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Awesome! Good on you guys for just heading out there and getting involved - inspiring stuff.

Can't wait to see how fast he manages to go. Are they saying out there to keep tuning or heading back later in the year?

So after a winter hiatus involving fitting a new kitchen and immobilising myself via a trapped nerve I finally got down the unit for some playtime for the first time this year.

It wasn't a long session, but the Capri still fires up and runs, and the bonnet is now off ready for a respray following much swearing due to the blue paint not adhering onto the cream of the bonnet bulge - needless to say I'm paying my paint man instead of doing it myself this time!

In other news, the shiny bits have started turning up ;D (though I now have no money)

First up the forged rods and ARP bolts from WMS Racing



Why forged - well because I'm hoping to have a redline of 7500rpm - which would make a mess of the standard ones, even if they were polished and shot peened.

Next the light weight, billet steel flywheel from TTV. This is actually the second one as the first never arrived.... thankfully DHL took responsibility so got a replacement! It's 5kg, verses the stock 8kg one, but the difference in inertia is way bigger than the 40% weight reduction, and that's what matters when it comes to improving the engine response.





And why an expensive billet one? Let's just say I like my feet and I don't trust a cast one that's had enough machining to get it down to 5kg!

And finally for this post, carbs. 44IDFs to be exact. Why these? Well they're more tuneable than DCNF's, and more compact than IDA's. Size wise I need to run around a 38mm choke which means a 44 is about the smallest carb I can get away with.



Tripple sets of carbs are pretty rare, downdraft ones even more so, 44 IDFs even more so. So I have 2 matched pairs, had to ship one pair in from the US to get for fair money - sadly I've not found an exact match, but both pairs are Made in Italy types, and appear to be the same on first inspection. Full service and jet changes required, but nothing too difficult. Still keeping an eye out for a closer match.

OK so how did I miss this?! Time for a catch up.

Amazing car, love the new dash have to look into one of those myself.

Now this is the sort of out of the box thinking I love! Great idea, can't wait to see it come together

Oh it's a hard life isn't it....

So as has been mentioned, the Capri is featured in this month's Classic Ford Magazine - image to whet your appetite below - quality poor enough to force you to leave the computer and do some old school mag based reading - go on, it's a great post Christmas overeating read.



Had so much fun doing the shoot, thanks again go to all involved. If you ever get the chance to be featured, go for it. Got to say it's the best cherry on top feeling, opening a mag you've been reading for years and seeing a car you've built. Proper happy at the moment

As for the car, well it's under cover awaiting the new engine. Heads are still away, but should be back soon, and the parts are coming together - set of proper "Made in Italy" triple IDF44 Webers are winging their way here from the US as I type - not looking forward to the complexities of the manifold they'll need! Will get some photos up in the New Year hopefully.

Never have I wanted a Montreal more, that's amazing!

Great idea, I'd be well up for this.

Agree half day/evening formats work really well - did an evening open pit lane at Cadwell few weeks back and was £80 for 3.5 hrs track time, which with only 19 people there and the car behaving itself meant I got over an hour of track time, with about 20 mins of the track completely to myself. One of the best track days I've been on.

I understand why some people like sessions, but having been track daying in classics/retros for 15 years I'd say open pit lane works a lot better as you get to choose when you and the car get a rest, it removes the stress of pulling in to check something just in case (you don't want to loose 5 mins of a 20 min session) and if something does go wrong, you don't run the risk of loosing all your track time sorting it out.

Money wise I'd happily do £80-100 for an evening (4hrs), £120-130 for a half day and up to £160-170 for a full day, assuming it was a worthwhile track (theres a reason I'll drive 3.5 hrs to Cadwell rather than 25mins to Mallory.

As for noise levels - well the Capri is about 103dB, so struggles sometimes. And given how loud some RR cars are, 105dB might be sensible!

In the end I spent the princely sum of £2.20 - people were paying rather over what I thought reasonable for some things, shall we say! But a good day, and burgers were very tasty.

Anyway, have a few photos.