I have been very lucky to own three Capri's, all of which were so different in so many ways, power steering was one of them!

First of all in Feb 2001(two days after my birthday) I bought a 1.6 Laser in Black which I kept for a couple of years, with all of the steering wobble and crap brakes, but with plenty of glares, then onto a Brooklands which was utterly superb with all of the modern features of a car with superb power (try going from 1.6 to 2.8i!) and a fantastic noise, that Brooky had around £10000 of modifications / restoration spent on her. I still see her around today, I don't miss the 18 mpg though! If that seams low it was because she had the engine polished, balanced, racing cams etc....

Then she was sold and then I bought the MK1 Special you see above, an Emerald Green 1972 MK1 pre facelift 2.0 GT XLR.

This one was a very rare (only aware of one other) 2.0GT XLR 'Special'. NOT TO BE MIXED UP WITH THE 'VISTA ORANGE' SPECIAL.

Now according to the 'Kim Henson Capri purchase and restoration guide', (page 15) the difference from a standard V4 2.0GT XLR is, I quote:

'During 1972 Ford continued to keep the Capri range in the public eye, and in June 1972 a limited run of 1600GT, 2000GT and 3000GT Specials, with extra trim and fittings, was introduced, all with the 'power bulge' bonnets - originally only three-litre cars had these. In addition to the power bulge, the Specials featured a choice of black or Emerald paint and were fitted with many 'extras' as standard, including side repeater flashers (indicators), heated rear window, cloth trim, matt black facia and console, plus the rear opening windows as into the 3000E'.

She had only 19000 miles on her and only 2 previous owners, and would have set you back £1,242 for the 2.0 GT, £44 for the 'XL' pack and £39 for the 'R' pack. One of the greatest things I enjoyed about the car (as opposed to the looks) is that just to the left of the clutch pedal is another button on the floor that operates the windscreen wiper washers, how cool is that!!

She was built at Halewood in May 1972 and sold on the 1st July 1972.

You know that to complete my Capri's took some time and effort, and its surprising that without the internet it would not have been possible. I mean the interior carpet came from Australia and the chrome door mirror came from Germany, mind you, some other bits came from Tickover, they are only around the corner from me! But half the fun in restoring a classic is the hunt around for the spares, but not so kind on the wallet!

Just found another one of these in the same colour on the internet, great news, it's registration is NMF 424L IS PERFECT AND HAS ONLY 24000 MILES ON THE CLOCK. A big thanks goes to Steve Cash for that information. If you are the owner of such vehicle, PLEASE CONTACT ME!!!!

These are the companies that I would like to mention in the restoration of my MK1 Capri, without there help the project would have been very difficult to complete:

Maureen (She owned The MK1 originally)

Gary (THE Capri man)

Capri Club International - 01386-860860 (window wipers, seat belts, chrome sills, dashboard, window sticker!)

Tickover - 0208-298-1995 (glass,  wheels, odds and sods, etc..)

GMS Capri spares - 0191-377-1718 (brakes, belts)

Ebay (headlamp covers, boot lock, spotlights, boot carpet, hub caps, map reading light)

Classic Reproductions - 02476-694019 (vinyl stickers, gold stripes as per RS3100)

Cerberus Racing (interior carpet, all the way from Australia)

Signam Ltd - 01926-417300 (number plates)

Speedshack - 01895-449066 (wheel nuts)

Revamp wheels - 01689-873273

Phil (the one who owns the green RS3100 on this site)

G.Bilstein (chrome mirror, all the way from Germany)

Autoglym

Kevin (my mechanic)

All that is needed is the vinyl roof and some interior re-trimming and were done!