"The car you always promised yourself" "The car you always promised yourself" was the advertising slogan used by Ford at the launch of their new Capri in 1969, and that may well have been true for lots of people, but if you were keen on 'sporting motoring', then the Capri 1300L was unlikely to have been on the letter you wrote to Santa Claus.

However as the model range expanded and larger and larger engines became available, the Capri began to be recognised as a decent performance car.Ford were, and still are, experts in using their Motor Sport involvement to keep their showroom doors creaking, particularly so in the 1970s, and soon an RS 2600 Capri was commissioned and built to compete in the European Touring Car Championship, initially with considerable success.

However, BMW had bigger ideas and introduced the more powerful 3.0CSL, rapidly stealing a march on Ford at the circuits.

In response, Ford Advanced Vehicle Operations got the go ahead in September 1973, to build a batch of...