Holy cr@p! This used to by my buddy's old car. Guy lived in S.F. but sold it after the nylon timing gear disentegrated. Car was damn near immaculate inside & the guy kept it clean. I remember when he got the black paint job (used to be olive green), the American Racing 15s and also when he got the dual exhaust with dual Flowmasters. Damn that thing could pull. We used to ride around with the Alpine cassette (located in the glove box) & the four Kenwood 5.25s coaxials bumping. System was courtesy of the old Good Guys in Serramonte. Damn good times cruising around the city in this thing. This pic just put a big smile on my face.
@louie95340: Very cool when we get the back story of DOTS cars. These Capris used to be all over the place, nearly reaching Nova levels of ubiquity. I swear I drag raced this car's twin down the 4 lane boulevard leading to Alameda NAS back in the day.
Ah, "Europe's Mustang".....I'd love to find a pre-smog, chrome-bumpered, 6 cylinder Mk 1 Capri. Good looks, thin on the ground (in the US), a decent performer, and racing heritage. Make mine an RS2600, and I'd be a happy camper.
Oh, here are some purdy pictures of the Capri in action
@scroggzilla raids again: I know of a gorgeous Mk1 Capri that's for sale in my area. It has the 1600 cross-flow instead of the Cologne V6, but there's certainly nothing wrong with that motor. An 8000 RPM, 180-horsepower 1600 Capri could be a lot of fun.
@Armand: Alas, my ability to purchase such quirky dream machines is greatly damaged and likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future.......(sigh).
Mavericks and Capris are my favorite 70's compact Ford cars. Too bad the latter wasn't sold in Mexico because I'd be already hooning the hell out of one along with my V8 powered Maverick.
Alamedans are lucky. I've been on the hunt for one of these for years. I'm pretty sure a few piles of iron oxide I've seen in the midwest used to be these.
@vr6john: The Blue Angels never fail to scare the crap out of me. I've got a friend over on Baker just south of Haight. Next time I'm in the area I'll yell "VR6John!" a lot just in case you are around.
Great find! What's he got under there that's protected with hood pins? It's aged really well as a design. And though it shows was US car makers could do as interesting small cars (even the Vega had its points), there seemed to be a basic conflict between small cars/less profit per unit and big cars/more profit--but at the same time, car makers complained not enough people were buying the little ones.
Seems like this was sometimes called a "Lincoln-Mercury" Capri in ads, but you won't find that on the car. Officially, it's just a Capri. Interesting find - I haven't seen one of these on the street in a long time. This was the last real year for the first-generation Capri in the US (the '74 model year extended to the beginning of 1975). The 1976 Capri II had smoother styling but sold rather less well, partly due to an unfavorable dollar/mark ratio which resulted in high prices.
Wow. I haven't seen one of those cars since about 1990.
When my father brought home a dozen British car magazines in 1979, I read about how the "3-liter Capri" was England's Mustang. Personally, I think it needed more like five liters, but that's an American thing...
@oldgraygeek: The song remains the same. Once in a blue moon, European vehicles are brought to the American market to be greeted with 'Why would anyone pay so much for such a little car?'
The only way to gain market share is to fit or exceed the mold; this is a country that thinks the V6 Camcordibu is a good, even a necessary variation. True, there has been some recent backlash, especially when Honda had the audacity to highlight the ridiculous acceleration of their V6 Accord coupe. But the average buyer weighs only feature volume against price.
The American market selects the Corvette over the Elise, with what I imagine to be almost no cross shopping, and the European market does the opposite. It's a tragedy, as both are fantastically capable, yet closely matched cars with incredibly different characters. But the Corvette easily trumps the Elise on paper, 'in features', and the case is closed in the American mind.
As a result, Ford does not import the Focus RS. It would not sell. Never mind point-to-point capability, it does not have AWD to match the STi and Evo X. Never mind acceleration, it does not have the displacement to match Ford's own Mustang.
Forbidden fruits are not withheld out of malice, but it is a punishment, and we do it to ourselves.
Perhaps not the most stylish of the Mercedes coupes, but I do miss the clean, stolid German look of this era.
I wish a blog would start a contest where car design students are challenged to "draw" concepts that update this look. Today's Mercedes have lost their originality.
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Have you ever seen a Ford Counsul Capri?
[www.breeders.co.nz]
10/10/09
Oh, here are some purdy pictures of the Capri in action
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You say Alamedans; I say Alamedians.
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Great find! What's he got under there that's protected with hood pins? It's aged really well as a design. And though it shows was US car makers could do as interesting small cars (even the Vega had its points), there seemed to be a basic conflict between small cars/less profit per unit and big cars/more profit--but at the same time, car makers complained not enough people were buying the little ones.
10/10/09
[www.youtube.com]
Although, I'm more into the 3rd-gen Capris. I'm not sure if that says something about me, or if my hometown is analogous to Essex.
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When my father brought home a dozen British car magazines in 1979, I read about how the "3-liter Capri" was England's Mustang. Personally, I think it needed more like five liters, but that's an American thing...
10/10/09
The only way to gain market share is to fit or exceed the mold; this is a country that thinks the V6 Camcordibu is a good, even a necessary variation. True, there has been some recent backlash, especially when Honda had the audacity to highlight the ridiculous acceleration of their V6 Accord coupe. But the average buyer weighs only feature volume against price.
The American market selects the Corvette over the Elise, with what I imagine to be almost no cross shopping, and the European market does the opposite. It's a tragedy, as both are fantastically capable, yet closely matched cars with incredibly different characters. But the Corvette easily trumps the Elise on paper, 'in features', and the case is closed in the American mind.
As a result, Ford does not import the Focus RS. It would not sell. Never mind point-to-point capability, it does not have AWD to match the STi and Evo X. Never mind acceleration, it does not have the displacement to match Ford's own Mustang.
Forbidden fruits are not withheld out of malice, but it is a punishment, and we do it to ourselves.
09/05/09
09/05/09
What a classy car.
09/05/09
I wish a blog would start a contest where car design students are challenged to "draw" concepts that update this look. Today's Mercedes have lost their originality.