The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Hazzard warning with General Lee and a jaunt back to the 80s
The Car You Always Promised Yourself, which was the Ford Capri advert from the years 1969-1986. And I did.
No ordinary puny engine machine. No, I spent my own money on a 2.8 Capri Injection.
For me Capri was an aspirational brand, and owning one was brilliant.
I loved the looks, I liked the image, but, best of all I loved using it.
I enjoyed travelling very quickly between parents’ home in Inverurie and Corbridge in Northumberland.
After a weekend visit, and to enjoy an Aberdeen Angus Sunday dinner (with both roast and boiled potatoes), I left late and then had the Coldstream-wooler-morpeth road to myself. Bliss.
BACK TO THE 80S
Imagine, then, how excited I was to learn that, thanks to Trustford, I was to get to drive the last ever Capri made.
Yes, D194 UVM, built in December 1986, with some help from journalist Mike Mccarthy from Autocar (I remember reading the article published in March 1987).
OK, I never got out of second gear, but that still counts as driving, right?
The celebrity Capri took me back to my 1980s, and, surprisingly, unlike meeting a former girlfriend, we were still comfortable with each other. Maybe even a little love left?
The cabin felt right, the steering felt right, although the clutch felt lighter than I remembered.
Overall, it was a joy to burble around in. I closed the door and sat in silence for a few minutes, just the two of us enjoying the nostalgia.
All too soon it was time to leave, so I exited the 1987 UK muscle car and placed my bags in the trunk of the 2022 USA muscle car, Trustford’s manual Mustang 5.0, in the hue of the General Lee Dodge Charger driven in the television series The Dukes of Hazzard.
At the end of a long tiring day I found the Mustang hard work, and quite physically demanding to operate. So, I rolled back the pace to try to relax. That didn’t work.
This car doesn’t like being short-shifted, and complains when you are in the “wrong” gear.
But for a weary driver the seats in the Mustang are as good as you can get, so I dropped a few cogs and pressed on home.
In the following weeks I used The General every day and clocked up a few thousand miles.
This car needs to be driven and feels almost an old fashioned physical machine.
The strong clutch has a long travel which, when used in unison with the gear lever, is super satisfying.
AN EXCELLENT GALLOP OVER LONG DISTANCES
And for the Play Station generation there are some digital features juxtaposed to the analogue feel.
The exhaust has multiple settings: Quiet (for leaving house early in the morning), Normal, Sport, and Racetrack.
There are also a choice of set-up modes for the car: Normal, Sport+, Racetrack, Drag Strip, and Snow/wet. Sport+ was my default.
I’m not sure I’d want to be in a situation where I had to use either Drag Strip or Snow.
Selecting your choice changes the dashboard graphics and rev counter display.
Analogue me was so caught up in the personalisation that I managed to change the
colour on the dash graphics to orange, in keeping with the outside paint.
One glorious trip was to Silverstone and back for the Classic event. The Mustang excels at galloping over long distances.
On returning from Northamptonshire I felt so fresh I could have had a Kit-kat and driven the same distance again.
A BRASH, NOISY ATTENTION-SEEKER
The reason you drive this car is because it is fun, big fun. I would never get tired of adjusting the exhaust note, never tire of driving it through town and country, and, although it does automatically blip the throttle on downshifts (in certain modes), never tire of blipping the throttle, manually, just a little bit more.
It was an attentionseeking noisy machine that shouldn’t work for someone who likes low profile travels. But it did.
I even glued up the doors and got my friend to put “01” stickers on the side, to let me play at being Luke Duke sliding into his General Lee.
The car has drawbacks and is brash, aurally and visually, and is very loud.
It’s also a big car for the UK (in a way it isn’t in America).
And as you sit, Capri-esq, low in the driver’s seat, it’s not easy to judge where the horse’s nose is. Seeking out a secure hotel parking in a multi-story car park I had to do several reversing manoeuvres to get round a couple of tight corners with high kerbs.
I looked like an idiot in an orange car that couldn’t park, and this meant fellow parkers felt justified in honking their horns at me. If only I had that signature General Lee horn to reply with.
I started out not liking this attention-seeking pony. But I ended up loving it.
So much so I even asked about a price to buy it!
The orange car with rear spoiler is a true modern replacement for my beloved Capri.
We must be drinking in the last chance saloon for these cars, a petrol muscle coupe with a stick shift.
The 2024 seventh generation Mustang was recently launched in Detroit, as an evolution over this model, rather than a revolution.
The “coyote” engine has been warmed up and improvements made to the interior. Body styling is made even more sexy, but it sits on the same platform.
So, here’s my consumer advice; although there is an automatic 10 speed version on offer, buy a 5.0 litre manual while we still can. Yes, it’s a modern classic. And in 2057 the General Lee will be appearing at a Classic Car show in its own right, beside that Capri 280.