Only two officially manufactured RS Capris went into production, but there have been a few other attempts to bring RS and Capri together over the years following the brief production of the RS3100. Some of the following, such as Escort Mexicos, were sold only by RS dealers. Some were designed by German motoring personnel and then sold only through RS outlets. Some have been proposed as RS products, but have never achieved anything more than Ford's limited approval, with some sections of the normal warranty absent in deference to radically increased engine power.
The closure of Ford Advanced Vehicle Operations was a prolonged affair. Several departments remained operational in 1975 (notably engineering; and Motorsport's parts operation still operates from this location in 1987) despite the closure of the production line and the dispersion of the majority of the workforce.
Product planner Mike Moreton prepared a plan in 1975 to produce a 2.8 liter RS Capri with fuel injection that should have reached the production lines in conjunction with the Escort RS2000. Management approval was given for this project, but the car was never made, due to the time-consuming business of putting the RS2000 into production at a mainstream facility, rather than at the FAVO factory for which it was originally designed.
However, the RS2800 Capri prototype was built, with the help of Thomas Ammerschlager in the Ford Motorsport department of Germany, and these cars were later demonstrated to the press in the Capn III trim. At the time, it was said that it was not worth the cost of development and crash tests to combine the 2.8 with the Capri hatchback, but the fluctuation in sales in Britain ended up changing all of that and the 2.8 injection appeared, reaching a very high level. proportion of profitable sales.
There is some logic in the owners of Capri 2.8 Injection, Special or 280 versions feeling that they have a genuine RS car, but the project had no intention on the part of the factory to use it in the competition. It was, however, a product of many of the same engineers who were at FAVO. The men who designed the RS2600 / 3100 started working on 2.8 Injection, the first car handled by the Special Vehicle Engineering group.
The fact that the resulting vehicle did not have an RS badge was simply a marketing decision. For the 2.8i it was as completely changed from a production base as many types of RS were. In fact, a former FAVO engineering chief told me: When I first ran a Capri injection, I thought it was the perfect development for the RS2600 series. Suspension, brakes, engine, all looked like developed versions of that first RS Capri
A similar lack of competition intent was why Germany's Ford / Zakspeed Capri turbo did not become an official RS product, despite being sold by RS dealers and developed by Motorsport staff. The Zakspeed-Ford alliance had previously produced a phenomenally successful 1.4 and 1.7 liter Turbo Capri race based on Cosworth BDA technology, but in addition to Zakspeed's work in its production and engineering, the Capri 2.8 Turbo sold by RS dealers in Germany in 1981 -82 had few features in common with 16-valve turbocharged race cars. Only 200 of these 134mph road cars were made by the Zakspeed-Ford cooperation, although a run of 300 to 400 was originally planned. Ford Vice President of Europe, Karl Ludvigsen, was brought to Britain. All were LHD and their 2.8-liter V6s equipped with a carburetor received only a modest increase of 0.38 bar in a KKK turbo. For later production, a Garrett AiResearch turbine was adopted, when the increase was apparently increased to almost 0.5 bar. With the largest reinforcement figure, these special Capris gave 188bhp at 5,500 rpm and at least 200lb / ft of torque was up at 4,500 revolutions.
Externally, they were the wildest goats ever offered by a Ford dealership. They had a very large rear wing in the style of the 16-valve pilots, tall and wide. The popular X-pack / RS body kit inflated wheel arches over 6.5 or 7.5 inch wide alloy wheels. The front spoiler was what the biggest German authorities allowed, and was usually removed when transporting new vehicles! The price, at the close of production in September 1982, was just under £ 8,900 without options.
There were also turbo capris for sale through Ford dealerships in Great Britain that could have achieved RS status, as SVE was very interested and cooperative in its training stages. The first was the Tickt Capri 2.8T, based on 2.81 with a Japanese IHI turbo conversion giving 205bhp. This package, of which less than 90 had been made when I arrived in 1986, included disc brakes for the rear axle and extensive body modifications, its price rising from over £ 15,000 to closer to £ 20,000 for the final lot in 1986-87.
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