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TOP CAT
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The Mercury Capri
brand was
Mustang's partner in performance during the '80's. There were several special editions of
the Capri offered through is short lived Fox platform. 81-83 Black Magic,
81-82 White Lightning, 83 Crimson Cat, 84 Charcoal Turbo RS, who can
forget the 84-86 ASC McLaren and the last special edition were the 1985
Mercury Motorsport Capri - Grand Prix IV Pace Cars.
Like any other Fox platform fan or "fox junkie" as I often call
myself, a tribute to this car is in order. We found this car out in Riverside
California and had to drive it back home about 90 miles. To
our surprise the car drove very straight and stopped well.
Our new project consists of a 1984 Mercury Capri RS equiped with a
factory
H.O 5.0L engine and a a 5 speed trans that will not stay in 3rd. Check out
what it looked like: |
   
We want to turn this ride into a fun car to
drive as we will be using it as a daily driver and cant brake the bank.
We have many parts left over for previous projects that will save us
lots of money and will be an upgrade for this car. |
  
The interioir needed some work just to be able to drive it comfortably. We
found the original cloth material and re-covered the front seats to keep
it looking stock (at least for now). The hedliner was in need of
recovering and convinced our buddies at the upolstry shop to help with
the labor cost. |
    The
engine is a project in itself, Although the engine runs strong as is it
the 200 or so HP is just not acceptable in this day in age. We removed the
engine and started sorting out parts left over form other race projects
that we can use here. We
found a set of old Holly heads that had work great in in one of our race
cars untill a bad shift granaded the engine. (check
out the video on You tube......)
We took many of our
parts to our frineds at L&R Engines in Santa Fe Springs CA who will be
repairng and building our new power plant. Check out the repair on the
heads!   |
 
We utilized an early model crank that is originally heavier and potentally
stronger than the newer cranks. We lightened it at the counter weights so
it will have a heavier center mass but can spin faster because of the
lighter counter weights.
 
Look at the difference in weight on the scale.
This will help the throttle response.
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