Four branch manifold painted with high temperature paint, the Mexico head, 28/36 dcd carb and also showing the oil catch tank I fitted, as I did away with the crankcase ventilation sytem, venting via the catch tank and then out of a filter below the engine.

In original spec' this car took 25 seconds to reach 60 MPH and these mods have cut that down to 15 seconds, much more enjoyable and less embarrassing for a Ford Capri Coupe.

The car has been used as a daily driver and show car for a couple of years. In 2007, I kept it in a barn with a few mates who kept their cars in the barn, to work on. My intentions were to bring the car up to MK2 speculations once more and do something to the engine. I pondered on fitting a V8 before being offered a 2 litre from a Granada for peanuts and also bought a cheap set of slot mags.  But a house move and my hot rod Deuce Coupe, took up loads of time and I sold the 2 litre on, deciding to keep the car as original as possible. I fitted an electronic contact replacement, new higher powered coil which required ballast removal, mexico head, 28/36 carb jetted as per 1.3 spec, 4 branch exhaust manifold, 6 pod dashboard, a better sound system and like them or not a small active sub in the boot.

Bodywork upgrades, or downgrades, if you like included MK2 rear lights, grill and rather than filling the tow eye hole, I fitted a Mini rear fog light behind it because the MK2 didn't have a fog light. I left the rubber side strips as they do help prevent car park door damage. Fitted a passenger door mirror, two new headlights as the ones the car arrived with were cracked, a pair of slip over headrests from the 70's and covered the car seats and headrests to match. The seats are perfect apart from a very small hole in the side bolster of the drivers seat, but I want them to stay perfect, so covered them.

Rear lights back to MK2 spec.

Early 2011, I sorted the few rust bubbles. Video and Pictures tell the story.

My Capri is a MK2. These were made between 1974 and 1978. Mine is a 1.3 Litre, which is quite rare these days.

I bought the Capri back in 2005 after it had been laid up for a while in the owners drive. Before that it was on display at a Ford dealer for a few years as the previous owner managed the body shop and bought this car from the first owner following the garage getting flooded from the Kings Lynn floods in 1978, when it was put in a special bath to remove salt water, rebuilt and waxoyled.

It was MOT'd and taxed before I insured it for the drive home from Kings Lynn to Colchester. It drove home without a problem, but started playing up soon afterwards. The contact in the distributor were corroded with verdigre which resulted in a refusal to start. Many erroneous electrical problems were also caused by fuse box terminal corrosion. Nothing out of my scope of experience to sort though. The bodywork had mild 'upgrades'. That is, the MK2 Capri had various MK3 upgrades which included MK3 front grill, rear lower panel complete with redundant tow eye hole, side rubber bump strips and MK3 lights on the rear.

I fitted new leads, distributor cap, contact set and rewired the fuse box, fitting two new ones under the dash, solving the problem of the original getting wet under the bonnet.

This is the Capri when I first got it. The picture taken in 2006 at the Wheelsday car show.