Racing Capri’s – The RS3100 And The Zakspeed Capri
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.
