Team 50*North: How it all began ...

It was a bright, clear day in October 2007 that I spotted her.  There she sat, black and low and menacing.  She wore black shades;  her expression purposeful.  In kinky boots she sat on her haunches, close to the ground with poise and grace; coming out of the low sun she was a panther waiting to pounce.  Her narrow waist flared to the curve of her hips.  She was beautiful ... she was flirty and nearly thirty; and she looked really dirty ... 

Me?  All I was doing was driving to work.  It just wasn't fair.  I mean, it really wasn't my fault.  She just kept on staring at me.  Every morning and every night there she was.  Her shades glowered at me, her presence bored into me.   It really, really wasn't my fault.   I resisted, I held out, I did... honestly, I held out for a whole week!  I kept on driving by but it all got too much ... the lure grew and grew.  The force was strong with this one.  She was Darth Vader ...  I couldn't resist her seduction any longer.  I had to stop.  And that was all it took... 

Ford Capri Ghia.  The car you always promised yourself.  Indeed. 

'Carla' just after I first brought her home ...

As a kid growing up in the seventies and eighties I wanted a Capri.   Everyone wanted a Capri back then.  It didn't matter much which one; if you could get a 3.0S great, better yet a 2.8i or a 280 Brooklands but 1.6 or even 1.3 would do.  Just as long as it was a Capri.  By the time I turned 17, they stopped making them.  Which meant used ones held their value.  They were in demand. At least for a while.  Too much for me when I first passed my test at any rate.  And now, the good ones are even more expensive.  The rest are rotten.  I could afford this one though - at least that's what I told myself.... I know the screen price reflected the work required ... this girl was looking good across the dance floor but up close she was always going to be high maintenance ... but I overlooked that .. in a masochistic act of willing suspension of disbelief I saw through the fading gloss, the care-worn, wrinkled and pock-marked skin ... all I could see was the pout and the taut sexy body... like I said, the force is strong with this one....  

Anyway, I went through the motions ...  a spot of unimpressive tyre kicking, grunting and chin rubbing followed while I pretended to know something about ... well, something about anything at all really.  I tried to appear not all that bothered.  I tried to play hard to get.  I failed completely of course (as I always do).  A cursory spin around the block like a teenager on a promise, followed by a frantic but ineffectual bout of haggling and desperate groping for the wallet that always precedes teenage kicks sealed the deal.  The Undertones got it wrong though.  Teenage Kicks don't last right through the night.   They last about 30 seconds.  Or, it did in this case...

So there you have it ...  I became the proud owner of a Ford Capri Ghia with a 2 litre OHC engine and auto transmission.  First registered in 1980 she had done (on the clock at least) 142,00 miles or so.  She had four months MOT but hadn't been taxed in 12 years!  She had spent the last 11 and half years living in a garage unused; and that was both a blessing and a curse!

First thing I did was to get her to a Capri specialist, and I had her given a once over for safety and reassurance.  Her exhaust had fallen off on the test drive... I ignored that fact at the time; it didn't seem important really ... so I had a big bore exhaust fitted (£200 or so); her brakes were sticky - well, stuck actually, (common in any old car that sits for a while ... to be expected really ...) so I had them overhauled (new discs and pads at the front, the rears adjusted, £100 or so).  I thought I had better protect my girl so I had remote central locking and an alarm fitted ... (another £200 or so); a couple of miscellaneous items plus labour ... all in all, in a morning I doubled my purchase price and then some.   But it's all good.  I mean, I bought her at a price reflecting work to be done right ...? Very fair.

And then I parked her up for the winter, awaiting the summer fun that would be mine .. ours ... the Capri and I ... Together in Electric Dreams ....

During the long winter months I day-dreamed and idly wondered about what adventures I could have with the Capri ... or more truthfully, urgently considered what was I going to do with her.  She had to have a raison d'etre; she simply had to earn her keep ... I needed something useful for her to do... and quickly.   This  pragmatism was enforced by my beloved wife who had steadfastly refused to be seduced by the car or my pleas of innocence and rapturous praise of the car's undoubted virtues ... the wife was not impressed.   She was not impressed I had bought her.  She was distinctly unimpressed when I said she couldn't drive her.  When I told her she was too difficult to drive, my ever sensible wife translated that as too crap ( I merely meant too wayward, too tail happy, too powerful in all the wrong places, too rear wheel drive, too old, too rubbish at stopping, too rubbish at not hitting things, too bad at everything for my beloved and precious wife but not crap .. she is a good car .. really ...  she just needs me to drive her .. only I can reign in her wild horses and keep her out of a ditch or wall or oncoming buses .... no no no.. Carla was MINE ... ALL MINE!!!).  All in all I needed a reason to keep my Capri and fast ...

Ploughing through Classic Ford I read about a MK 1 Capri taking part in rallies in the States.   We could do that ... well, maybe not ..... too expensive and I am too rubbish ... I can't drive that fast ... nor can Carla (I am not really this sad by the way, I didn't name her ... Ford did ... when the Mk 3 was being readied for the market to replace the Mk2, it was known as 'Project Carla' but it is a good name .. I like it...) ... What about overland to the Sahara ... niiice ... lots of flying sand as the rear wheels spin wildly ... Paris - Dakar .... coool.... but on balance a 4wd Bowler Wildcat probably better ...     And then I found Charity Rallies ....

So that's how all this madness started ... a Capri I couldn't resist ... and a desperate search for justification for buying her... is this a mid life crisis?  It turns out that it is the 40th Anniversary of the Capri next year ... 1969 the first Capri's went on sale ... it was a good year, 1969 ... Neil Armstrong walked on the moon ...   and I was born too.

So Carla and me ...well, we are going to have one almighty 40th birthday party ... in Sukhbaatar Square, Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia on the 26th July 2009!  If you want to come, it's easy - get yourself a vehicle and drive 10,000 miles across Europe and Central Asia.  Cross mountains and steppes and deserts and untold borders with bandits at every turn ... well, crooked police and border guards actually ... very low risk of meeting any actual, bona fide, bandits ...   but do yourself a favour (and the Mongolians too) be sensible, take a 10 year old 4wd - you can pick up a halfway decent Land Rover Discovery for not a lot of money or better yet, for the Mongolians anyway, get yourself a Japanese 4wd - an Izuzu Trooper or Nissan Patrol are probably as good as a Toyota Land Cruiser for the job in hand but half the cost.  Trust me, it will work out a lot less money in the long run.   Making a knackered or unsuitable car rally proof is more expensive than buying the right vehicle in the first place! 

Doh! - but don't tell my wife that! ;-)