STREET SMART
> NATHAN GHOSN’S PUMP-GAS, NINE-SECOND CAPRI SETS THE STANDARD FOR STREET-CAR CRED
DC veteran Nathan Ghosn’s all-steel, un-tubbed, naturally aspirated small-block Capri is keeping it real
WHEN it comes to real street cars, there are not many that can hold a candle to the screaming small blockpowered Capri of Nathan Ghosn. With more than 50,000km under its belt in the past few years, including every Drag Challenge event except for this year’s recent Drag Challenge Weekend (due to COVID border restrictions) and a ton of nine-second passes on a 235 tyre, this pump-gas mauler is as tough as they come.
“I’ve always been a Capri guy,” Nathan says. “This is the fourth one I’ve owned after a couple of four-bangers and later a V6, which I had to sell years ago to buy a house and do the family thing. When I bought this car about 12 years ago, the plan was just to fit a stereo and cruise the wheels off it with its powerhouse 160hp, 289 Windsor motor.”
That plan fell by the wayside when Nathan decided to tidy up the car’s paint. Four-anda-half years later, it rolled out of his garage with every single nut and bolt replaced – a total restoration from the ground up, including a 550hp, 360-odd-cube Windsor engine by Trick & Mansweto.
“At the time, I was just hopeful of running a 10-something, which it did straight away, and then I started thinking that the car might make it into the nines,” Nathan says. “From the outset, I didn’t want to mini-tub the car or cut the rear end up; for me it was all about keeping the small tyre on the car and learning to develop the suspension and actually drive it, rather than having a big tyre and just aiming the car towards the end of the track.
“I really enjoy racing on the 235s, and it keeps the car looking more like a street car. Small tyres aren’t a red flag to the cops and are practical for the endurance, Drag Challengestyle events that I’ve come to love so much.”
That first engine combination saw five years of hard racing and street miles, with Nathan managing to get the car into the 9.90s. The nine-second pass meant a full ’cage, and Nathan took the car to Big H Racing, where he formed a great friendship with owner Harry Plessas. It wasn’t long before the engine was pulled and basically everything but the block and heads was ditched. The new combination still stayed around 360 cubes, but on the engine dyno it belted out a pretty stout 685hp with a single Dominator carb.
The extra power pushed the car to a very respectable 9.64, still on the 235 tyres, and Nathan ran this combination for a couple of years.
Two years ago, the engine had yet another freshen-up, this time by Damian Baker from