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My car is getting closer to being back on the road soon but I still have a few months to wait and all this lovely sunny weather we are having at the moment is making me itch to get back in an old car and go for a random drive. At the moment I’m driving a Mk2 Golf, which although loved by many and praised for how well it can drive a track even as a standard car, I find quite boring and in desperate need of some decent suspension (which it will have in a couple weeks…)
I want need to get back in a car where the steering makes my arms ache, the smell of petrol is so strong I get a little woozy and the engine is so loud it scares boy racers and their 8 inch tail pipes. I have talked about how, if my car is still broken by the time the show season comes up, that I will get one of those awesome classic camper van hire things and do a show in relative comfort in the back of a splitty van rather than a rubbish tent. Ideally one day I will be looking in the vans for sale sections of forums and free ads to buy my own but with the prices at the moment that is just a pipe dream. Who knew old vans driven by hippies could cost so much!
Well anyway I’m half tempted to have a look at the car hire stuff you can get, not to go anywhere in particular just so I can bomb around in an old e-type Jag for the weekend. In fact I think I might find all the old cars that you can get to hire and make a big post about it so stay tuned!
In the meantime have a picture of a Golf that I hope the one I drive will look like soon (Except Silver).
As you probably know I’m a bit of a fan of the Ford Capri and I have resisted the urge to make this just a blog mainly about Capri’s but I did see an amazing picture today of a RS3100 and now I just have to do a post about the racing Capri’s (well the mk1 anyway, I haven’t got all day!)
First off there was a RS2600 that did group 2 Touring Car Racing in Europe and then after the mk1 had a facelift they introduced the 3.1 litre rs3100, which had an awesome Cosworth tuned GAA engine and raced in group 4. One of the best looking cars of all time easily.
Did you notice one of them was actually a model? I want that model!
The other awesome racing capri is the legendary Zakspeed Capri. If you’ve never heard of Zakspeed you should check them out because they were like the German version of cosworth.
Based on the mk3 Capri the Zakspeed was a spaceframed monster thatended up being 28 inches longer, 12 inches wider and 10 inches lower than a standard Capri and still managed to come in at under 800 kg’s!
The really special part of Zakspeed Capri’s though was the engine, throughout its lifetime it had two engines both based on the production spec Cosworth BDA found in the 1600 escorts. To race in division 2 of the Group 5 series they had to restrict the engine to 1.4 litres but they still managed to produce a reliable 460 bhp at 9200rpm and have a top speed of 170mph thanks to twin turbo’s and some genius workmanship. Just think if somebody was mental enough to make a road going replica it would have cheaper tax than my 1.6 Capri! I’m fairly sure it would produce more co2 and have a worse MPG average than mine yet according to the government it has less of an effect on climate change so has to pay less! Crazy!
With the groundbreaking aerodynamics, light weight and brilliant engine the Capri dominated division 2 but couldn’t win the overall Group 5 championship because of Porsches dominance in division 1. So to stop Porsche in 1980 Zakspeed bored out their engine to 1.7 litres and began competing in division 1. The new 1.7 litre engine produced 600 bhp and thanks to its low weight and aerodynamic advantage over the 800 bhp Porsches it started winning races. Unfortunately due to a dispute over its rear wing size its early season points were all stripped and it had to start half way through the season with nothing, however with some new diffusers and special flexible side skirts it became a winning car again. Unfortuntely the early season loss meant that Porsche still won the overall championship.
However the next year it dominated and won division 1 but was stopped from winning the overall title because of another Zakspeed capri that was racing a 1.4 litre version in division 2! A very succesful year for the Zakspeed team. Unfortuntely from 1982 the sport underwent a major change and the Zakspeed Capri ceased racing.
Greenwood Corvette at Sebring 1980 by Nigel Smuckatelli on Flickr.
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