If you were a teenager when the Ford Mustang was introduced in 1964, you'd be in your 50s or early 60s by now. The significant disposable income of this group explains in large part the current mania for the Ford pony cars and for muscle cars in general. But if you are a bit younger, and if your youth was misspent pining away for European-made cars, the car of your fondest teenage memories might just be the Mercury Capri. Ford introduced the pint-sized, Mustang-inspired car in January of 1969 at the Brussels International Auto Show and production started in Halewood in England, and in Cologne and Saarlouis in Germany. The car made its U.S. debut at the New York Auto Show in April of 1970. Most of the United States bound cars were built in the Cologne plant and shipped here from Germany.
A car for the timesThe early Capri had two big strikes against it. First of all, it was pretty anemic, weighing in at 2,135 pounds and pushed along by a 75-hp, 1,600cc four-cylinder engine borrowed from the British Ford Cortina sedan. This didn't make the car that much quicker than a Volkswagen Beetle, somewhat betraying its obviously sporty looks. But a more formidable obstacle was Ford's decision to sell the car through its Lincoln Mercury dealers. True, many of these same dealers had recently been given the Pantera to sell, but that Italian-built supercar hadn't made much impression on guys who were used to selling Lincoln Continentals to blue-haired retirees. There was method in Ford's madness; the four-cylinder Pinto was new to Ford's dealer showrooms and probably couldn't stand the competition the sporty European Capri would bring. Despite its shortcomings, the press and the public liked the car and more than 15,000 were sold in the States between April of 1970 and the launch of the 1971 models in the fall.
Better1971 marked the first full sales year for the Capri, and also the introduction of the Pinto's 2.0-liter, overhead camshaft, four-cylinder engine. With a 9.0:1 compression ratio and a single downdraft Weber carburetor, the Capri 2000 finally made good on some of the promise of its exterior design. The engine was rated at 100 hp and delivered 120 lb-ft of torque at 3600 rpm. This was more like it and the Capri was suddenly being mentioned in the same breath as cars like the BMW 2002, Porsche 914, Fiat 124 and even the fuel-injected Alfa Romeo. All of this for a price around $2,600 meant that even the lackadaisical dealer situation couldn't screw things up too badly, and 53,000 Mercury Capris were sold here in 1971.
BestIf 1971 was a year for improvements, 1972 was a breakthrough for the German-built Mercury. Although the 1,600-cc and 2.0-liter four-cylinder cars remained in the lineup, a new 2.6-liter V6 engine was offered. Although this larger all cast-iron engine was heavy, and in many ways upset the handling balance of the chassis, it was also robustly powerful, a feature that made it appealing to American buyers. The Capri with a V6 engine was more like a smaller version of the Mustang than a sporty European car. Although boasting only seven more hp than the Pinto four-cylinder engine, the V6 cranked out a healthy 130 lb-ft of torque and V6 models came standard with full instrumentation, reclining bucket seats, a rally-style map light and an optional sunroof, helping to push sales above 80,000.
And thenGovernment regulations for 1973 and 1974 mandated the next big changes for the Capri, in the guise of larger front and rear bumpers. These large-sized battering rams detracted from the earlier car's lithe good looks, even if the early bumpers did little to prevent crash damage even in minor collisions. The added weight necessitated an increase in engine capacity in 1974 for the V6 to 2.8 liters. The 1,600cc four-cylinder disappeared at the end of 1972, and the 2.0-liter four-cylinder would be gone at the end of 1974. Sales remained strong, but Ford knew it was time for an update of the whole package and there were no 1975 Mercury Capri models as the change was made.