<< Prev Page 2 of 2 With the BMW team still setting up, the Capris were rarely matched by anyone or on any track. The car dominated like it did in the previous year, but now Ford clinched both titles. Capris were also successfully entered in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Nürburgring 1000 km races, winning their class in both events. In 1973, the odds favoured BMW, with the new 3.5 litre engine 3.0 CSL model. A number of rule changes at the end of the season tipped the scales in favour of the Capri RS once more.
For the 1974 season the sport's governing body allowed DOHC heads to be fitted, of which only 100 examples had to be produced. With the help of Cosworth the new 3.4 litre quad-cam V6 engine was developed in 1973. The engine and heads were homologated by a short production run of the Capri RS 3100. Another big modification was the move of the radiators from the nose to the rear wheel arches for weight balance purposes. Performance of the revised Capri increased by quite a bit, with the engine pumping out around 440 - 450 bhp at around mid-season.
BMW was close on Ford's heels with a 100 car production run of the DOHC 3.0 CSL. The Capri and the CSL were the fastest cars in the championship, but neither eventually took the championship. At the end of the season it was Zakspeed who pipped the two works teams with their Ford Escort RS 1600s. Spiralling costs of the very advanced races and the oil-crisis meant the end of the Group 2 Touring car championship.
Ford never raced Capris as a works team again, but this was not the end of the Capri's racing career. In 1977 started on a Group 5 racer loosely based on the third series Capri. The silhouette racer featured a full spaceframe chassis with a 1.4 litre Turbocharged engines producing well over 300 bhp. Again the Capri proved to be a very efficient racing machine. << Prev Page 2 of 2
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With the BMW team still setting up, the Capris were rarely matched by anyone or on any track. The car dominated like it did in the previous year, but now Ford clinched both titles. Capris were also successfully entered in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Nürburgring 1000 km races, winning their class in both events. In 1973, the odds favoured BMW, with the new 3.5 litre engine 3.0 CSL model. A number of rule changes at the end of the season tipped the scales in favour of the Capri RS once more.