Clare & Simon's 1987 2.8i Special and 1.6 Laser

It all started out as a bet…I was a 25 a day smoker for 10 years from the age of 16. I had tried to give up several hundred times without success and was beginning to think I was a lost cause. Then my husband, Simon, came up with a great idea. If I were to give up smoking from 12am New Years Day 2001 until my birthday in July he’d get me my dream car…a Capri.

 I wasn’t bothered which one because at that time I didn’t know much about Capri’s except for the breath taking shape of them. I had admired the Capri ever since I first saw one, the day I moved back from California.

 I met Matt Woodroof, who has a 2.8I Special, through my place of work, Ford. He took us to Capri Mania early in 2001 with some of his friends and taught us lots about the Capri. We drove up there with Jim in his Brooklands 280 and on our way met up with other Capri’s. Before I knew it we were in a convoy of five, I can still imagine it now us in front of a beautiful MK1 in spotless white.

 I was hooked and from that moment on I wanted my own Capri. Simon had decided that we would search out a 2.8I Special, it seemed to be the model that everyone wanted. We started looking in June and towards the end of the month we found a Crystal Blue, D reg. up near Liverpool. We had the cash and managed to prise it out of the previous owner’s hands and drive it back to East London. She wasn’t taxed nor MOT’d so we had to book an appointment before we could drive her.

 On the way home I drove the Saab Turbo, but couldn’t keep my eyes on the road, there was this fabulous 2.8 in my rear view mirror. As we were driving, Simon was flashing me madly we were both so excited that this beauty was ours. It wasn’t for another 5 miles that I realised his reason for flashing me…I’d passed our exit and was increasing our 250mile journey.

We pulled in to a service station; I jumped out of the car and told Simon that I’d named our new car. Her name was to be “Beauty” because that is what she is!

After driving the Capri for a few days, a whole new world seemed to open before me. Capri fans seemed to come out of the woodwork. I suppose it helped working for Ford at their research and design building which holds over 5,000 people. That then became my mission, to find more Capri fans.

I do enjoy working at Ford and every morning on my way into work I feel so proud as I drive into the site with a sparkling motor and the V6 gurgling in a mist of brand new Mondeo’s and Focus’s etc. I stand out like beam of sunshine, or maybe that is just the smile that seems to be a permanent expression, these days.

 We planed to try and keep Beauty in as good a condition as possible which forced us to make a very difficult decision. Hibernate her during the winter. The closer winter got, the more nervous I got. What was I going to do, drive the Saab all winter?!?!?

Luckily we came upon an ad on the Ford Capri Laser Page; 1.6 Laser, Non-runner free to good home. Simon and I dragged Mat Gill up with us to look at the Laser. It was a state! Covered in inch thick dirt and a handful of spiders that refused to give up their long term home. After an hour of inspecting the car inside and out, underneath and on top and failing to start it, we decided to take it home.

 I was driving Beauty and towing the Laser behind me. I can still remember the awful noises that came from the tug on the chassis every time the tow rope became taught. We stopped at a petrol station to get some lights to inform people that we did have a car on tow, but couldn’t find any. The whole mission was becoming a nightmare as other cars tried to cut in between us. We even had a pedestrian jump over the rope when we were stopped at a set of traffic lights!

 I begged Simon to drive Beauty and let me drive the Laser because I couldn’t stand the thought of the possible damage I was doing to my beloved 2.8 when pulling away from a stand still. He didn’t let me, little did I know, what he was going through with the Laser. The brakes were ceased, he didn’t have wipers and it was now spitting with rain. He was trying to turn a steering wheel with shredded, mouldy leather as well as sitting in a mouldy driver’s seat.

 At the next junction, I pulled away, scrunching my eyes closed as the rope went taut. All of the sudden I was free! I managed to snap the tow rope and a huge feeling of relief came over me. I pulled onto the side of the road to look back and see that Simon was just as relieved. We pushed the Laser to the side of the road behind Beauty and waited almost 3 hours for a tow truck. Because the Laser was not under any recovery policy we had to fork out £90.

 Once the car was on the back of the tow truck, I said to Simon “This is your last chance. If you want to walk away from this car and save yourself £90, NOW is the time to ditch it!” It was tempting…but our love of the Capri wouldn’t let us leave the Laser. We knew we could give this car a good home.

 The next morning, Simon woke up in a bit of a frenzy. He was telling me about this horrible nightmare he had. He said that we had scoured the country in search of a prime example of a 2.8 Special and then, 2 months later, we towed home a free, non-running rust bucket of a Capri…

 That weekend we went round to Mat Gill’s house where we’d parked the untaxed, uninsured and un-MOT’d car on his drive and started the surgery. Simon and Mat went off to pull some parts of a 2.0 Sport that was being broken while I had the task of cleaning the Laser.

 I had to take a couple of deep breaths to prepare myself for the long day ahead. I opened the boot and found a pair of dice, which I hung on the rear view mirror, that was the first job. I scrubbed the body, like I’ve never scrubbed before. I shampooed the interior and removed all the dog hairs and found the spiders new homes. Treated the rubber, washed the wheels, cleaned the glass, etc. 6½ hours later I found a Capri. His registration is D41 JKO, so I named him Jak.

Simon and Mat returned with all manner of parts. Mat’s face lit up when he showed me the turbo spoiler that he purchased. He promptly rested it vertically on the side of his garage in front of Jak to admire it. As soon as he stepped back to get a better view a gust of wind blew it straight onto Jak, leaving a massive dent and black mark on the front wing. As both wings needed replacing I wasn’t too upset.

 It took all of us three weeks to get him running, MOT’d, taxed and insured. Now I’ve got myself a reliable 1.6 Laser that does a 50 mile commute every weekday. He’s had loads of improvements in the 6 months that we’ve had him and he’s faithfully done 9,000 miles and still going strong!