Being sold in Mercury dealerships didn’t necessarily mean that this 1971 Mercury Capri was anything that your typical Mercury buyer at the time wanted, or even could mentally wrap their heads around. They are rare to see today and this one can be found on Craigslist, or here if the listing goes away. It’s located in the San Jose, California area and has an asking price of $5,500.
Starting off with a Hagerty valuation is rarely a good thing, at least for a seller, but they list a #3 good condition car as being worth $3,600. A #2 excellent condition car, which this is not, is $6,200. Halfway in-between those two numbers is $4,900. This car is said to be solid and they have provided a few underside photos to show that.
Including this one. They say to watch out for rusty rockers on these Capris and this one appears to be in good shape in that area and in the trunk. It does have rust spots elsewhere, though. Hopefully those can be fixed by the next owner in their garage or driveway otherwise the amount of money in this car will be way over Hagerty’s #1 concours value of $8,700.
The same with the interior, sinking a couple of thousand into restoring the interior, or more, wouldn’t make financial sense at all. The Capri was a great handling car, much more so than your average 1971 Mercury. Think Steve McGarrett / Hawaii Five-O big floating boat-like cars. They did have the Cougar, of course, so there’s that. It’s a different mindset as it usually is between American and European cars. Compared to the Pinto/Lynx or Maverick/Comet, the Capri was a breath of fresh air, handling-wise.
One drawback in the early cars is the 1.6L Kent inline-four engine with 75 hp and 96 lb-ft of torque. Real power soon became available in a 2.0L overhead-cam four and eventually a 2.6L and 2.8L V6. The famous 2.3L inline-four from the Pinto was also available during the production run of the Capri II, at least for North America. Styling-wise the Capri is hard to beat compared to the other small sporty cars that were available and they’re as rare as political unity today. When was the last time you saw an early Capri?
Last time I saw one was as a child in Canerduh. A university student we had as a boarder for a while in the early 70s had a green/tan 2.6. Went for a ride was pretty sporty. The old man had VWs since the 60s so imports were nothing new to me.
Been a long time since I saw one on the road. European delicacy for the tinworm….
A friends dad was a car but. He had a Capri, and a first year Datsun 240Z
It’s nice to see a red one. Most I have seen is the root beer brown color like Mr B had, and I believe was in the dealer brochure
Capris can make a lot of money in the UK. Popular cars over here.
The top version of the Mk 1 Capri in the UK was the homologation special RS3100, with the bigger Kent V6 motor- overbored, chin spoiler, enormous rear spoiler 4 speed and RS four spoke wheels.
They’re very rare and valuable now. Germany’s top early version was the RS2600 with the smaller ‘Cologne’ V6 which had nearly the same appearance, but without the spoilers.
Never heard of a Kent V-6; maybe you meant Essex? Too bad the RS3100 came out just as the fuel crisis hit. Must have been a treat for the assembly line workers, assembling the Mk. 1 RS3100 alongside the new Mk. 2?
Duh! You are quite right. What was I thinking? Not the Kent but the Essex.
Where’s the driver’s door mirror? Were they not required in the UK in the early 70’s?!!
No, not required, til EEC regulations in mid 80s
Great cars …have a 73 mercury Capri 2600 myself here in the UK
Nice ride Steve. Always liked the Capri. I had a 74 American Capri w/ 2.0 4-speed and a header while stationed at RAF Woodbridge in the UK back in the early 80’s. Great car. It moved pretty well. Wish I still had it.
My dad had a dark green 73 Capri while stationed at Upper Heyford in the early 80s. Nice car!
Cheers Michael , had loads over the years …wanted another but prices are crazy in the UK for good ones (plenty of rust around) so looked over the pond and found mine in california ,from a one owner family 15k miles ..never welded with all orig pannels etc also keys…even with import duty it was a bargain …I just love …
The 2600 was the Ford ‘Cologne’ V6 from Germany in an earlier smaller capacity form, (also available as a 2.3 litre), RHD British, South African and Australia/NZ cars had the heavier ‘Kent’ V6 in 3.0 litre form.
When the tooling for that was moved to South Africa and production concentrated in Germany, all models switched to the Cologne V6 in 2.8 litre form with efi.
The ‘Cologne’ Capris had great success in European Saloon Car Racing against the BMW CSl E9s, they still compete in Classic racing.
The ultimate RS Capri was raced in Australia by Alan Moffat with the largest ‘Kent’ V6 at 3.1 litres combined with the Cologne wide body.
You’re right about the Moffat car Concinnity. That car still lives on today. If my memory serves me correctly it has been sympathetically restored and now resides in New Zealand.
See above re my stupid incorrect info, the V6 was ‘Essex’ not ‘Kent’.
My childhood neighborhood was lousy with them, but they’re rare today to be sure.
I had a 1973 Capri with the V6 and a 5 speed. That thing was quick and handled quite well. The only problem was the engine was too heavy for the front suspension and it would nosedive significantly under heavy braking. Steering also got a little freaky if you really pushed it. Overall though it was a fun car to drive. I replaced it with a Audi Fox which is another story.
A friend of mine gave me a 1976 model that wasn’t running right.
It had the V6 in it.
After looking at it I realized the pin for the distributor cam had come loose or was gone so the cam wasn’t turning like it should with the shaft.
I put a toothpick in the groove and it ran perfectly.
I made money on that car.
Next time try a paper clip! LOL……..I had a ’73 4cyl/4spd Loved that car, but Rube is right, lousy in snow. Was the last car I ever put studded snow tires on before they made them illegal in Illinois.
I thought the toothpick was better because I could jam it in there and it would fill the space. The paper clip would stay its size and maybe fall out.
A surprising amount of power can be extracted from the venerable and bullet-proof 1.6 Kent engine. When I used to build the occasional engine I rebuilt one for my brother-in-law. There are plenty of upgrades available as for many years the Kent engine was the control engine for International Formula Ford racing.
One neat and easy little trick is to find a 1.1L Kent engine, and to swap the head off that onto the 1.6. This gives a significant boost to compression, but the engine remains strong and reliable, and will still run quite happily on pump fuel.
Spot on, Adam T45. I used to build engines for Formula Ford, so I know the Kent 1600. Solid engines that respond very well to a little “breathing upon”. I did not know about the 1.1L head swap. I will go reading….
I didn’t know about the head swap originally Bobinott. It was actually a case of necessity being the mother of invention. My brother-in-law had a Mk I Escort with the 1100. He was out one Saturday night being a boy racer and missed a gear change. It made a very loud noise followed by silence and smoke. He stuck a used 1600 in it, but that started to chew oil so he asked me to do a rebuild on a budget. When I pulled the 1600 down the head was cracked from end to end. We eventually looked over what we had and found that the 1100 head would fit on the 1600 without any dramas, but we needed to use the 1100 pushrods and rockers. It went together ok, and he drove it for years with no issues. The head swap had been caused by a lack of money, but it turned out to be a brilliant idea that worked a treat. That little car absolutely flew!
Currently on “FleaBay” too w/o reserve or reserve met…
https://m.ebay.com/itm/1971-Mercury-Capri-Base/202259684220?hash=item2f179ddb7c:g:8JMAAOSwUDlaqAZh
Sold for $4550
I remember them back in the 70s that’s when Honda’s and yotas and VWs came over to
start taking over car sales and market share for mpg etc.
These were great cars and my neighbor had one.
Now the next wave to take over USA is electric cars and hybrids etc. like the Prime and Kia plugs.
Flash forward with London has the tea tax on gas and diesel cars daily to drive in the city and within the next decade Paris is not allowing gas only to stop pollution.
We have a few hybrids and Tesla but I don’t see the big three going Volvo and stopping all gas only cars for electric and hybrids only.
Not in anyway trying to be political just stating dejavu on competition is coming strong like this car did in the 70s to remap the playing field. I just hope the
big three see it on the current radar.
OH MAN! Does this little car start my heart racing! In 1973, I was in the USAF stationed in Great Falls MT. I bought a 1973 Mercury Capri 2600 (V6) from Gary Rebal Motors. It was silver and was a four-speed. There were no highway speed limits in MT at the time, and I loved zipping around in that car.
I’d love to find another…but it’d have to be the V6. I love these cars!
This one is $26k
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1972-FORD-CAPRI-3-0-GXL-RS-LOOKALIKE-JUST-HAD-BARE-METAL-REPAINT-AND-RETRIM/253456147881
My wife’s first car was a 72 Capri 4 cylinder 4 speed. Wonderful little car but the clutch cable gave us some trouble as it would’ve stretch and make the clutch inoperable. Othern than that, we loved the car.
Friend of mine who knows I like Mercurys offered me one of these for cheep. I looked at it three different times in the last year. Rusty and in need of a lot of work.I just couldn’t pull the trigger on the deal. Saw it last week at the hard-core demo-derby shop getting prepped for duty. We can’t win em all.
Had a72 Capri v6 4 speed. The V6 had the panel under the trunk blacked out. Wanted a 240z, but could not afford just getting out of college. Thing I remember the most re: that car was that when the gas gauge said E, it WAS EMPTY!! Ran out gas 3 times in that car!!
These are impossible to find and a lot of people are looking. A 1600 Kent in this country might be the rarest of all variants remaining.
Nice cars, even with the 1.6 litre Kent four up front. As Adam said, they can be made to produce a lot of horsepower.
My preference would be for a V6, however or – even better – the South African V8 version.
Perana
The assistant manager of the auto parts store I worked at in high school had one of these. He mentioned making quite a few suspension mods to it which leads me to believe it may have had the issues due to the weight of the V-6 that was mentioned earlier in this thread. It being Detroit in the 70’s most of us where putting the longer rear spring shackles and 50’s on the back so his Capri made him the odd man out. Went for a ride with him one night after a couple of beers and a loosely rolled cigarette. That car blew me away, it was like a go cart going around corners and threw you back in the seat much more impressively than my 327 Camaro.
In the summer of ’76 I ripped around Southern Sweden in one of these…I think it was a V6 had a 4 speed….went like stink…handsome little car better rear end in my view in the later years.
Find the right one now and hang on to it….
Had a 1976 Capri II 2.8
Motor Trend called them Europe’s Mustang
Great Car
Wish I still had it
You’re right, JG54, Europe’s Mustang. Here’s a shot of my ’76 Ghia.
And the restyle to the Mark II and III, which added a hatchback was some early work by Peter Stevens, later to style the McLaren F1 and the post bugeye facelift Subaru Imprezas and Legacies.
There is an active Capri group on Yahoo – all very nice people and dedicated to “The Sexy European.” I’ve personally killed two (Capri cars, not individuals in the Capri group) – better clarify that!
It is fun to see these pop up. I had a ’73 with a 2.6 V6 and 4 speed ( I don’t think a 5 speed was available until ’74) I liked the car, but had several shortcomings. I think the 1.6 was the best motor of the bunch. The V6 ran poorly ( carb model)it began using coolant ( at 2 years old) the transmission was the old Pinto 4 speed, big hole between 1st and 2nd, no rear passenger room, handled funky, ( terrible in the snow) so-so brakes, that gas filler was a pain, if the shut-off didn’t work, you’d have gas down the side of the car, and biggest gripe, no hatchback. All those issues were addressed in the Capri ll, but by then, people had enough, and there were much better Asian cars.
When I was 18 my friend down the street, his older brother had rhat same car Rube but black/black. Pretty quick and fun for early 80’s. He kept it many years. Then his younger brother, my friend, had to have something faster of course. Found a 1971 Firebird Formula and put in a bored out 455 (IIRC 505 cid) and a 5 speed. That car was stupid fast! It broke a rod at street drags one night. What a mess…
Fun times back then though.
My first new car was a 1972 V6 with manual sunroof. The price for a 1973 really shot up, so I sold mine after 14 or 15 months for close to what I had paid.
Brings back memories. I had a ’73 2.8L green version. Had a lot of fun in the car. They were everywhere in their day. I’m surprised no one mentioned the common problem of the rear side window popping out. Saw many with duct tape to hold the window in or replaced with cardboard..lol Almost every Capri owner I spoke with had experienced this. Looking back it’s funny now.
Every since these cars came out, I liked them. I knew an old bodyman who would buy two of them, one hit in the front and one hit in the rear. He would cut them and weld the good sections back together. He had a set of jigs that he had built to hold everything in proper alignment and by time he was done nobody could tell it was a car built from two wrecked ones. I went to look at one to buy and although I couldn’t afford a Capri I did buy a ’69 Toyota Corolla that he had repaired for a good price. The only way you could tell it had been wrecked was one of the inner fender liners had a few creases it, but with the hood closed no way you could tell it hqd been wrecked..
The TV series ‘The Professionals’ shown in the UK helped huge sales of the Ford Capri here.
The top performing Capri was a model built in South Africa, called Perana.
Has 302 Ci V8, with 4 speed Toploader box.
Awesome car and have only seen one outside of ZA.
You beat me to it, John. I know there are a few here in the US, but I have not seen one yet. A friend of mine had one in OZ but sold it. I believe they also were sold to the public with automatics, but it was definitely a homologation version for the 5-liter series.
I’m in New Zealand and saw one imported from South Africa a couple of years ago. There are also one or two copies used for racing.
Here’s the story about the above car and everything you need to know on the Perana.http://www.themotorhood.com/themotorhood/2015/9/3/south-african-wildlife-1970-ford-capri-perana-v8
And there was an uprated model of the Perana, the ‘R’ Pack with 280 bhp, 6.1 sec 0-60 mph.It had a ‘Mustang’ gearbox, a Muncie, I think.
While Basil Green raced his conversions, and discounting the Zakspeed turbo cars, my vote for the hottest Capri goes to the German Mako. Green’s car used Windsor 302s, the Mako used Boss 302s with the Cleveland heads. I don’t think there was ever a dispute in the U.S.A. about which was a hotter motor.
https://translate.google.de/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.capri-company-franken.de/Reini.htm&prev=search
I’e had my( Mk |II ) 2.0s for 24 yrs and counting. Spares are fine-there are severl active Facebook groups too . This being the Mk 1…and even though a 1600 – is very desirable over here in the UK. I’ve a few in the US as ‘loca cars’ and in these days of huge trucks etc would be an interesting smaller car to use0they carry quite a lot…..and…..the agreed value on mine is around $16200 (@ 1.35. This is very good value at this price
Much later on there was an Aston Martin modded version called Tickford. http://www.a400mod.com/What%20is%20a%20Tickford%20Capri.htm
I think Tickford started out as a coachbuilder – I seem to recall seeing some pre-war MG “Tickford” coupes. Tickford still exists, I get high-performance Ford parts from them for my 2.8 Cologne (Capri) powered Cobra!
Scotty,
It would be Pinto/Bobcat. The Lynx was an Escort.
Greetings All,
The four wasn’t bad, the V6, two variants I believe were the ones to have.
I think they were the 2600 and the 2800.
A friend of mine had one of these in mid to late 70’s, a 5-speed he had bought new. Certain about the 5-speed as I drove it and that feature was notable. Wiki doesn’t agree. Very tight and quick car. Styling wasn’t to my taste but it handled well and performed the same.
Price seems high to begin with, especially in that it’s a four cylinder variant. George had tried the 4 and said “no dice”, went with the six.
Would have like to race one of these on a track, balanced well.
European style steering. That’s what I remember the tv ads saying about the Capri when it first came to the Ford/Mercury dearlership where I was doing front end alignments at the time. Must have been the first time I saw rack n pinion setups. Test drove a few and they were fun, but I liked my 65 Lincoln much better. I enjoyed comfort over sportiness in those days. Guess I still do at 70 plus years on this planet.
The Kent 1600? Um, nope. Just not enough theree. The 2.0 would be the engine of choice.
My friend in high school had on of the root beer brown variety. Several of us were into street luge at the time. He’d pull us up hills with the Capri while we happily choked on exhaust all the way up. Kids! 🤣
My older brother had one from new. At that time I thought the handling was pretty amazing. I believe these used the Cortina platform as the basis for the car. Cortinas of course are rather well known for very competent handling.
Cortina and Capri use different front & rear suspension, different rear axle etc and different rear drum brakes. Capri had McPherson Strut front suspension, Cortina was much like a Mustang II, in fact perhaps it inspired the Mustang II front end. Shared the front brakes though. Anyone know a source for Cortina Mark III rear brake shoe hardware & front ball joints?? I need some!
Think Mk1 and Mk2 Cortina, not the later Mk3/4/5. McPerson strut front suspension and leaf spring live rear axle. This is actually the same layout as the RWD Escorts, and unsurprisingly there are a lot of part numbers and associated parts in common.(And shared with the even earlier Zephyr/Zodiac Mk2/3)
Eg. The top front strut upgrade for all these cars is the same, as are brakes and wheel bearings etc.
I had a “73 with the 2.0 4 cylinder – a fun car on twisty roads. After it crossed the 100k mark, I started having front suspension issues. I bought some aluminum steering rack bushing replacements offered by IECO, the company that sold iron sleeved Vega engine blocks and other items to fix chronic problems. They helped somewhat but under light braking the front wheels would still shimmy violently. I had had the alignment checked, as well as the rod ends, ball joints, etc. I was about to contact a friend of a friend , who road raced a Capri , when the head gasket blew. I ended up donating the car to the local high school auto shop program. It was a fun car while it lasted.
My first new car was a 72 2.0 liter chocolate brown. I put close to 100k on it with very little trouble. I then turned it into a Pro Rally car in 1978 and ran it for a couple of years before retiring it after it was rolled at POR. I transferred the cage and other parts into a 73 chassis including a 2.6 Liter V-6 I got from a parts car. I enjoyed every minute I spent with the Capri and have a lot great memories. Picture is getting ready to run 1980 Northern Lights ProRally.
@TSDNAV – thanks for sharing that photo. Nice to see a car as it was being used. It also is cool to see metal-topped cans of Castrol GTX oil. That was THE oil to use back in the day. I still have my metal spout that we needed to open and pour the old style cans. At least I have maintained my do-it-at-home oil change habit to this day.
I was sent to Alaska in the USAF in 1972, sold my ’66 Olds 4-4-2 and snagged a former rental ’71 Capri 2000 automatic with retarded timing. It ran beautifully after the distributor was re-set. Bought a new ‘Bullitt Green’ ’73 V6 4-gear in Anchorage in September ’73, did a lot of the bolt-on ‘super coupe’ mods of the day on it. Anyone recall the spoiler and air-dam kits that were available for so many of those cars? When I didn’t re-up for the AF I stayed in Alaska and ended up working on the Pipeline.
In early ’76 I picked up a silver-blue ’74 V6 4-speed and went a little nuts doing a pretend rally car from it. Pipeline bucks were really easy to spend! Had an RS style two tone blue paint, headers, lotsa expensive lights. It was cool, went away in ’78 during a bout of destitute poverty.
The Capri even had its own aftermarket. SPEARCO offered turbos, and the owner had a stunning yellow ’73 as a driver/demo.
Rick Kiser, in Oregon, did a catalog of all Capri stuff, ROKSTOCK, in the mid-70s, got as killer write-up in ROADTEST magazine on his ’76 ‘S’ model. Nice effort, worst timing in human history. Jimmy Carter killed all the fun.
Biggest issue from my view is ‘rust’, made worse because the front fenders were welded to the engine bay sheet metal and there are no splash guards under the sheet metal.
I would love to find a clean ’73 decor group car and apply four decades of tech to it.
Join the Capri list groups on both Yahoo and Facebook – you will find Capris that way.
Had a 74 German RS version with the 2.6 and 4 speed. Took it out on the highway and flew. Doing 140 and re-read speedo. Miles per hour not kilometers per hour. Snappy car.
I have told this story often on here, But growing up in the PNW and Columbia river gorge area a kid in the 70s-80s had a Rokstok Capri with turbo kit, suspension upgrades and some cool body work (Air dams, side skirts and whale tale) His was pumpkin Orange with black accents. I thought it was a very cool car.
Several other kids had variations of these Capris too with 4 bangers and 6s, all drove at high velocity, some crashed but I think there was at least 5-6 of them and it was a very small school. (Corbett Oregon). They still show up locally and not impossible to find. I have a friend in NZ with one too,, maybe I should start exporting??
These were popular at regional racing as well, SIR, PIR, Sonoma-Sears point, etc etc.. Still show up at some road race events, and seen a few period rally versions as well.
Capris are still raced – there will be at least one or two every July at the P.I.R. Portland historics. Just this past weekend Mike Jordan in England raced a 3 litre Capri while his 1965 Griffith 200 awaits restoration. In USA Norm Mudrock / Team Blitz is the go to guy for Capri parts, either for restoration or modification. The guy knows his stuff. Hey Sluggo – I bet you had a blast on the Columbia River Hwy back in the day – I’ve driven it in everything from my Morris Minor to my Ferrari, Bentley, Rolls-Royces.
Use a search tool or app to see when they are listed on FeeBay and Craigslist. SearchTempest is one, others work as well.
There is 2 deals currently on Seattle CL:
2 car deal, 1 parts car and 1 builder for package deal-$2000
See: https://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/cto/d/1974-mercury-capri-parts-and/6504088108.html
Second deal a bit aggresively priced at $4000
See: https://seattle.craigslist.org/skc/cto/d/1976-mercury-capri-ii/6480014544.html
ChingATrailer: Yes, Growing up in Corbett/Springdale and the gorge we are blessed with amazing roads! I live above the Clackamas river now near Estacada and roads that many friends love to come visit and hang out. Cars but motorcycles are a blast as well. I am sure you know it, but for those who do not, Look up the Fruit loop.
My version I take many visitors on is the Columbia gorge scenic highway all the way up to past Bridal Veil, then onto I84 to Bridge of the Gods cross over to Washington and then go east on Hwy 14 along the river. Stop in Bonneville, Carson for the hot springs, or any other points,, then cross back to Oregon in Hoodriver. Hit one of the Brew pubs for lunch, stop along the Fruit loop for samples. Then over Mt Hood, side trip to Timberline, get your “Heeeres Johnny!” picture ala Jack Nicholson, then down to Govt camp. Stop at Zig Zag for their epic Pizza or other dinners or onto Calamity Janes outside of Sandy for their Epic Burgers.
( I Suggest the Mean Jose and a huckleberry Milkshake)
I host friends from all over, several Germans are coming for the April Swap meet. But we get them from the UK, NZ, Aus, India and Japan. While a finely tuned sports car is a great experience nothing beats an old British cafe racer Triumph, BSA or Norton.
The INOA-International Nortons owners assoc annual convention is in Washington at Elma this year. We expect people from all over the world to converge.
Looks, handling, character. I probably sound like a broken record about my fondness for these whenever one comes up for sale. I’ve been working hard on the Barn Finds Tasmin recently and as cool as it is, I could see myself selling it for a Capri.
I wonder if my 74 is still above the sod. Sold it in Portland in ’78, 74 v6, 4 gear, decor gp interior, air dam, Western minilite copy rims, 2tone blue. Guy lived off Glisan West of 82nd. Far too much to expect 40 years later…
I used to keep my Bentleys in that neighborhood. Had a killer deal on a rented commercial garage space. Oh, those were the days!
I loved the European Capris. I had a 74 v6, 75 4 cyl and a 77 v6. The 74 was by far the best. I owned several Mustang IIs as well but Capri was faster and handled better
little help– this capri reminds me that i really liked the merkur. was it a mercury or a ford???? i can’t find any for sale or even listed as a selection on the major car sale websites.
any ideas??
If my recollection is correct, the Mercury xr4ti or something like that was marketed through Mercury dealers in North America similar to the Capri, but in Europe they were both branded as Fords. It was similar to the SVO mustang in 84-86 with intercooled turbo 4.
I also had a 72 Cortina 2dr with a 1600 4 speed. It was a great car with a ton of interior room, but not much pep. My father was part owner of a Ford dealership so drove most of the cars produced at that time. One of the funniest memories was a 73 Cortina GT that was shipped in. It was a 2.3l and very fast. They made a mistake and shipped it in with a speedometer in kph. This was 4 years before we saw them in North America. I took the car out on the highway and had it up to 110 in a flash, thinking this car is fast, but then realized the other cars were staying with me. Only then realized it was in kph. I did switch to the Mustang ii and attach a pic of the last one I built which was a 302 5speed t-top car which regrettably I sold a couple of years ago.
Both the Capri and the Merkur were great cars about which their selling dealers were clueless and disinterested.
@RickRothermel – So true. And toss the Pantera into that mix….
My first new car too! College days. 1971 Brown Capri with a white interior. Dad got the car when he bought a new Lincoln, which he did every two years from the same dealer. I always had the impression they threw the Capri in for like $500.
Anyway, I loved it. I was a 4 cyl, but had a definite German BMW ish feel. My summer job was in dad’s factory in Gardena, and the best way to get there was Old Topanga Canyon to the PCH. The thing was a decent little canyon carver. I put wider tires on it and a sway bar, but beyond that it was stock.
Never even considered putting speed eqipment on it. But then again I had to share it with my sister. Go Aztecs!
I actually bought this car on Ebay. Seller lied about almost everything but most dangerous thing he lied about was the brakes as I discovered almost immediately! Don’t know if it is too late to ask this board a question because this is a rather stale dated sale over a month ago but here goes… I would really like to replace the live axle and leaf springs with an IRS but I would like to keep the stock rear fenders and not use flares. I thought I could mini-tub the inner wheel wells to accommodate larger tires. I have yet to find a single person who has done this on the internet. If any the three Miata iterations’ rear ends is too wide I thought I might be able to use one from a Fiat X1/9. Any advice? Thanks.
Fiat X1/9 used a transaxle so you’re outta luck there. There’s active Capri groups on Yahoo and Facepuck er I mean Facebook. I used to do pre-purchase inspections. At least 80 – 90% of the eBay listings I looked at were grossly mis-represented, just a bit more than the misrepresentation on Hemmings ads!
Thanks, i should have known that as I used to own an x1/9. Perhaps the Miata then? Really don’t want to widen the fenders. Want to keep the stock look. I used to own a 73 v-6 when I was 17 and since it was my first car I would like to have one now that I am 55. Truthfully if I could take all the external body parts and put them on a modern car without it being obvious, I would. I am really only nostalgic for the look of the Mk1 Capri and not the mechanicals, which have come so far in the car industry since the Mark 1 was designed in 1967-8 and first sold as a 1969 model.
The hardest thing about putting in some form of IRS is mounting all the links to the various moving parts of the suspension. So you need something that comes as a module, and that fits the existing space. The MX5 almost does, but you need to find a way to mount the spring/shock assembly which is unconnected from the subframe. You’d have to fabricate something to take all the suspension loads through to the Capri body.
That’s why Jaguar rear suspension off an XJ or XK is popular. The suspension loads feed into the subframe directly, with the subframe mounted to the body shell. There is also a choice of rear end differential ratios available, and the diff is of the limited slip type.
And it’s been done on Capris before, so someone else has nutted out the details.
Thanks that was very helpful! I did find one MK1 capri with jaguar xj12 irs narrowed 10″ in Australia. only one I found. Are there others?
Try the various Capri clubs online. Try HotRod magazine as well. Though of course in America one of the various Corvette IRS is also popular. The Jaguar rear end is relatively common worldwide due to the relatively unchanged production over a very long time and it’s very high power capability. And the high depreciation that puts the cars in the junkyards. Google Jag irs swap.
If you keep the standard live axle, it’s easy to uprate with a Mustang (or any other) rear axle fitted with a diff, and the springing and axle location can be easily improved as well.
That car is now for sale in Canada for $7500 CDN. Why go to the trouble of buying and importing it and then flipping it? What happened to fixing and driving cars?
It is actually listed at $7,900 CDN. That is what I have into it. I thought I could acquire an original fairly rust fee California body and restomod the mechanicals- engine, suspension, brakes, etc. Turns out no one in the entire freaking world has ever done an independent rear suspension for a mk 1 Capri. I am nostalgic for the look of the 1973 Capri that I had when I was seventeen and worked at McDonalds. 38 years later my tastes (and unfortunately my waistline) have grown beyond the circa 1969 economy car mechanicals of the Mark 1 Capri. I still love its looks and find it one of the prettiest cars out there – and I have owned a Porsche Carrera and S class AMG – so I am not making that statement lightly. But the narrow rear end (52″ rear track) of the car that looks so great does not make an IRS suspension swap easy. I have been turned down by my usual mechanic and even Dan Short of Fantomworks has said no to taking on my project. At this point, I am not sure what to do. I have been told that, in North America at least, no Capri is ever going to fetch more than $20,000 even if its in museum ready condition and since I can’t do the work myself, spending $70,000 for a $20,000 car doesn’t make a lot of sense. I thought I could buy one and make it drive like a Cayman S. Apparently it’s financially wiser to just buy a Cayman S. Sorry for the long answer. I guess writing this is a form of therapy…
There is this one.
That’s the narrowed 10” jaguar rear end one in Australia I believe. Not something I can do .
Have you inquired on the Yahoo Capri group about the IRS you desire? Some of these guys have done every sort of weird or good or odd thing with a Capri that you can imagine, I’d be willing to bet that someone has done an IRS on one, maybe with Merkur or Scorpio parts. I myself have a replica Cobra that’s mechanically Capri based and it handles so much better than the typical Factory Five, or other home made cars.
The Capri is a pretty good example of how good a leafsprung liveaxle can be. With the springs and shocks of a last of the line 280 they’ve got a better smooth road handling balance than any pre E36 BMWs. No camber change counts for a lot.
I had two of these in college… a 71 with a 1.6 liter engine, and a 73 with a 2.6 liter engine. I spent a lot of money with Dobi on the 73. I upgraded the springs and shocks, lowered it, we pulled the V6 and replaced the cam, intake, added a 390 cfm Holley along with headers and a dual exhaust. We replaced the nylon gear drive with a metal one, so the engine sounded like it had a blower, and thanks to the gear drive, the engine would easily turn 7,000 RPM.
Back in the early 80s, it was a pretty quick ride. I took it to Mason-Dixon Dragway one weekend and it ran high 14s. On the street, it easily beat the contemporary pony cars… granted most of them had 120-140 hp V8s.
As many have said earlier in the comments – I wish I could have kept that car…
While growing up my introduction to the Mk1 Capri was through older guys in the neighborhood.
Most of the Capri owners were from the Caribbean.
I had never seen anything like a Capri before. They were smaller than the Mustangs, Road runners and the Cheverly that I was used to.
The Capris were amazing; the styling was light years ahead of their time. The interiors were sporty.
When I was able to drive and afford a car it was a toss up between the BMW 2002 and the Capri Mk2; the choice was the Mk2 with it’s unique hatchback.
Through the years I have owned three of these cars.
Each one with fond memories.
I still have the last two and in the process of restoring them.
Hopefully, I will have one completed my mid summer.
To all Capri owners enjoy them and to all who aspire to get one welcome to the Capri owners club.
I’m the original owner of `73 2600. Black vinyl over yellow. All original. I still love it.