The 1961 Ford Consul Capri hardtop coupe is one of those overlooked Fords.
It has been related to a subordinate status by the success of its 1969 namesake.
And yet it was Ford’s most stylish car of the early 1960s.
The Capri was based on a family sedan, the 1961 Classic.
You might remember the Classic?
It looked like an oversized Anglia.
The Capri was developed from an ideas session within Ford’s UK design studios in late 1957, after the completion of the Classic sedan.
The close coupled coupe won the enthusiast approval of Ford’s top executives.
They saw it adding much needed American-style and glamour to enliven the Classic.
To save costs and speed up development the design team had to use Classic’s body below the beltline.
The sedan’s long boot lid also had to be used, which explains why the coupe’s roof is so short.
It meant that the Capri ended up being a 2+2 rather than a genuine four-seater.
In many ways, the Capri predicted the 1964 Mustang.
Both were stylish coupes whose sheet metal hid their sedan heritage, which in the Mustang’s case was the Falcon.
Both were aimed at the growing and increasingly affluent youth market
When the Capri was released in September, 1961 its youthful image was emphasised in the advertising.
One brochure read like a spy novel, with the car being portrayed as what a secret agent might drive.
And get this, one photo even showed a young woman tied up in the boot — supposedly being rescued!
The big mistake Ford made was lumbering the Capri with a small 1.3 litre four-cylinder engine that delivered only 56 bhp/42kW.
Magazine road tests revealed the car’s modest performance did not match its styling’s promise.
On the upside, front disc brakes were standard.
Larger engines were later offered, including a GT version that was powered by a 1.5 litre engine developing 84bhp/63kW.
But the enduring image of all show and limited go was hard to leave behind.
Capri production ended in mid-1964.
One of the interesting back stories to the Capri, is that it has a link to Australian Valiants of the 1960s and 1970.
You see, the boss of Ford UK’s design studio in the late 1950s was a 20-something Colin Neale.
Neale is an underappreciated car designer.
His impressive resume at Ford in the UK includes the MkII Consul/Zephyr/Zodiac, 1959 Anglia, Classic and Capri.
In 1958 he moved to the USA and contributed to the 1961 Lincoln and Thunderbird.
Neale was enticed to Chrysler USA in 1962, where he was appointed the design chief of its international studios.
These studios oversaw the styling of Australian Valiants, including the Charger.
Indeed, Neale personally approved the Charger design and was a big supporter of it.
When he was at Chrysler, Neale bought a Capri and had it shipped to the USA.
He never sold it.
David Burrell is the editor of retroautos
