a copper 1973 V-6. My window also fell out but an observant person (like myself) would notice that a window from a 1974 model had a bolt thru the glass to hold the latch. The 1974 window was a perfect replacement.

I owned 2 Capris of the later vintage, a '76 bought used and totaled in a month and a new '77 ghia both V-6's.
They had tons of torque and could run with Camaros of the time but tyhe ridiculous emissions controls and plastic parts made the cars crap.
I was stranded on the parking lot of a hotel at the Berkeley Marina one night when the plastic timing gears disintegrated.
They were fun to drive, I had mine for 8 years, but my Toyota pickup is going on 23 and 400,000 miles...I'll never buy another Ford.

I've owned 10 Capris through the years, 3 1973s, 2 1974s, 4 1976s and 1 1977 all but two were V-6s. What's funny is my very first Capri(a red '73 V-6) was California licensed 674 JDZ, very close in sequence to your Capri(which is same year, color and engine). I bought that Capri in the Spring of 1982(I was in 10th grade) and it lasted me until the Summer of 1986 when while racing my buddy's '74 2800 Capri an elderly gentleman decided he wanted to turn left in front of us. My buddy went into oncoming traffic to avoid him, I wasn't so lucky and plowed into the 85 year old man's new Chrysler 5th Avenue(hence my friends heckling me that I lost it all when I got to 5th Avenue-lol). To answer your questions. The Capri was sold as "Capri by Lincoln-Mercury" and your car is a '73, not a '72 as titled. The '70-'72 Capris are referred to as Mk Is and the '73( and '74 in North America) are Mk I "face-lift" models. The faux side vents on the early cars are stamped tin and about 4 inches in length, the later(Mk I face-lift) cars have the shorter all plastic style vents. The early cars had the very flimsy(but light-weight) european style bumpers, with the rear bumper incorporating the reverse lamps in mini-driving lamp style housing at each corner and utilized the european Escort three element slim design tail lamps. The V-6 became available stateside in 1972(2600) with displacement increasing in 1974 to 2800 where it stayed until the end of the euro Capri's life in North America.