Bonkers, mid-engined V8 project.
Your projects: Fred Wood is no stranger to creating madcap classic Fords, but after shifting the supercharged V8 back behind the front seats, this Capri could well be his most-out there yet!
If you’re not aware of Fred Wood, you’ll have definitely seen his workshop — either in Classic Ford, or on social media where photos of the various cars in it pop up now and again. It’s a treasure trove of classic Fordshaped projects, of which Fred seems to have many on the go at once, from ex-Maltese drag cars to circuit-bound Capris. And the parts .... let’s just say that Fred has a knack for finding — and hoarding — them.
Unsurprisingly then, Fred loves his classic Fords, and ones with a motorsport twist at that
— and when Fred goes quiet, we know he’s got a new project brewing. This slightly off-thewall, spaceframed Capri is the latest, and not content with mounting the engine where Ford intended, Fred’s moved it rearwards to create a mid-engined monster — in part thanks to the supercharged V8 that Fred has deemed should power this particular car.
With so many cars to distract him, this build is taking longer than he thinks it should. In fact, that’s Fred’s problem — he’s the first to admit he’s got too many projects, and the Capri has taken the best part of three years to build so far (though he does point out that he’s put a Gartrac Escort back on the road in that time, too).
But the new year has brought a fresh impetus, and Fred is now cracking on at a fair old pace, with a dry build well under way now that all the fab work is done and dusted.
The Fred-imposed deadline is this time next year, with the mid-engined Capri planning to hit the tracks of Scotland and northern England. Be (slightly) afraid.
Where did the idea for the build come from? There are a lot of units around my workshop, and one of them had a spaceframe front end for a Mk1 Escort out front one day. I measured it up and worked out it was the same width between the sills as the Capri, and the idea was planted, so I ended up buying it!
My mate had a Mitsubishi Gallant that he’d put a supercharged Rover V8 into the rear of, to go hillclimbing, and mated to a Lotus/Renault transaxle. I looked at it and thought it would be a good project to do on the Capri, so ended up buying the engine and transaxle from him. I bought the rest of the car later on, and the rear suspension also now lives in the Capri. What about the donor car? It’s a 2-litre Laser I bought from one of the guys in our local Capri club. What was it like? Not too bad at all, though the same can’t be said once we cut the floor and bulkhead out one weekend! It had glassfibre front wings and a bonnet fitted when I bought it, which gave me the idea to make them into a removable one-piece front end. How difficult was it to design and construct a spaceframe chassis? I measured it all out, marked it up on the floor, went out and bought a load of CDS tubing and worked from there. My friend, Peter Melvin came in the do the bulk of
the welding, as he’s better at it than I am. When we got to the rear, we ran out of tubing — I had the front hoops of a Mk1 Escort roll cage hanging on the wall, and thought the shape was about right. When I offered them up, sure enough they were perfect. Mounting the engine behind the seats was actually straightforward — it looks tight in there, but actually there’s plenty of room.
With the engine and transaxle mounted in the best place, the driveshafts didn’t line up with the arches, so these have been moved back 4 inches, and I had some Zakspeed-style arches made in glassfibre by a local company to cover the 10x15 inch Revolution five-spokes. The RoverV8’s supercharged, isn’t it? Yes a Wade R034 blower. My friend with the Gallant had spent a fiar but of money on the engine. It’s running Rovertec heads, Cosworth injectors, a Lumenition ECU, one-off loom and a two-stage dry sump system. It currently puts out 318 bhp at 5 psi. What about the rest of the running gear? The front end is based around Bilstein coil-overs, while the rear uses Subaru coil-overs. I’ve gone for discs all-round, with the rears using Renault Alpine callipers. Have you thought about the paint? White or black — I haven’t decided yet! And the interior? That’s my next job. I’m making a sealed bulkhead from perspex and will run a bar across behind the rear seats in case the
“MOUNTING THE ENGINE BEHIND THE SEATS
WAS ACTUALLY STRAIGHTFORWARD”
engine moves... It will be stripped out with just a pair of bucket seats. What’s been the hardest part of the build so far? Cutting out and moving the rear arches. I could have gone back another 2 inches, but it just didn’t look right. What are your plans for the finished car? It’ll become a track car for some weekend fun. I have thought about hillclimbing it, though I’m not sure it’ll pass the regs as it is. Anyone you’d like to thank who’s helped out so far? Yes, Peter Melvin for doing all the welding, Larry who’s been helping me out, and Robbie for selling me the Mk1 front end.