The Ford Capri Laser Page

Let's use this thread to discuss what you've seen in my book. What surprised you, what questions do you have? I'll do my best to answer and, if we don't get too sidetracked, , it can be a fun place to discuss the book. It took me 22 years to get around to it so let's not wait for the next one and talk about it right here, right now.

So as some are waiting for there books I will not spoil it , but just going to say steve has just saved me £850 + Tyres .

Jasonmarie wrote:So as some are waiting for there books I will not spoil it , but just going to say steve has just saved me £850 + Tyres .

Ah, yes I get which bit you refer to there. I double-checked with two SVE people and they still have the same view.

A little secret to this group I'm not posting to Facebook or elsewhere. I was talking to Ford's ad agency today after they received their copy of the book as thanks for the help they gave. We thought it might be nice to do an evening in London at the agency where I give a talk about the book, tell some of the back stories and have a view special guests along that have written in it. We will invite a few hundred buyers of the book along as guests too - it will be a fun evening! I'll keep you posted....

Steve Saxty wrote:We thought it might be nice to do an evening in London at the agency where I give a talk about the book, tell some of the back stories and have a view special guests along that have written in it. We will invite a few hundred buyers of the book along as guests too - it will be a fun evening! I'll keep you posted....

This sounds a fantastic idea Steve. Will keep an eye out for your updates on this. My copy of your book is arriving by DHL on tuesday. Looking forward to it !

Fordoholic Nick wrote:

Steve Saxty wrote:We thought it might be nice to do an evening in London at the agency where I give a talk about the book, tell some of the back stories and have a view special guests along that have written in it. We will invite a few hundred buyers of the book along as guests too - it will be a fun evening! I'll keep you posted....

This sounds a fantastic idea Steve. Will keep an eye out for your updates on this. My copy of your book is arriving by DHL on tuesday. Looking forward to it !

Enjoy it Tuesday - I'll keep everyone in the loop as it comes together...

I am still going , can’t say anything yet as many of you have nor stated reading ,also I am reading it so gently as it’s nicks copy really does answer questions or how they got the Capri going , also the mk3 if I can say that Cortina with the Capri at the back is OMG .

Jasonmarie wrote:I am still going , can’t say anything yet as many of you have nor stated reading ,also I am reading it so gently as it’s nicks copy really does answer questions or how they got the Capri going , also the mk3 if I can say that Cortina with the Capri at the back is OMG .

TBH Jason I'm only on Page 140 myself, my bet is that a lot of people will be settling down for a read this weekend. The story of those Taunus coupe images is a funny one. There's a guy called Lucas in Argentina that runs the Taunus club there and I wanted "clean" images of the Cortina 80/MK5 coupe - he had to drive over the mountains to get then and dash back to scan them - a very kind gesture and I think it was a fun story about the Taunus Coupe since the UK never saw the car.

So that’s amazing as back in the early 80s when the Cortina was going out of production I got a poster and some bits from my grandad office and a guy also gave me some black & white pictures from the Cortina life and was amazed at reading and seeing that Cortina with the Capri Back .
So first I was just reading the extra bits with the collectors edition just as I started and ended up at the end .
But yes I almost catching you up , some parts I re read just so I know I have understood it correctly.

Can’t say to much as it will spoil the plot .

Jasonmarie wrote:So that’s amazing as back in the early 80s when the Cortina was going out of production I got a poster and some bits from my grandad office and a guy also gave me some black & white pictures from the Cortina life and was amazed at reading and seeing that Cortina with the Capri Back .
So first I was just reading the extra bits with the collectors edition just as I started and ended up at the end .
But yes I almost catching you up , some parts I re read just so I know I have understood it correctly.

Can’t say to much as it will spoil the plot .

In fairness - as Chapter 4 says it was a standalone Taunus/Cortina coupe rather than a Capri back grafted on. I wanted to be sure that Capri enthusiasts understood the complexity at Ford of Germany and Europe with Ford's other coupes. Had they not liked coupes based on saloons then I doubt the XR4i would have happened. I have now reached the halfway point of reading my own book which, as my wife points out, is pretty slow!

Ah, interesting you're reading the Collector's Edition bits first. what did you think of them and Patrick's afterword?

Hi, on the subject of Capri 280, why was it called the 280? Who decided on that name SVE? I get that it was meant to have Gold parts; colour coded etc and called the 500, then Ford found about another 500 or so body shells so they kept building until they ran out of parts thus ending the need to remove the tag 500, but when you find more than the 500 why then call it 280?just makes no logical sense. Was it to imply that actually there weren't over a thousand but 280.The RS200 and RS500 are so called due to homologation but 280 seems a random thing for Ford to do, I also get that it aligns to the 2.8 marginally. For me it smacks of laziness for a run out iconic car. The brochure sells it as a Classic already but it looks like Ford really didn't care just expected them to sell.

The original Capri 500 logo is how I had it drawn on the cover of the Standard Edition and inside on the Collector’s Edition – so an Easter egg treat there. I was going to have it drawn on the gold Minilites but couldn’t face it since everyone would keep mentioning the “wrong wheels”. The name change? Well it was all drawn up as the “Capri 500 SVP” (special value program) as I say and I guess it was a simple decision – the volume changed and they needed a new three-digit name. Likely no more than an 10-minute conversation in Marketing and then Geoff Fox at SVE hurriedly had to redraw it on the drawings – that’s how I have a copy of the original logo. Laziness?, maybe – expediency, certainly….

I really like minilites, thee are a few Capris with them. We're any other colours considered other then Green?

ESSEXV6ESSEX wrote:I really like minilites, thee are a few Capris with them. We're any other colours considered other then Green?

Nope - it was always green. Inspired by the Peugeot 309GTi Goodwood - I kid you not!

I dug out the Capri 500 SVP product paper which I still have - here's the spec:

- Gold minilite-style wheels
- Body-colour spoiler
- Capri 500 badging
- Raven trim leather seats with vinyl door inserts
- Burgundy red steering wheel and gearknob
- Possible Tickford or Turbo Technics engine option

There was a terrible tizzy around the 15" wheels' durability and what size tyre to use. I ran 195s which worked better but the 205s offered a thicker sidewall, less speedo accuracy at speed (which is oddly better for legal as it can over-read not under-read) and they look nice! 280s were all about looks on a budget of roughly 68p.

Steve Saxty wrote: Nope - it was always green. Inspired by the Peugeot 309GTi Goodwood - I kid you not!

Is that the other way around? The Goodwood wasn't introduced until '92.

Andrew.

Andrew 2.8i wrote:

Steve Saxty wrote: Nope - it was always green. Inspired by the Peugeot 309GTi Goodwood - I kid you not!

Is that the other way around? The Goodwood wasn't introduced until '92.

Andrew.

Yup - my bad typing at speed, the other way 'round!

Hi Steve,
I'm about 3/4 of the way through the book. I haven't got any specific questions to ask you at this stage, but I thought I'd mention that I am especially enjoying reading about the processes involved in the progression of a car from the early stages through to the finalised product. There's so much more to it than the man in the street would imagine. It's very interesting to see the design sketches, clay models and prototypes previously unknown to and unseen by the public.

Andrew.

Hi Andrew,

I'm glad you’re enjoying it. I was very keen that readers got an almost “confidential” look inside how these cars were conceived – if you’re three-quarters of the way through you’ll notice how it shifts. The Capri stuff is extremely detailed as a way of unpicking how a car evolved over its life. On Sierra I wanted to get more inside the design and marketing; then 2003 Capri S272 (which you may not have reached as it’s towards the end) it was more about the politics and the problems of (mis)planning a car badly. My hope is that there’s an initial mild shock value in the photos/sketches but the reading of it is the meat of the book. So, congratulations on getting so far in that short space of time, I'm sorry for I know there’s a lot to get through over the fifty-year trip but I hope you enjoy the journey!

I would say I have finished and OMG amazing don’t even know how we got the car we love with so many different ideals , I could see the ford pinto in the USA and also how we kept the Capri here .
I always believed in my mind that when cars come out they were new but perhaps made new not designed new . As they were working on the Sierra a long time before it come out .
I remember going down to the ford gagarge to pick up a ford cortina in the early 80s with my grandad we had been in to Dagenham plant and we saw some pictures of the clay cars that were being made up . And the blokes called the picture a bubble car what later become the Sierra.
Did love the book steve so many memories and facts that I have never heard or saw off before .

I'm glad you liked it Jason! I’ve had a few emails this weekend from people that have finishing that originally got the first copies – so it seems that it takes two weeks to get through.

It looks like that, although it took me 22 years to get around to it, the book is a step forward from that old one! I confess that I managed to get way more images on the Capri and Sierra designs than I had dared hope – so it’s nice to know they are appreciated. But this isn’t the end of the book though!

I’m recording a video today that the publisher will send to the book’s buyers (I don’t know who they are and stay in touch via the odd forum, [email protected], and the book’s Facebook Group). I’ll be telling people about the talks they will be invited to at Ford that will include some special guests- hint: forewords. I’ll also talk about the earliest ideas for a new book and an appeal…. This is where I need your help Jason, Andrew, and other readers – please place a review on the publisher’s website – rather delightfully it has a five-star rating. What people like to do is read what other buyers think. So please, do pop over to their site and, leave a rating if you’ve read it or to see what people say – it took me two years to do it so I’m keen to hear! https://porterpress.co.uk/collections/f ... /ford-book