Be Excellent To Each Other

Meh! I feel your pain mate; I never had a 2.8i, but my Capri 2.0S was routinely dicked by the then up and coming hot hatches like the 205 GTi, Mk 2 Golf GTi, XR2i and all the rest. Even some incredibly attractive young blonde did the dirty on me in a Mini 1275GT of all things, and the A-series engine only made around 70bhp I think. I'm still smarting now, 20 years on lol. There's little substitute for a well-sorted, small, lightweight car with a wheel at each corner. I thought my Capri was achingly awesome at the time, but at the end of the day it was a long wheelbase, heavy, underpowered and rather ill-sorted dinosaur.

The seats were good though.

Quoted for truth

Meh. No wonder I liked it.

Seriously though, the Capri was a charming old beast though, I've always thought. I can think of many clearly better cars that I love an awful lot less. Gotta love the Mk 1 RS3100 in particular - in Cologne white and blue.

Yes (but it also has a more sensible high ratio one - real cars have two gearboxes
Oh wait - four gearboxes).


Yes


Right up until I plug in my laptop to tune it.

I could make it fast if I wanted to - the kit is actually designed to be a racing car (and was the first of the Bowlers, followed by the Wildcat and the Nemesis. You might have seen Hammond racing a jet-powered canoe on Top Gear in a white Tomcat) - taking the winches and all the off-road armour off would be a good start, as would putting on less chunky tyres (oh, and dumping the autobox in a lake). But it's more designed to go through big holes than to jump over them.


Can't speak for the Mercs, but the terrain response in the newer Land Rovers took most of the years I've been off-roading for and made them all useless. It can see into the future, I swear.

*dons nonsense-tinted-spectacles* absolutely not, it was awsome in every way. especially since it was home made. now I am turning around and saying LALALALA every time you try to reason with me.

A silly man let me have a go in his V6 (was it a six? Or an eight?) Capri in the carpark of the offroad site I (used to) frequent - which is basically a massive grass field.

I managed to go a fair distance while only looking through the side windows

I can't imagine trying to push one on in the wet. It was more eager to get its arse out than a bus-load of 18-30 holidaymakers on their way to the next club.

Feast your beady eyes on this mate... FILTH!

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h ... AQ&dur=415

Pfft:



http://www.adrianstomcat.co.uk/Capri.htm

theres a replica of this in dundee.
mine had the 2.9 out of a sierra xr 4x4 in it with a hybrid box (half 4x4 half rwd) that I built. but it didnt have a swirl pot so letting the fuel level drop below half was a no-no.
I'll try and find a picture...

and Grimm... thats just wrong

Yup, sounds about right mate.
My pal had a 2.0S MkII (with shagged shocks it must be said), and he kept concrete blocks in the hatch in an effort to tame its errant, wayward arse.

Ah, happy days. I see kids now pootling round in immaculate, brand new/£10k worth, safe handling, aircon and ESP-fitted new Corsas etc. and the like, with about as much power as a reading lamp and personality to match. I dunno though; I feel they are missing out (but probably living much longer).

We all of us had lairy old wrecks back in the day and thought absolutely nothing of bunging in the biggest (and most knackered) engines we could find off one scrapheap or other.

You mean like a 75% power split to the rear?


Wha? Pfft. Which bit of that is wrong?

nah its more like, in a mechanical way. the front half of the 4x4 box casing and the gearing out of the rwd. quite neat in the end actually.
the wrongness starts just below the window winder handle.

Must've been a V6 mate (Essex or Cologne), unless it was one of these beauties:

http://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/ca ... perana.htm

Filth. Pirahna Capri; Classic Ford ran a feature on one about a year back.

If it was, he didn't mention it. I'd imagine not.

Also: cortina Savage. same V8. both imported from south africa I think.

16 cd-r's of crap and four dead social networking sites later I have found a pic of the old beast.
The seats were replaced with recaro jobs and the wheels became 7 spoke RS specials. and I already mentioned crazy engine/gearbox arrangement.
most importantly of all I then put a sticker on the side that said FoMoCo in squigly writing. want.

Hah, it's been displayed here already: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fdqsjvxDvs
I was trying to talk Doccy G into buying it.

got any pics of it? email to me pls if you do, I was getting scared it was lost forever.

Sent.

That's lovely, that white Mk.3!

Cracking motor. That 6-clock dash takes me right back. I simply love old Fords, always have.

Took my grandson to a classic car festival last summer; ended up sitting in an *immaculate*, totally concour Mk1 3.0 GXL, in Daytona yellow, complete with black vinyl roof, 8-track cassette, the lot. It even smelled like an old Ford, if you know what I mean.

I have to say I was on the point of blubbing, sitting in the driver's seat, slotting away at that super-slick 4-speed 'box, talking incoherently to the equally irrational owner along the lines of 'these are our Essex cathedrals mate!' and such like.

Even my 2 year old grandson was looking at me strangely and Mrs Caveman had long since buggered off in disgust and sheer incredulity, in equal measure.

dont worry, that all seems perfectly normal to me.

thanks Kalmar

Edit: OMG I forgot how bad it was

Ah, SIDE lights twice.

That fixed it, Grim... - thanks! I'd tried mains twice, because that's what disabled it.

Mk5 Mondeo, due out next year.











It's very American looking - that snout is not far from a muscle car - and very, very nice, IMO. Love its arse.

In white:



And blue - look at the nose on it! Cor.



And one for Kalmar:

pic 2. looks like an Aston Martin.

not bad for a family car

That is nice. Grill looks like an old Mustang or something.

It does bear a resemblance to this, I think:



(stealth edit)

"Normal" cars are the best-looking now, I find. Super-cars look insane and whizzy, but most manufacturers are churning out lovely-looking lumps of tin.

Not sure I'm 100% on that. For what is a normal family car i think it looks brill (and no doubt will be too) but there's something a little off about its face, it just looks annoyed rather than purposeful and aggressive.

Looks pretty good, but will just become one of the crowd when there are umpty-billion on the road.

Not if I'm slinging it round a corner toward you.

I'm not getting another Mondeo =[

What's the specs of the plug-in hybrid version then?

http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/ ... 22298.html may have some information.

There's a 300BHP AWD version. Oh my.

They really are trying hard. A 4cyl 1.6 in a mid-size American Ford?

c'mon its 170 hp turbo. most cars that size only make that with a 2.0, admittedly all that power will be within a 1000 rev power band.

I thought Aston when I saw it..

All the pictures are called Fusion. So the Ford Fusion and Mondeo will essentially be the same car?

So when I said to Perkies in a Forza night recently that the European equivalent of the Fusion is the Mondeo and he dismissed me out of hand, I was actually right? I'm going to slap him so hard...

Of course, in America, 'Mondeo' means 'one who bums donkeys whilst eating the US Flag'.

So they pretty much had to change the name.

Yeah, they definitely accidentally put an Aston front bumper on that. It jars. It looks good, it just jars.

I like the front a lot.
Might be my eyes, but the rear and silhouette look pretty much like the old Mondy, though?

I do think Ford et al have lost the plot though; a decent spec Mondeo with a few boxes ticked isn't that much less than a poverty spec 3- or even 5-series, and rightly or wrongly most people would go for the Beemer and a bit of panache, if they have a choice?

Trouble is, I suspect, is that the economies of scale have tipped in the premium sector's favour. Time was, a Mondeo would outnumber and outsell a 3- or 5-series or similar many times to one, but that just isn't the case any more. So I guess, premium cars become cheaper to build and hitherto volume cars become more expensive. AFAIK Ford have certainly not been a cheap option for the last 3 years; I was shocked at how much a decent spec Focus now costs.

My brakes are squealing. I should spray them with WD-40, right?

Brake fluid, as I understand it. Ensure the blocks and discs and entirely coated with brake fluid. No more squeals!

But there are any number of cheaper cars, no point Ford trying to compete with Hyundai etc.

The only way to ensure no more brake squeal is to remove the brake pads. It's the friction, y'see.

it's the magnets that power the engine. They need adjusting.

Quite a lot. It's curvier and the exhausts / rear "diffuser" are different.


Only if they're being a bit silly. I suspect I'd prefer a fully-specced "bad" car over a low-spec "good" one (depending on how "good" and "bad" they were).


I don't know about the Focus, but each generation of Mondeo is cheaper that its equivalent "older sibling", as it were.

Can't find much information on Mondeo vs BMW 3/5 series - Ford were the best selling manufacturer of 2011 with 13.6% of all new car sales, compared to BMW's 6% - I can't find model breakdowns though so that doesn't mean a lot.

I'd have a Ford over a BMW any day. Maybe I don't understand panache.

Me too.

Okay, 2004 Mk1 Ford Ka or a 2004 BMW M3 CSL?