At $16,000, Is This 1974 Ford Capri A Worthy Tribute?

Built as a salute to Ford’s famous RS2600, today’s Nice Price or No Dice Capri certainly looks the part. Let’s decide if this old-school tribute needs an equally old-fashioned price.

Last Friday, we took a look at a 2019 Mercedes-Benz E 450 convertible that, between its body, canvas roof, and leather-swaddled interior, was a chef’s kiss of a color palette. It also was packed to the gills with things like big screens in the dash, neck heaters in the seats, and a movable spoiler atop the windscreen to help keep the cabin gust-free, thus maintaining its occupants’ expensive coifs. Overall, that extra-fancy Benz proved to be in great shape, but age and a lack of warranty for when any of its gadgets goes on the blink called into question its $37,900 price tag. Ultimately, the warranty worriers didn’t win out, with the swank E eking out a narrow 53 percent Nice Price win.

Over the years, Ford has employed a lot of different nomenclatures for its performance divisions and products. Here in the U.S. alone, there’s been SVO, SVT, and the evocatively descriptive “Ford Performance.” In the 1960s, Ford of Europe adopted a focus on rally racing, which spawned the TeamRS (Rally Sport) division supporting those efforts. Many rally racing rules require homologation of production cars, which naturally led to Ford offering hotter versions of its stable staples for the street, including legendary models such as the Escort RS, Sierra Cosworth RS, and, most important for today’s discussion, the Capri RS2600 and RS3100.

Accurately described as a “mini-Mustang,” the Capri was almost as big a hit with British and European buyers as its older big brother had been in America. It also served the same role of a Swiss Army Knife in Ford’s Euro lineup, attracting everyone from the style conscious to the yobbos with its selection of four and six-cylinder engines and various option packages.

This 1974 Capri is claimed to have been modded to evoke the experience of the vaunted RS2600. It certainly looks the part, having traded its ungainly U.S. bumpers for the earlier blade style in the back and Nerf bars in front, as well as a blacked-out hood and window surrounds. It also wears period-correct minilite-style wheels and, befitting its brand reassignment, has been denuded of its Mercury badging. The black-over-yellow color combination might feel a bit familiar since it’s very close to that of the Capri 3000GXL that Richard Hammond drove in the final “The Grand Tour” episode, One For The Road. 

This one, however, looks to be in quite a bit better condition than Hammond’s car. The paint is clean, and the bodywork beneath that is straight. Aside from the absent badging, it seems to have all its trim, as well. The cabin features a pair of old-school Recaro buckets paired with a freshly upholstered rear seat. Everything else appears fairly stock and blissfully analog, right down to the winder windows and Armstrong power steering.

One thing that isn’t stock is the shifter, which is taller than the stock stick and wears a later-style knob on the top. That’s required for the five-speed transmission that has been fitted to the car, which apparently also demanded the modification of the console to work properly. That has resulted in what looks to be the nubbiest E-brake ever conceived and likely the interior’s only flaw.

Ahead of the five-speed sits the car’s force majeure, a 2.8-liter carbureted edition of Ford’s evergreen Cologne V6. That’s fitted with a custom air filter and “Capri V6” branded valve covers. That’s a bit of bling and makes for an extremely tidy presentation in the repainted engine bay. Exhaust is by way of tubular headers, and those call attention to the V6’s weird two-and-one exhaust porting. That engine does provide heat for the cabin and vacuum for the power front disc/rear drum brakes but offers nothing in the way of A/C.

Per the ad, the clean-title car comes with 77,777 miles on the clock, and is described as being “fun to drive.”

Now, as much as this car recalls Hammond’s adventurous Capri, many of you might be recalling another, more recent edition, the wildly modded V8-powered edition we looked at several weeks back. That car had a lot going on—perhaps more than most of us cared for. At almost $20K, it also asked for a lot of bank.

This one has some mods, but they are much less audacious and far more appropriate for the time and the car’s tribute role. And, at $16,000, this one is a good bit cheaper as well.

What’s your take on this tribute Capri and that $16,000 asking? Does that feel fair, considering the car’s condition and presentation? Or is that too much dough to dis-tribute for its purchase?

You decide!

Nice Price or No Dice:

Orange County, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

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