I would like to dedicate my first post in this blog to this very interesting English car – Ford Consul Capri.
Consul Capri was introduced to English public in year 1961. It was proclaimed as the “first personal car from Ford of Great Britain” – basically Consul Capri is a 2-doors coupe version of of the Ford Classic saloon, the first British Ford model. It was designed by Roy Brown, the designer of notorious Edsel model. During the construction and designing, Consul Capri had an internal name “Sunbird”, which meant that it is some kind of hybrid of Ford Thunderbird and the Sunliner.
The vehicle was quit unusual for that time because of such features like disc brakes, four headlights, variable speed wipers, dimming dashboard lights, and a cigar lighter. Consul Capri was equipped with 1340 cc Straight-4 ohv engine, which was replaced in August 1962 by its enhanced variant with 1498 cc.
The first 200 Capris were hand-made left-hand-drive cars for continental Europe. During all the lifetime only 500 cars were sold. Their production was to expensive and retail price was rather high too. Ford Consul Capri was discontinued in July 1964 – after 2,5 years of production only.
