• Late model Capri with styling mods

• 3.0 V6 engine conversion

• Recently recommissioned

• Owned by current keeper for 24 years

Nothing screams ‘Essex’ more than a white Ford Capri with a 1980s body kit, so it’s hardly surprising that it’s the very county where this car can be found for sale – right in Ford’s heartland.

And although it’s far from standard, this is a Capri that’s as evocative of its era as a factory-spec Injection Special on pepperpots. 

It’s the very definition of a home-modified Capri, one of the most popular cars of the time in the 1980s and 1990s car modifying scene, and for good reason. 

As well as the obvious additions of RS alloys, front and rear spoilers and those side skirts, it’s non-standard under the bonnet, too. This Capri was born a 1.6 Laser with a four-pot Pinto engine under the bonnet, but this was swapped for an ‘Essex’ 3.0 V6 (it had to be the Essex engine right?) in the mid-1990s. 

Originality buffs, look away now. If you’re still reading, then here’s a Capri that truly defines its era. 

The Capri has been owned by the vendor for the past 24 years, or more than half his life. He’s finally decided to part with it after recognising that he simply doesn’t use it and would much rather the car went to a new home where it would be used and shown rather than parked up and ignored. 

In his own words, he “loves it, but wants a better life for it”. Indeed, it was parked up in dry storage for around 15 years before being put back into service. He has recently had the car returned to the road by a trusted garage that he knows very well, with a full brake and suspension overhaul and service. 

The Capri has a full UK V5C in the owner’s name and it will also be supplied with a full MOT. The current test expires in November, but the vendor has said he’ll happily get the car tested for its next owner on completion of the auction. 

There’s also a receipt from 2019 when the majority of rectification work was carried out to put the car back on the road, at a price of over £3,500, with work including four new tyres, brake discs, pads and callipers, fuel lines, brake hoses, wheel bearings, water pump, fuel pump, radiator, electronic ignition kit and a new rotor arm and distributor cap. 

According to the seller, he did have a load of older receipts from when he first acquired the car but after a while living overseas he misplaced them. He believes they could well be at his mother’s house in Austria but cannot confirm this until she’s had a chance to look.

A white Capri with a wide body kit and RS alloys is so definitive of eighties and nineties car culture that it defies kitsch and becomes cool. It’s a distinctive car that’s completely rooted to its era. 

The vendor is the first to admit that it’s not perfect, but he’s also aware of how solid the car is having been extremely careful to look after it and keep it in sold, rot-free order in the near quarter of a century for which he’s owned it. The engine bay, inner wings, floors and sills all look perfectly solid.

The car was resprayed in its original Diamond White a few years ago, and while it looks great from 10 paces, the finish is a little flat up close and there are areas that could do with some refinishing. 

It also has a few marks ad nicks that will need attending to, such as a damaged bumper overrider and a some cracks and damage to the body kit around the nearside exhaust pipe outlet. None of this impacts the Capri’s usability, so they’re jobs that can be attended to over time. 

The body kit is an aftermarket item, but the wite ‘grille’ is a genuine Tickford item, giving it the frontal appearance of a Tickford 280. 

Everything is in clean and very decent order inside, save for only the very slightest of wear to the driver’s side seat bolster, though there are no holes.

The seats themselves are full-on 1980s Recaros, the original ‘sports seat’ and highly desirable of the day, trimmed in hard-wearing grey velour. 

The dashboard is free of cracks, the carpets are in good order and a quality modern sound system completes the picture. 

This example started life as a Capri Laser – the entry-level coupé aimed at budget-conscious buyers, but was given a 3.0-litre V6 engine transplant in the mid-1990s. 

The V6 is Ford’s durable and powerful ‘Essex’ unit developing around 155bhp, and is allied to a five-speed manual transmission making this a comfortable and relaxed cruiser as well as pretty quick off the mark. The engine fires up eagerly and runs well, with the Janspeed twin exit exhaust adding something a bit more to the mix. It makes a wonderful noise. 

The seller reports that the car drives as it should with no known mechanical issues. 

Let’s be clear here – this car won’t appeal to just anyone. There are some we would much prefer a standard, original car and there are plenty of those from which to choose. This one is, in many ways, just as historically important as the Capri was a stalwart of the modifying scene and they don’t come more definitely Eighties than this. 

It’s Eighties iconography at its best and a definition of the Capri as so many people will remember them – as much a part of social history as it is a car.