twentyover's 1976 Mercury Capri

Factory Options:

N/A

Exterior Modifications:

76 Capri MkII
2.8L
4 Speed 3.09:1 Non-posi
205/50-15 Front 225-50-15 rear Comp T/A's on Rken 15x7" wheels

Old Quickor (circa 1980) 1" front and 3/4" adjustable rear bar
ROK Stock (bet there's a name you havn't heard in a while) 2" lower front
coils
Rear leafs de-arched 2 "
Bilstien Sport front strut inserts & KYB Gas-A Just rear dampeners.

Stupid too lumpy Dobi cam with unknown specifications- except it's way too wild for the 8.2:1 compression the engine is currently running

Car was primary transportation from 1979-1983. Pulled out of service and garaged until 1992 when it went back into service for 3 years as a toy. Cracked a head when a freeze plug blew out on the freeway- you know it's amazing how far these things will go when you're starting to melt stuff inside the engine.

Interior Modifications:

N/A

Performance:

N/A

Suspension/Chassis:

N/A

Drivetrain:

N/A

Electronics:

N/A

To-Do List:

Planning on backing this up with a T-5. Rear end type and ratio will kind of depend on how this works out. If there's a problem, I'll fetch up a Ford 8" off a Mustang II and stick a posi in it, with ratio better suited to the engine. I'll try to derive this after the car's gone back into service.

Front suspension needs significant development. Car is a true McPerson strut, with the sway bar used to control front/rear track arm location (and caster.) The lowering sping caused the strut insert to bottom, so the shock dampener is more like the shock transmission device. The actual entire spring rate is controlled by the air pressure in the tires- The rest of the fron suspension is in solid stack. This must change.

First, the car needs to get the outer end of the lower track arm changed for better negataive camber gain in roll. All too many of us have gone to the Holy Grail of lowering the ride height and the center of gravity at the expense of good negative camber gain. What I'm planning on is a 2" spacer that will mount between the lower ball joint and the strut casting. This will move the outside of the lower track arm down so it's lower than the inner pivot. This will cause the track arm effective length to increase in roll, increasing the negative camber gain, and also improving front tire grip. It will make the suspension work a little bit.

Also want to control fore/aft location of the lower track arm with a compression strut or tension strut. This will let the front sway bar do it's job to control roll without compromising as an axle location device. This is something I saw on a couple of cars on German web sites- it looks like a clever idea, but I'll need to look at it a bit further to figure out how to best do that.

Had Just Dashes recover the instrument panel, and adding a Vintage Air A/C unit.