I’m not a fan of ‘garage queens’, those kind of cars that are built up, but you never see them on the road.
I believe that all cars should be driven. It doesn’t matter if it’s a stance car, a truck, or a legend of motorsport – the worst fate a car can have is accumulating dust. That brings me to this 1971 Ford Capri…
Just by the look of it, you can tell it’s a race car. The engine has been built and taken from 2,600cc out to 3,100cc.
The owner is a man well known here on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands for building race cars. He has owned and modified a number of cars, from Alfas GTAs to a Ford Escort RS Cosworth.
He is restoring a Mk1 Lotus Cortina to use as a daily driver, but he loves Capris. He has put uncountable hours to get this Capri to where it is now, but he has to sell it, despite really not wanting to. He would love – as he told me – just put it on the trailer and blast it on a racetrack on a Sunday. But he can’t.
In fact, none of the almost 1 million people living on this island off the coast of northwestern Africa can.
After football, motorsport has been the second most popular hobby here for decades. Every rally has thousands of fans standing next to the road, just to see the cars pass by. And yet, a racetrack has still not been built.
This is not a complaint about no one wanting to spend a lot of money doing it, but about how the politicians have lied to us for 20 years now.
There is indeed a plan to build a circuit, and a piece of land was chosen around 10 years ago. Construction was set to start last year, but as far as we know they only moved a rock to take a picture for the newspapers.
I know this seems like a rant, but it may make you look different at your local racetrack, even if it’s small.
Anyway, what saddens me the most is that even if they end up building the racetrack, the Capri is going to be very far away from here, which means I’ll never have the chance to capture it in motion.
Aarón Pérez Torres
Instagram: flappypaddle
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I'm a bit confused. This guy builds racing car but there is no place to race them where he lives. So my guess is he does it for people who live elsewhere. So what stops him from racing abroad, where all the rest of his builts do race? And I guess he did know when he started this project that there was no place to actually run this car. And since there are rallies , and quite popular why doesn't he rally it?
Hi! Yes, he builds rally cars for other people/teams. This one is a passion project as he is a Capri and Ford enthusiast. The cost of taking the car abroad is very high for just take it for a couple laps. The reason he doesn't use the car for rally is that is not a rally car and the configuration is for track/circuit use.
Still it doesn't make any sense to me. OK a track was promised but even if they did start it would take quite a couple of years to complete it. Sure he is a Ford and Capri enthusiast so why not build a rally car? And I would modify my favourite car rather than sell it. Anyway, I still like this kind of stories and it's definitely nice to read them.
I'm guessing he built it on the promise of there being a track built, which has turned out to not be true
If you read it, it appears that a racetrack has been promised by local government but has been delayed for years. Tenerife and the Canaries are quite a way away from the African continent, and even further from Europe so they're pretty isolated.
That is 100% right. A Ferry to Huelva takes around 37 hours.
There's a racing circuit on Gran Canaria at Maspalomas. Maybe ferrying the car to the next island is an option for this Capri to stretch its legs.
I think he has done before but it is not worthy cost and time-wise.
is that roughly 270hp?
I think closer to 300hp.
270hp of raw speeeeed
What a sad story, such a wonderful car, my Grandpa used to race Fords when he was younger!
By the way, when will the Speedhunters Store be back, I'm dying to get some decals
Cheers
Just took a 3 month break and am back. Gotta get a new phone lmao good to see you guys are doing great articles. Catch you on the flip side.
I totally understand this. We had a circuit that the city shut down about 8 years ago and while there have been a couple projects announced and are apparently still in the works their information comes and goes and no ground has been broken.
I absolutely love Capri’s Where is this all exactly located?
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I know some guys who had this idea and pulled it off in one of the most dangerous parts of the world. If you're interested email me. They invited me to race with them in their cars which are actually pretty respectable for where they are--they have their own series with 30-40 members now. It's pretty wild and the only thing that stops me from going is the travel money lol. It would probably be a cool story!
venirse a la península loco, el Capri necesita correr!! un saludo desde Madrid!