My brother has one of those Ford Capri 2's, the engines factory are actually capable of quite a bit of power, but that was not good enough for the drag racing he planned for it; so the rear axel was remove in favor of a Toyota Hilux 2WD rear 31 spline out of a 3/4 or 1-ton variant of that model truck (they can be ID'd by the long bolt that runs up under the pinion and they are very rare)
Transmission was replaced by a manually shifted C4 with the line pressure turned up to atomic, and the shifting servo's replaced with some custom built units to handle the absurd line pressure.
Engine was replaced by a 89 5.0 Ford roller motor, ported and port matched for the smooth running characteristic that you would hope for, this motor came with an aggressive state of tune (factory ECU), and factory supplied forged pistons only present in the 5.0 mustang cars, and no other models.
All "power" accessories were removed in favor of light weight, to be made as minimalist / functional as possible.
That car is fairly impressive pushing conservative ~12.9 second quarter mile times with only 210 wheel horsepower, due to its ultra light weight and surprisingly low drag. I recall him putting it on the scale once @ 2300LBS, its shockingly light.
A few things you really wanted to watch out for on these cars was the factory brakes and suspension were made of jelly, but with proper upgrades these cars could be incredible compared to modern cars simply because the weight distribution was good, and they don't weigh anything stock; a real fat one from the factory only weighs in at 2600.
Transmission was replaced by a manually shifted C4 with the line pressure turned up to atomic, and the shifting servo's replaced with some custom built units to handle the absurd line pressure.
Engine was replaced by a 89 5.0 Ford roller motor, ported and port matched for the smooth running characteristic that you would hope for, this motor came with an aggressive state of tune (factory ECU), and factory supplied forged pistons only present in the 5.0 mustang cars, and no other models.
All "power" accessories were removed in favor of light weight, to be made as minimalist / functional as possible.
That car is fairly impressive pushing conservative ~12.9 second quarter mile times with only 210 wheel horsepower, due to its ultra light weight and surprisingly low drag. I recall him putting it on the scale once @ 2300LBS, its shockingly light.
A few things you really wanted to watch out for on these cars was the factory brakes and suspension were made of jelly, but with proper upgrades these cars could be incredible compared to modern cars simply because the weight distribution was good, and they don't weigh anything stock; a real fat one from the factory only weighs in at 2600.
