There’s something about an 80s car that makes it acceptable to add hood scoops, decals, and aftermarket wheels, otherwise tacky modifications that might not fly on a vehicle from another era. In fact, if you were to see this Mercury Capri without those items, you might say it’s been incorrectly restored. The Capri is the Fox body Mustang’s less-frequently seen sibling that still packs 5.0L V8 power with more aggressive looks, and this one listed here on craigslist has been nicely upgraded and restored without going over the top. The asking price is $16,500, which is top dollar for this rarely seen muscle car.
Thanks to Barn Finds reader Tony Primo for the find. If you had just landed on the planet Earth and were quickly trying to learn about our car culture, the Mercury Capri might be the one that fries your extraterrestrial motherboards. The Capri namesake has adorned many different cars over the years, all with wildly different profiles. There was the European-market import Capri in the 70s; there was the Australian-market convertible in the 90s; and in between, there was the V8-powered corporate twin to the venerable Ford Mustang. Of course, the Capri was intended to be a more upmarket offering should you want your muscle car with some added exclusivity.
As such, some of the trimmings were upgraded over the rough-and-tumble Mustang, although I doubt you’d notice much of a difference in today’s terms. The Capri shown here has clearly benefited from the attention of an invested owner, with the body receiving new paint and decals in 2013. Based on the description, it sounds as if the interior is original, and in highly preserved condition. The manual gearbox is a treat and while it is never a guarantee that a Fox body will have three pedals, it’s even more unlikely in the Capri given who the car was marketed to when new. The seller notes that the Capri has been treated to a new clutch assembly in the past 2 years.
Ah, the famous netted headrests: if you want to sell Fox body Recaro seats for top dollar, you need the netted headrests. But having a matching numbers engine as this Capri does is also a good way to add value, and the seller lists a few other upgrades that enhance the eyeball appeal and overall value: new tires on Cragar wheels, a lowered suspension with subframe connectors, and more. The price may seem high but we don’t see many of these Capris pop up for sale anymore, especially in RS trim with a manual transmission. Factor in the minty interior and recent respray and you have a turnkey driver that would cost more than the asking price to re-create.
Swap the cheesy aftermarket rims for a set of 10-hole wheels or Michelin TRX-like aftermarket wheels and cruise
In the CL ad it looks like he has the original wheels. When he took them off he might have not been able to find tires.
Good write-up Jeff. Looks like a nice Capri. The ad is informative with lots of pics, though the interior pics were taken without enough light. The bubble-back on these Capris gives it a distinctive look. I too would go back to the TRX wheels, either with tires for the originals (the seller mentions having them) or with the repro package..
As far as the name, does it go back to the Lincoln Capri of the early 50’s?
…never did care for the “bubble-back” design change. That midcycle attempt to make Capris look more distinct from Mustangs was not an improvement imho.
Looks like the model name Capri did first appear on the ’52 full-size Lincoln, but I reckon the choice of that model name here was meant as a nod to the Euro Ford Capri sport coupe that was imported here and sold at Mercury dealers from ’70-77.
Those in turn were a successor (of sorts) to the ’61-64 Ford Consul Capri , which is also where the semi-elliptical rear quarter window styling of the ’70s Capris originated. I wonder if Ford stylists experimented with trying to adapt that styling cue to the Fox-body Capri?
I bought a set of the TRX Wheels!! For my ’82 TBird aero , My old time tire guy REGROOVED the tires, drove about 5000 miles as I saved up for the new Michelin Tires!! Always like the look!!
I bought a brand new 1986 Capri, and it was a NICE car. Their styling sure beats the Mustang’s look. And the VR rated tires were excellent. The sticker back then was $13.000.
I bought my grandson a 1980 RS “roller” for $750 that had 26k miles on it a few years ago. He built a ’93 5.0, added aluminum heads, a dual quad intake, K-member and turned it into a “gas guzzling” street monster! Now, two great grand-daughters later, he has changed to a single quad. Capris are a step above Mustang Fox bodies to 5.0 enthusiasts in my opinion.
No underhood or undercar shots ?
Those wheels are a negative – TRX that Capri!
My brother and I both leased the ’82 Capri RS each with the first year HO 5.0. Although there were small bugs with the car, the engines ran very well. All heart given the low HP but the spark to kick off the horsepower wars again. No headers or duals, no roller cam or 4 barrel. A far cry from what was to be underhood in just a few years.
Back then these had traction bars and we would take out the metal spacers to adjust the rubber bushing contact to best eliminate wheel hop.
The hatchback room and cargo cover provide all the space a young person could want.
Interior is very nice.
Bring your list of questions.
Love that no spoiler clean bubble hatch backend. Cool Merc 😎
The car is already a “day two” Capri. Nothing wrong with it. And, those TRX tires rode like crap. You could feel a pencil if you ran over one.
I’m not sure if you’re in the same camp as I am or if I’m the lone wolf. I never cared for those TRX wheels from day one. I much prefer what’s on this one. To each their own though. Even if I’m the minority.
…never did care for the “bubble-back” design change. That midcycle attempt to make Capris look more distinct from Mustangs was not an improvement imho.
This looks really good in Black.Again,no engine shots.
I put a set of TRX wheels/tires on our Black ’78 Fairmont wagon,
& thought it looked cool.
I also had TWO Consul Capris (’62,& a ’63) at one time.
Interesting cars.Road&Track called it “A Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing”.
Super Capri fan here as my first car was a used 1980 4cyl 4 speed car for $500 in 1986. The drivers door was hit so hard it broke the glass. I didnt care as my grampa had a body shop. I put a new door on it fixed the minor damage on the fender and painted it black. I then got a set of TRX wheels for $125. Tinted the windows took a whole coil out the front springs to lower it. Then I put a later 5.0 complete dual muffler and tail pipes exhaust on it. It was simple because of the single hump cross member everything lined up. I got a piece of flex pipe to connect it to the 4 cyl exhaust pipe. I literally slid the flex pipe over the 4 cyl pipe and into the 5 liter pipe about a foot in both direction. I had a little stereo system in it and it was nice for a high school kids first car. Easy to work on and fun to drive. I really liked the fender bulges way better than the stangs. Plus Jack roush team was tearing up the imsa circuits in one of these.
Rather neat here how the red pinstripes were applied in a way that accentuates those box-flared fenders. I will remain forever mystified why Ford didn’t transfer the Capri’s handsome fenders to the Mustang for its ’87 facelift, since they were also canceling the Capri anyway. Mexican-market Mustangs even combined the Capri nosecap with the Mustang fenders, so they’re clearly compatible.
I know that they made very few of these when compared to the Mustang, but these have all but disappeared off of the planet.
The last one I saw was 10 years ago at a car show, parked at the end of all of the Fox body Mustangs. The owner told me that he loves taking it to car shows and seeing the looks on peoples’ faces who have never seen one before or knew they existed.
This car has been for sale on CL for 12 to 24 months. Looks like a decent car and wouldn’t take much to correct or improve on. But this is a good example of how overpriced so many of these old cars are, because if they were priced closer to True Market Value they would have sold a long time ago. There are literally thousands of old cars on CL and FB in 100 mile radius to my home that have been for sale for YEARS because the owners/sellers refuse to lower their price. I saw this coming 10 years ago, where there would be a strong market for the nice rare expensive stuff (people with money) and no buyers for the lower end stuff (i.e. under $20k crowd). The gap between the haves and have-nots is at its highest since the Titanic days, and the large middle class population that fueled this hobby/industry in the 80’s is gone. If you think these cars are hard to sell now, just wait till the currencies buy you half what they do now, you won’t be able to give these cars away!