Ford of Germany launched its Capri range just a month after Ford of Britain's. The cars, like the Escort and indeed the Transit van before them, were practically identical apart from some of the engines. British Ford had its 2.0-litre V4 and 3.0-litre V6 Essex motors, German Ford had its Cologne V4s and V6s with detail design differences and a wider range of capacities. Ford of Germany promoted the Capri in high-end touring car racing while Ford of Britain went rallying with Escorts, and in both 1971 and 1972 Ford's Capri drivers – Dieter Glemser and Jochen Mass respectively – won the European Touring Car Championship.
The car with which they did this, the Capri RS2600, was launched in its homologation-special road version in September 1970. Its particular version of the Cologne V6 generated 150bhp from its 2637cc, helped by aluminium cylinder heads developed and made by Weslake and fed by Kugelfischer mechanical fuel injection. Four round headlamps instead of a pair of rectangular ones gave the RS an instantly recognisable look, along with front quarter bumpers, flared front arches, a satin black finish for the bonnet, sills and window outlines, and the deletion of the dummy air vents ahead of the rear wheels.
Inside, a deep-dish Springall steering wheels and Scheel bucket seats set a racy tone for the all-black cabin. Underneath, the front suspension's crossmember was modified to give negative camber, the rear springs were single-leaf items, dampers were by Bilstein and the ride height was lowered. The wheels were normally four-spoke items similar to those used on other RS Fords of the time, but 'lightweight' versions used Minilites. The yellow RS2600 in Ford of Germany's Heritage Centre in Cologne currently has Minilites. And it is this car that, in my dreams – it is absolutely not for sale – I would own.
Never, before I drove this Capri, has a car proved to be so massively better than I expected it to be. I've driven other Capris, standard Mk1s, IIs and IIIs when they were new, a 2.8 Injection Special, the final 280 version of that same car – but none hinted at quite what this wonderful Mk1 would be like. There was, from September 1973, a British equivalent in the form of the Capri RS3100, but it had no more power despite its bigger engine and neither did it have fuel injection. The RS2600 was the purer, more serious machine.