Manchester Evening News from Manchester, Greater Manchester, England • 25

Wednesday April 8 1987 25 MOTOR SHOW NORTH The end of the road Farewell to the Ford Capri the car that made the bov racer respectable Ford Capri 280 MAKING its swan song at Motor Show North after 18 years of production is the Ford Capri And despite its defects many will mourn its passing It has a sentimental significance for me Back in 1969 it was the first big car launch I covered for the Manchester Evening News Before unleashing it into the showrooms as car you always promised and an unashamed European equivalent of their sporty USA Mustang Ford invited a Press party to Cyprus to try it in secret Some scribes responded too eagerly to the challenge to test the new sporty character One missed a sharp left-hander on a cliff top road and skidded to a stop inches short of a sporty dive into the briny Another early on dented the offside wing against the crowded local community bus All passengers including people the odd goat and a chicken or two descended to help the arriving police to conduct a noisy inquest After an hour the Capri was allowed to proceed only for the hapless driver to collide within minutes with a Cypriot telegraph pole this time denting the nearside wing vibration from the front end sent the steering wheel into a frenzy But the Capri was well on its way to a role as the working sports car It looked the part yet was cheap to run in Ford tradition Production of the Capri has stopped at number 1886647 The last 1038 off the line in Germany are being marketed as a special final edition known as the Capri 280 priced at £11999 been driving one recently to pay my own farewell The Capri 280 clocks 129mph and nought to 60 in 79 seconds thanks to the injected 28 litres below the bonnet bulge still there) Leather There was some admiration for the symmetry of the damage It had neatly sharpened the nose One wag ventured the opinion that the car looked better than original design and was very nearly put on a plane home My own downfall was the opposite of speed I got my Capri stuck in snow in the Troodos Mountains and after five minutes of slither and wheelspin suffered the indignity of seeing a more experienced colleague easily drive it out In its early days the Capri range started with a 1300 costing just over £890 Originally it was not a hatchback but had a separate boot with the petrol tank slung just behind the rear seats After the first batch had been built but before they went on sale Ford decided possibly in the light of its bashing in the hands of the Press that the Capri should have an extra bracing cross bar below the rear window Subsequently first drivers of the modified design complained of a smell of petrol inside the car It was found that in fitting the strengthening bar the lads on the line had drilled straight through into the tank Top engine available with the first Capris was the 1600GT from the Cortina but within a year came the lusty 3-litre V6 with a macho power bulge on the long bonnet and a top speed of 122mph This was a beast with which you could thrill yourself stupid especially as at higher speeds the For its last fling sales are expected to continue in Britain until the autumn the Capri is dolled up in Brooklands Green metallic paint alloy wheels black leather upholstery and Recaro rally seats not absolutely necessary for the driver to wear a gold medallion but you get the picture Yes the odd rattle and squeak are there and that long loose gear lever still vibrates (below its special edition leather gear knob) as you rack up the speed But it does provide enjoyment in boy-racer style Even in its dotage it draws admiring glances especially from other Capris And the 280 keeps a fair grip on the road helped by the standard fitting of a limited slip differential Now with this Capri I might have got going on that snow myself Manchester Evening News Fans of the Ford Capri: (Left to right) Pc Simon Bunce Inspector Miles Kirkham Pc John Barlow Pc Don Walker Pc Paul Duffy and Sgt David Bradley Picture by Mike Grimes Your Capris are just wonderful say the policemen At G-MEX MANCHESTER From 10-21 April 11am to 9pm weekdays and 1030am to 7pm weekends and Bank Holidays the 28 engine in third which allowed him to sit at 30 on suburban roads behind other (distinctly nervous looking) drivers or quickly chase up to higher speeds on the motorway He clearly enjoyed piloting the Capri around twisting Cheshire lanes and vouched for its efficiency at that is reversing at high speed out of emergency situations then jerking the wheel to fling the nose round and carry on in forward gears Admission £2 (Adults over 16 years) See the AUSTIN ROVER WORKS MG METRO 6R4 on the Manchester Evening News Stand no 164 Respect AMONG the fans are the police who use the Ford in large numbers as traffic patrol cars Sergeant Dave Bradley remembers driving one of the first to be taken on by the old Manchester and Salford force around 1972 went basically from the Cortina GT into the 3-litre he recalls could do the ton in the Cortina of course but you could do it so easily in the Capri And it was a lot smoother got the name with us as the pigeon catcher In those days we carried a police sign mounted on the roof If you shot away from the lights in Albert Square in Manchester it was so quick you tended to catch the pigeons that flew up with the Vibrate Sgt Bradley is now with the traffic unit of Greater Manchester Police's Trafford Division headquartered between Lancashire cricket and Manchester United football grounds which runs five Capris and is headed by Inspector Miles Kirkham used to vibrate badly £120 (Children and Senior Citizens) the early ones during hard braking lots of he says sent somebody up from Fords to our driving school and we showed him what the car did when we drove it the way we do This fellow came back white from that session was after that Ford altered the specification and changed the Like Sgt Bradley all the constables I spoke to in the unit John Barlow Don Walker Paul Duffy and Simon Bunce said they would be sorry to see the end of the Capri Asked to criticise it they mentioned that it could be skittish in wet conditions that all-round vision was not good and it lacked headroom especially when you were wearing a regulation police cap Out on the road in one of the police Capris John Barlow enthused about the flexibility of Plus: Win a CAR FREE in the Manchester Evening News Plus: Post your Car Competition entries at the MEN Stand No 164 and you could win six supply of FREE Formula Shell Petrol launched last year to provide smoother driving more miles pe gallon and a cleaner engine plus Shell bags and umbrellas Inspector Kirkham added another of the virtues The respect it commands from the general public are in a police marked Granada or a Montego and some drivers will want to get past he says they see you in a Capri no way they want to have a His final verdict: been a good workhorse for us It will be hard to find something to match it If it's the Sierra it would have to be the four-wheel-drive mm 1 i mm i it'i i jttjt A ITlr.