I
f you are a British Ford
enthusiast, the turbocharged
Capri III (made only in 1981 and
1982) is probably the least
known of all derivatives. It was only in
production for a short time, it was only ever
built in left-hand-drive form, and it was
officially never sold in the UK. Nor was it well
known in its native Germany, for only 200
were ever built, all of them being sold on the
Continent.
Deep down, Ford always intended the
2.8 Turbo to benefit from the great publicity
which was currently being garnered by the
flamboyant Zakspeed -built ‘silhouette’
race cars of the late 1970s. Although the
aerodynamic add-ons in the Turbo gavean impression of these two cars being
related, in fact they had absolutely nothing
in common except their name. Even so, the
‘halo’ effect of one (the race car) must surely
have helped the other.
The key to this development was
Zakspeed, the much-respected German
tuning concern, which was based at
Niederzissen, for all 200 of the Turbos
manufactured were part fettled there,
by the modification of partly completed
production Capri 2.8i body shells which
had been transported just 50 miles down
the road from Cologne. This modification,
in fact, involved the use of glassfibre outer
wing/wheelarches, which were glued rather
than riveted into place – which sometimescaused some quality problems, especially
on finished cars. They were then returned to
Cologne for completion, on the normal Capri
assembly lines.
It’s important to realise, however,
that these cars were not powered by
turbocharged versions of the 2.8i (in the
end, it would only be the totally unrelated
Tickford Capris which were so equipped)- for the Turbo had a carburetted engine.
Except on the very first cars (which were
3000S types, soon to be made obsolete),
the base car, indeed, was a Capri 2.8
Injection. But the power unit was actually
based on a carburetted version of the
Ford-Cologne 2,792cc V6 engine, complete
with a single downdraught twin-choke
FORDS THAT COULD
HAVE BEEN...
The Capri Turbo was actually built, but only by Ford-Germany and in very limited
numbers. Imagine if it had boasted an RS badge and was sold to the UK market...
Words GRAHAM ROBSONFASTER FORDSȭѵѵ FAS T FOR D SEPTEMBER 2019I
f you are a British Ford
enthusiast, the turbocharged
Capri III (made only in 1981 and
1982) is probably the least
known of all derivatives. It was only in
production for a short time, it was only ever
built in left-hand-drive form, and it was
officially never sold in the UK. Nor was it well
known in its native Germany, for only 200
were ever built, all of them being sold on the
Continent.
Deep down, Ford always intended the
2.8 Turbo to benefit from the great publicity
which was currently being garnered by the
flamboyant Zakspeed -built ‘silhouette’
race cars of the late 1970s. Although the
aerodynamic add-ons in the Turbo gavean impression of these two cars being
related, in fact they had absolutely nothing
in common except their name. Even so, the
‘halo’ effect of one (the race car) must surely
have helped the other.
The key to this development was
Zakspeed, the much-respected German
tuning concern, which was based at
Niederzissen, for all 200 of the Turbos
manufactured were part fettled there,
by the modification of partly completed
production Capri 2.8i body shells which
had been transported just 50 miles down
the road from Cologne. This modification,
in fact, involved the use of glassfibre outer
wing/wheelarches, which were glued rather
than riveted into place – which sometimescaused some quality problems, especially
on finished cars. They were then returned to
Cologne for completion, on the normal Capri
assembly lines.
It’s important to realise, however,
that these cars were not powered by
turbocharged versions of the 2.8i (in the
end, it would only be the totally unrelated
Tickford Capris which were so equipped)- for the Turbo had a carburetted engine.
Except on the very first cars (which were
3000S types, soon to be made obsolete),
the base car, indeed, was a Capri 2.8
Injection. But the power unit was actually
based on a carburetted version of the
Ford-Cologne 2,792cc V6 engine, complete
with a single downdraught twin-choke
FORDS THAT COULD
HAVE BEEN...
The Capri Turbo was actually built, but only by Ford-Germany and in very limited
numbers. Imagine if it had boasted an RS badge and was sold to the UK market...
Words GRAHAM ROBSONFASTER FORDSȭѵѵ FAS T FOR D SEPTEMBER 2019