1970-1977 Mercury Capri

With the exception of a few fake side vents and one character line too many, the Capri was handsome and looked the part of a 2/3-scale pony car

by Rob Sass

1976 Capri with urethane-covered bumpers

"The Sexy European” was how FoMoCo billed the Capri for its U.S. launch in 1970, as if it was peddling Sophia Loren at Lincoln-Mercury dealers rather than a sports coupe from across the pond. To potential Cougar buyers and the white shoes with matching white belt Lincoln crowd, the svelte Capri’s presence on the same showroom floor as so much Detroit iron didn’t make much sense, even if the design of the car was heavily influenced by American tastes. Jealously eyeing the success of Dearborn’s Mustang, Ford U.K. and Ford of Germany wanted their own hit. A long-hood, short-rear-deck coupe was envisioned, though one more in tune with European proportions. So just as Ford had based its Mustang pony car on the econobox Falcon, the Europeans tagged the Cortina as the donor platform for the Capri. Although it was barely more sophisticated than the Falcon, its European chassis tuning made it a good-handling small car (just ask the folks at Lotus who made some notable...