1973 Mk1 Capri V8

Thanks for moving this thread to the right place Mods.


A bit of background on this build...

As a kid, I spent a lot of time at the Zandvoort GP track.

And one of my favorite classes was Group5.

These cars were really exiting to me...


When the emissions rules here in Arizona ( where I live now ) changed to make 70's cars exempt, I thought it would be cool to build a street car with a 70s Group5 vibe to it.

At the time I wasn't aware of any low buck amateur racing locally, so this was going to be a street car only.


Plans were, a small block chevy V8, and a 4 speed.

For the body, I had it narrowed down to a Bertone GTV Alfa Romeo.



With the correct Autodelta wheel arches.


A XJ coupe Jaguar.



With the Broadspeed flares, and yes, in dark BRG.


A CSL BMW.



In full batcar trim.


Or a Mk1 Capri.



With the early Cologne arches.

I kept an eye out for the right car to come along.

And I found this one ( on my way back from bringing my wife to the airport, when she had to travel for work.
Which may be the root of her dislike for this car... )






I later found out it had kind of a interesting history.

It was a racer in Texas, went to a Hot Rod family here in Arizona.

Where it got the candy apple red & stripes paint, some engine and suspension mods.

And was a daily driver for the daughter ( bringing her kids to school, and evening illegal canyon carver racing )

At some point it got parked at a towyard belonging to a friend, where it sat for years until I found it.

It came with a set of 7X15 Enkei mesh wheels ( 2 of them badly dented )

A set of dead Koni strut inserts in the trunk.

Lowered suspension with some extra traction/anti trample bars added ( all of that needed to be redone )

Really ugly wheel arches ( flares ).

Covered in a sundamaged cracked and faded candy paintjob.

Baked interior with a rear only rollbar.

A mildly souped up 2.6 V6 ( with, as it turned out, 1 or more blown headgaskets )


So basically, what I had was a rust free body..

But I got it for a good price, and I didn't realise how crunched the rear was until I was deep into the project.


First thing I did was razor blade the paint off.



( by that time I had already picked up another Mk1 for its hood and grille, but it later proved to be a gift that keeps on giving...)

At the time, finding the right wheelarches was a real problem.

Nobody in the US seemed to make them.

A Capri specialist said he could get me a set, if I payed the total amount in advance.

Which I think meant he'd take my money to get a set in the UK, and mark them up.

At which point I'd still have to pay for the shipping from his location in the USA to mine.


A fiberglass manufacturer in Canada seemed to have a mold for them, but his pics were just a badly done drawing.

So I asked for a pic of his molds before I ordered, and after many months of stringing me along I bit the bullet and ordered a set from Smith & Deakin in the UK.

Great people to work with, nice quality parts, and it wasn't their fault the shipping was as much as the parts themselfs.


I started with ripping the old fiberglass off.





And putting the new on.



I got it running, went through the brakes & steering, etc, and drove it around like that for a couple of weeks.

I also found 2 3Pc Compomotive wheels on Ebay UK, which a buddy ( a US Airforce man on duty in the UK ) shipped to me.



I found some better ( wider ) outside hoops for them, cleaned them up and put them on the car with new tires.



And I found a RS Ducktail through the UK Capri club.

At some point I sold my '23 Roadster Pickup ( traditional Hot Rod, built in the style of an old Speed Shop truck, 292 Ford Y-Block, 3 speed, steel body, etc )



So I was able to buy an old Jet Lathe, and a Bridgeport Mill.

I'm no machinist, so I just use it them carve away material I don't think I need.

And after a couple of small projects to test the waters, I thought I'd try something else.


A guy I knew had done some work on Citroens and a Maserati Merak, and he had a left over set of 44DCNF Weber carbs.

That is a V6 engine, so 3 carbs.

I found one more carb through a Citroen specialist, now I had a matching set of 4.



I found a lower intake off a Rochester fuel injected Corvette.

And I changed the shape of the intake ports, and welded a divider in the siamesed intake ports ( the manifold was siamesed, the heads are not )



I had some pieces of aluminum.



To make adapters out of, to mate the intake to the carbs.



I carved away as much on the mill as I could.



Mainly where the adapters lined up with the intake and the carbs.



The rest was ported by hand.

Next thing was to plan and build a linkage.

Noooooo Problem....