History
I’d always loved the ’Perana’ V8 Ford Capri built by Basil Green in South Africa (big engine + small car = performance plus) so back in the late 1980s I decided to build one myself. I started with a very sad looking Capri XL which I stripped down to a bare shell and rebuilt into one of the fastest and most enjoyable cars I’ve owned.
Modifications
I bought a well engineered V8 conversion kit from a bloke called Bob Pinnell which included all the bits you needed like modified sump, engine mounts, gearbox cross-member etc. It was sort of like building a kit car really. The little Windsor V8 looked like it was made for that engine bay and the four-speed manual worked a treat behind it. I kept the whole car as stock looking as possible. It was a real weapon but you could never tell from the outside. Sadly it was written off not long after I sold it.
