Special edition Ford Capri may be made

Press, 23 August 1984, Page 26

Special edition Ford Capri may be made

Billed in Britain in 1969 as “the car you always promised yourself,” Fora’s seemingly evergreen Capri sports coupe is on the way out In fact the death knell is due to be tolled about now when Ford’s Cologne factory starts its annual holiday. Since 1976 the Capri has been built at Cologne only, although in the early days it was produced at Halewood, Ford’s Merseyside plant. British stocks are expected to last until towards the end of the year and there are rumours that, to mark the final bow, Ford may market a special edition of the 210km/h 2.8 Injection model. Even in its formative years, the Capri came to be Britain’s favourite coupe and towards the end of its career it came to

be regarded as the car for brighter young executives while the lesser people in the ranks drove a Cortina or, more recently, the Sierra. Although Ford’s XR range of cars has taken over the go-faster mantle of the company in Europe, the XR4i Sierra coupe is in a rather different category from the Capri and there is some speculation as to whether Ford of Europe will be content to allow the Sierra-based coupe to fill the Capri’s role. It may be that Ford will come up with an entirely new and cheaper Capri replacement In the meantime, Ford is looking to a Cosworth-en-gined version of the Sierra to flesh out the high-per-formance end of its European range.