50 YEARS OF THE FORD CAPRIHARVEYSPECIAL SALOONS
There were any number of outlandish Capris racing in special or super
saloons in the 1970s pomp of a run-what-you-brung category with
little in the way of a rulebook. The most famous and successful was
the first of two cars built by ‘superloon’ legend Mick Hill and
subsequently raced by Tony ‘Strawberry’ Strawson.
Both drivers enjoyed considerable success in a car that was built
for the 1971 season around a five-litre ‘small-block’ V8 from a Ford
Mustang Boss 302. Literally. Legend has it that the car was ‘designed’
by placing the engine on a crate and manoeuvring a bare Mk1 shell
around until it looked about right.
It was a tight fit, as Gary Waller – who ran the car for Strawson- remembers. “The engine was so big that the carburettors were
right under the windscreen,” he explains. “The induction roar
was unbelievable when you drove it.”
Suspension from a Lola T70 sportscar and four-speed gearbox
and the diff’ from a Jaguar completed the ‘design’. They certainly
added up to an effective tool.
Hill is said to have won 32 of the 39 races he entered in 1971,
and the successes continued coming. He won the championship
organised by the British Racing Drivers’ Club in 1972 and then
the following year triumphed in the British Racing and Sports
Car Club series, using his original car and a new Capri.
The Boss Capri then found its way into the hands of Strawson,
after a brief sojourn in Ireland, to replace his Ford Falcon for 1974.
By the time the machine was purchased in a deal brokered by Gerry
Marshall, who wheeled and dealed in cars during the week, it had a
4.7-litre engine from a GT40 sitting tight under the screen.
The car got a new livery, too. A design that took its inspiration
from Strawson’s nickname was the work of Denis Davidson, the
team’s gopher who would arguably make a bigger contribution
to motorsport running sons Anthony and Andrew early in their
karting careers. One of them went on to do rather well.
Strawson won the Esso-sponsored BRDC title in 1974, but
wanted more power than the 410 horses offered by its Weslake-
built V8. A succession of bigger engines were subsequently
shoe-horned into the car. “Tony was what I would call a power
man; he enjoyed big engines – that was his thing” says Waller.
“First he bought a full-house Formula 5000 Chevrolet and
then we went the ‘big-block’ route with a 7.6-litre Chevy.”
The car was eventually sold to George ‘Welly’ Potter, another
stalwart of big and hairy saloons. The whereabouts of the Capri
today isn’t known. Waller suspects that the car, which he
describes as a “monster of a machine”, was broken up.Bigger^ V^8 engine^ was
a tight^ fit,^ but^ Strawson
always^ wanted^ more
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