History

Very orange and really rather loud.

Origins

Barry Moignard originally built the car with a Ford 289cu in V8 from a Sunbeam Tiger. Using the gearbox from the same car, he also modified the entire rear end to accept a Jaguar Mk X independant rear suspension.
The car was raced on the beach at St Ouen, sprinted at the 5 mile road and ran in the hillclimb at Bouley bay for many years.
The Capri has always been road registered in Jersey and we even have a letter confirming it's suitability for road use!

Barry running at Bouley Bay above 1976 without the supercharger and below, 1977-8 with it fitted.

After getting the car running, it competed for a year before Barry invested in a GM 4-71 supercharger fitting it for the 1977 season.

Having competed in 2 hillclimbs, the engine didn't survive the first beach race lasting 3 laps -melting one piston, cracking another and damaging the crank as well.

As it was 1976 and that's what you did pre-internet, Barry wrote to Hot Car magazine and they suggested he contacted Allan Herridge, a legendary drag racer of the time. Allan took the time to write back and advised several modifications for the motor including fuel mixture settings, ditching the Duckhams Q oil and changing from chain to belt drive for the supercharger.

Barry continued racing and modifying the car for another 5 years making changes to the suspension as well as the motor. The times got better and the unsilenced motor together with the dramatic looks gained the car and driver a loyal following.

While reliability was never the strong point, counting the firing cylinders at the start line a popular pastime, the drama as the "Mighty Capri" roared up the hill certainly hooked me into motor racing.

Beach racing- sacrilege!

5 Mile road sprint start

Where we are today

When Barry finally got fed up of fixing the Capri rather than driving it, he bought a spaceframe silhouette Skoda Estelle race car and fitted a tuned Rover V8 - a car he still runs to this day.

The Capri was consigned to the loft at Panelcraft, Barry's business, where it sat for many years. Having told him I would buy it when I was about 14, I was suprised when a friend called and said he was actually selling it.

Rather than let someone else have it and put a Rover in there, I spoke to a good friend, Jamie Langlois and we agreed to both buy it from Barry in January 2012.

The day we picked it up

A bit of work needed

The plan was to preserve the car and run it again. It still looked exactly as we remembered, but we wanted it to be reliable enough to demonstrate properly.

I happened to be talking to Rob Morley of Ratrace Motorsport in Potters Bar about Caterhams and asked if he knew someone who could look at the V8. He mentioned that he had built championship winning V8 drag racing motors. So, the job was his.

We took the car over and within a few days he had it running, but said that it was "tired". I looked around for ideas and rather than rebuild the old Tiger motor, we decided to build a new one, refurbish the blower if possible and overhaul the transmission, which seemed quite sound.

To cut a long story, a year later a bespoke motor with a beautifully refurbished supercharger by Nigel Jenkins of UK Blowers was in the car. It made 549bhp on the dyno and an amazing noise. The car was all together ( just) and at 2am on the morning of the JIMF 2013 we left Potters Bar, missed the boat and didn't arrive in Jersey until that evening , missing the sprint.

After a frantic night repairing a blown supercharger gasket we lined up at the start of the Westmount hillclimb and about 35 years of waiting was over. I survived the run and Jamie and I shared the car for the weekend. The buzz around it was amazing, so many people remembering "The" Capri, explaining to their kids what this thing was.

Since then, we have run the car every year and the best part is actually talking to people about it, letting them see and hear it and showing kids what proper old race cars looked like.

Moving to Suffolk in 2022 has provided more chances to run the car and allowed the time to develop it a little - more to keep it reliable and safe than anything else.

The most exciting opportunity has been to trial the use of renewable fuel, supported by Rubis CI. We ran the fuel at two events with the Capri and another one with my Cosworth powered Caterham. The results were amazing; no difference at all! Both cars ran hard and ran perfectly, no changes were made to anything and we have had no problems at all.

We are now committed to running Rubis renewable fuel in the Capri for ever to show that motorsport can be responsible - well, as responsible as a bonkers bright orange Capri can be!