Year of Ford Capri

Ford Capri was a name used by the Ford Motor Company for three separate automobile models:

• The Ford Consul Capri coupe, produced by Ford of Great Britain between 1961 and 1964
• The Ford Capri coupe, produced by Ford Europe from 1969 to 1986
• The Ford Capri convertible, produced by the Ford Motor Company of Australia from 1989 to 1994.

The Capri name was also used by Ford's Lincoln-Mercury Division on a number of models which did not bear the Ford name:

• The Lincoln Cosmopolitan Capri, 1950 to 1951
• The Lincoln Capri, 1952 to 1959
• The Mercury Comet Capri, 1966
• The Mercury Capri, 1967
• The Capri, 1970 to 1977
• The Mercury Capri, 1979 to 1986
• The Mercury Capri, 1991 to 1994

The first use of the name Capri outside the USA was by Ford of Great Britain for a 2 door coupé version of the Ford Classic saloon. To really understand why this model was produced and in such limited numbers, one has to look at the history of the Ford Motor Company (UK) at that time. During the 1950's all bodies for Ford of Great Britain's passenger vehicles were built by outside body builders. Dearborn made it known in November 1960 that it wanted to purchase the rest of the share capital in Ford of Great Britain. This brought about some policy changes that had great influence into the styling of the coming models. Not the least the fact that they put their own people into Dagenham. The Ford Classic was a result of 4 years of intensive development. Approval for the project was given in autumn 1956. The Styling of the car was the last project undertaken by Colin Neale before he left Dagenham for Dearborn. The initial design requirements was for the Ford Classic to be a full range model, to take Ford into the new decade. Ford produced a full size estate (or Station Wagon) mock -up but it never reached production.

The Capri Project was code named "Sunbird", it took design elements from the Ford Thunderbird and the Ford Galaxie Sunliner. It was instigated by Sir Horace Denne, Ford's Export Director. He wanted a "Co-repondent's" car to add a little glamour to the export line. On it's September announcement it was initially for Export only. It was designed by Charles Thompson who worked under. It had sweeping lines, a large boot space and a pillarless coupé roof. The Ford Consul Capri went on sale to the domestic home market of Britain in January 1962: The bodies were sub-assembled by Pressed Steel Fisher, with only final assmbly taking place at Dagenham. Because it was intended as part of the Ford Classic range of cars, the body was well engineered but was complex and expensive to produce. With new production methods, time demands from Dearborn and a need to match opposition manufacturers in price, the Ford Classic and Consul Capri were almost doomed from the start. The Ford Classic ran from 61 - 63, and was replaced by the equally short lived Ford Corsair.