THE BEGINNING
THE CARS
To understand the significance of the Capri one must first appreciate the impact of the Mustang and the precedent it set within Ford. Clothing workaday running gear in a body the masses could afford proved wildly successful at its launch in April 1964; US management in Dearborn, realising the precedent, set out to build a European equivalent –a coupé based on existing platforms and running gear, freeing up funds to create a new bodyshell and marketing campaigns to maximise its appeal.
DEVELOPMENT
Retaining the equine theme, Project Colt was born, hot on the heels of the Mustang, towards the end of 1964: rapid development saw a stretched Corsair platform used as the basis for the new car, as Dearborn decided that the upcoming Escort was too narrow for the range of engine options planned.
Further work took place nailing down the details: the new car went from a two-seater to a four-seater and within a year an Advanced Vehicle Design mock up had been sent to Europe, with the new UK centre in Dunton, Essex taking the lead in refining the details. Ultimately, it would be Mustang team member, Philip T Clark, who took the main credit for the Capri’s shape; customer clinics, which took place in London, Brussels, Milan, Cologne, Hamburg, Geneva and Amsterdam refined the C pillar window design away from its original hockey stick profile as two GRP models, dubbed ‘GBX’ and ‘Flowline’, were wheeled out in front of potential buyers.
Project Colt was signed off in July 1966, and slated for an Earls Court, London debut in October 1968 – but this eventually slipped to January 1969, when the new car appeared at the Brussels motor show. Response to the so-called ‘C curl’ rear window was so negative that, based on feedback from clinic members, worried about visibility for passengers, prompted tooling to be changed relatively late in the day. Additions from other departments also delayed the launch. The original plan to build the car solely at Halewood became complicated when Ford Germany wanted to fit Cologne V4s and V6s from the Taunus; duplicated tooling would be sent to Germany to build the new car there, too.
Ford dropped the Colt development name from the boot lid of the new car when it realised Mitsubishi had the rights to the name; realising it couldn’t take the moniker into production, it reverted to
