The Fahey Capri : From Le Mans to Levin and even Coronet Peak !!

[RSROGER]

I am not sure where to start, there is so much to tell and with Steves promoting I have decided to start a thread to document the career of this old war horse from one side of the world to the other. I will also post updates on progress of the restoration of this car that I have owned since 1986. I would love it to have been restored and been using it many years ago but life, a lot of motorsport and the restoration of another ex works Cologne Capri got in the way. Feed back, photos and any information or memories would be much appreciated. I will study Steves tips on attatching photos etc and with a bit of luck you may see some of it as purchased and progress at this point, if not i will just send them to you Steve and you can post them for me.

[Steve Holmes]

Fantastic Roger, its great to have you here. Will look forward to your updates, as and when time permits. Looks like you've already figured out how to post photos too!

And you say you're not sure where to start? At the beginning, where the car raced in Europe is part of its history I'd love to hear about too. Plus its brief time in Asia. Didn't Allan Moffat drive it there?

[RSROGER]

An early photo at Baypark, I really liked the car in Air New Zealand colours

[GD66]

Is that Ray Stone in the striped shirt in conference with Fahey behind the car ?

[bob homewood]

Yes I believe so

[RSROGER]

Yes I believe it is, he was involved in running the car for Paul during its first races in New Zealand, early 74. With Jims mustang behind perhaps following a practise session. The car is fitted with bumpers for the NZ regulations, and the fibreglass doors that it retains to this day, ( they were also a contentious issue with the competition and the car ran on occasions with steel doors fitted ).

[Steve Holmes]

That could well be the cars NZ debut meeting.

[Lee Tracey]

I am so looking forward to yjis thread. Would,nt say no to another thread on the other Capri either Roger

Cheers
Lee

[kiwi285]

Hi Roger,

Looking forward to this thread developing and the background history being put into writing.

[kiwi285]

Any chance of getting Graeme to do a similiar thread and photos of the FVA Escort !!

[Jac Mac]

Do you want any info on this car while it was in OSCA/Inky T ownership, I had a bit to do with some of the mods involved with the V8 running gear etc...

[kiwi285]

Hell yes - as much as you can share with us.

Have you seen the photos of Inky Tulloch's Capri on the 'Capri photos' thread. It was taken at Pukekohe.

[RSROGER]

Hello Jack, yes I would definately like any info, storys, memories you have of fitting the Chev and engineering the car around that, it was an amazing Osca car with probably an unbeaten record of race and championship wins in OSCA. I spent many days glued to the fence at Ruapuna Teretonga and Levels in its hey day. Wish I had seen Inky muscle it up Coronet Peak, I have still got the repaired magnesium upright from an incident in that hillclimb one year. I am restoring the car back to its Cologne Capri 3.4 quad cam GAA cosworth form as it won the NZ saloon car championship in 1975, but it could have been restored to any era in its amazing Career in Europe, Asia and New Zealand, it has certainly done some stuff and had some serious bums in its origional scheel seat ( still in the car today). You dont have the origional 4 Pot ATE front callipers sitting in your shed do you Jack ?, the front brakes were updated at some stage and I am guessing it would have been when that big old hunk of detroit iron was shoe horned in.

[Jac Mac]

Quick answer to that, No, brakes were unchanged while I was involved with car [ from purchase thru the time it was Black/Gold & steel bros signage.
Now I have to work out how to make this site compatable with my typing speed, have tried a longer post twice & failed...miserably

[RSROGER]

I know what you are saying Jack, I typed my post three times last night and lost it twice, I need to progress past the two finger typing stage I think. What happened to your cortina did Rod by it off you, and is it the Kennard car that I believe Rod now has back again

[Jac Mac]

Yes, Rod had bought The MKIV Cortina back from Barry Search, but has since sold it to Anthony Prendergast from Ashburton who also has the MKII Cortina I built as well...last I heard was Steve Ross, Dunedin had the ex Kennard/Buckley MKIV.

Jim Murdoch [ ex G Begg w/shop in Drummond ] made the engine mounts for the V8 conversion on the Capri, balance of engine fit etc was done in mataura/gore. Car was raced initially with the Atlas diff, but after a couple of side brg failures in the LSD carrier I ended up with the job of building a full floating 9" assy. Used the Atlas unit as reference for pickup brackets etc & transferred rear brakes onto the new axle assy, retained BBS wheels & bolt pattern, ended up towing the car & trailer thru to Ruapuna to test as his lordship needed to shoot ducks, tested the car & all was OK bar a wheel tramp problem out of RH corners, that was traced to a dud Bilstein, so Inky had to tread lightly on the sunday race day. Also made up a new rack & fitted to car shortly after as old one had severe wear on straight ahead position, fitted rod end to intermediate shaft of steering column to control deflection under load, with that all fixed car went very well until the old Camaro motor cried enough at a local flying mile event,

[Shano]

In Air New Zealand colours, I think at the NZ Grand Prix meeting in January 1974. I had a long talk with Paul Fahey about the Capri at the Chris Amon day in February.

I had always admired the professionalism of his team and the quality preparation of his cars, from the Anglia through to the Capri. They were always exciting cars; my favourite would have to be the Paul Mann Escort. David vs Goliath always appealed.

Let's face it, the exciting saloon car racing of those years was all about beating Paul Fahey and, to use a modern cliche, he continually raised the bar.

[Steve Holmes]

I know what you are saying Jack, I typed my post three times last night and lost it twice, I need to progress past the two finger typing stage I think. What happened to your cortina did Rod by it off you, and is it the Kennard car that I believe Rod now has back again

Guys. I'll see what i can do about creating more time for posting replies. One of the things I've always done on other forums when posting a long reply is to type it all out in Microsoft Word (or similar) then Copy and Paste it into the reply box on the forum when its all done. That way I didn't have to worry about timing out.

[RSROGER]

Great shot of the Capri at Pukekohe, I do not have that one. I have added a shot taken some months ago as the shell was nearing completion at Burkes Metal works. A massive amount of time and hence money has gone in to getting it to this stage. It has been a huge job to retain the origional shell and undo all the OSCA modifications. Guess who,s Escort that is sitting beside the Capri

[RSROGER]

I have got the hang of resizing these photos so here are some more