50 YEARS OF THE FORD CAPRI
30 AUTOSPORT.COM 25 JULY 2019RS2600/EUROPEAN TOURING CARS
There’s no more enduring image from the world of touring car racing
than that of a Ford Capri RS2600 in factory ‘Cologne’ colours with at
least one wheel off the ground. The car’s successes in the European
Touring Car Championship and beyond cannot be disputed, but it
wasn’t always popular with the stars paid to race it.
Tin-top and sportscar star
John Fitzpatrick (right), who
raced the car for Ford’s in-house
factory squad in 1973, calls the
RS2600 “probably the worst
car I ever drove”.
“It was almost undriveable
to be honest,” he says. “There
are pictures of it two-wheeling
up Eau Rouge at Spa. It was on
two wheels quite a lot to be fair.”
For all its foibles, the RS2600
did the job for which it was
conceived by new Ford racing
boss Jochen Neerpasch. It was
an out-and-out homologation
special aimed firmly at winning
in what was then known simply as the ETC.
Given the go-ahead in October 1969, development of the car was
rushed through, so much so that on the launch of the RS2600 at the
Geneva motor show in 1970, the car’s Kugelfischer fuel-injection
system was merely a mock-up. Increasing power and reducing weight
were the targets for the team charged with producing the new road
racer at the Ford Advanced Vehicle Operations unit in Essex.
The iron-block V6 from the top-of-the-range 2300GT Capri Mk1
was stroked to achieve a 2.6-litre capacity, which could then be taken
out to 2.9 for racing under the latest Group 2 rules. The absence of
proper bumpers hinted at the efforts to reduce weight, though the
50-car run of race versions also had fibreglass panels, perspex
windows and only minimal trim inside.
The RS2600 was a sledgehammer to crack a nut. A 1-2-3 on the car’s
debut in the first ETC race of 1971 incorporating Division 3 cars such as
the Capri hinted at what was to come. Ford would win every race bar one
against the heavier, less powerful opposition from BMW and its 2800CS.
Dieter Glemser took the title, and then Jochen Mass made it two in two
years in 1972 as Ford nearly swept the board again, losing victory only at
its home race at the Nurburgring. By the time Fitz arrived back at Ford for
1973 the RS2600 had a new rival after BMW took a leaf out of Ford’s book.
Neerpasch and his right-hand man, the engineer Martin Braungart,
had been poached by BMW and the result was the 3.0CSL. The RS2600
was firmly put in its place.
“We weren’t really competitive that year,” recalls Fitzpatrick.
“Braungart had been at Ford when I’d driven for them in 1971 in an Escort
and was a really bright guy. Unfortunately, he’d gone to our opposition.”PRODUCTION SALOONS
Mention of the Production Saloon category will, for motorsport
aficionados of a certain age, inevitably conjure up an image of a
Ford Capri. Probably going sideways, probably driven by the late,
great club legend Gerry Marshall, and probably battling with
a second example pedalled by Graham ‘Skid’ Scarborough.
Marshall and Scarborough were at the forefront of a class
of racing that had a place on the bill of all the big meetings run
by the British Racing and Sports Car Club and the British
Automobile Racing Club in the late 1970s and into the 1980s.
The 1982 season (right) was the high point of what probably
shouldn’t be called a confrontation. The racing was undoubtedly
close, but always good natured and fair as the two ‘Capristas’
carved up the spoils between them.
“I won the BRSCC championship from Gerry, and he won
the Monroe title [organised by BARC] and I was second,” recalls
Scarborough. “There weren’t many races that we didn’t win.”
The stats reveal that of the 30 championship rounds of the
two series Scarborough won 14 and Marshall 10.
And they invariably put on a show. Scarborough reckons
that they spent “half the season side-by-side”. He describes
the Capri as a “fantastically forgiving car”, which probably
goes some way to explaining some fantastic racing, along
with Marshall’s swashbuckling driving style.
“I don’t think Gerry was playing to the crowd, he was just
a flamboyant driver,” continues Scarborough. “And he was
always clean. Those were the days when if you did nudge
someone you lifted off to avoid an even bigger accident.”
The Capri battle at the front of the pack in 1982 took place
between two iterations of the British manufacturer’s coupe,
though both were MkIII body styles. Scarborough was drivingMCKLEIN