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This topic also includes the Consul Capri.
1963 Ford Consul Capri GT
Country of Origin: UK
Design Info: A two-door version of a mid-size family sedan, the Consul Capri featured elegant, “American” styling in an effort to create an upscale model for export, something of a European Thunderbird. The complex, heavy bodies, produced by Pressed Steel Company, were expensive to produce and featured stylized, creased lines and small rear fins. The entire car weighs around 2100lbs.
Engine Info: Early Consul Capris utilized a 56 hp, 1.3 liter version of the prolific Ford Kent four-cylinder engine. This proved underpowered and unreliable, and an upgraded 1.5 liter version was used on later models, featuring slightly more power and a more dependable five-bearing crankshaft. GT models, introduced in 1963, featured a Cosworth-tuned variant of the 1.5 Kent, with higher compression, improved inlet and exhaust manifolds, and the first Weber carb to ever be used on a British car. The Cosworth unit made 75 hp, enough to propel the Consul Capri GT to a top speed of 99 mph.
Type: A two-door saloon-derived coupe, the Consul Capri was aimed at competitors like the Sunbeam Rapier, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint, and Simca Aronde. However, the Capri would face its stiffest competition, ironically, in-house: the popular Ford Anglia and then-modern Ford Cortina would spell its early demise.
History: The Ford Consul Capri GT might conjure images of some of Ford’s storied nameplates, sporting cars, racing cars, muscle cars, and the like. Unfortunately, the Consul Capri and the Consul Classic it was derived from instead invite historical comparisons to a name Ford executives spent years hoping people would forget: Edsel.
Originally, the Consul Classic began design in the mid-fifties as a car suitable to be seen in golf club parking lots – the sort of stylish car a man of decent means might purchase in an effort to keep up with the Joneses. With styling cues from the American Galaxie 500 and Lincoln Continental, the Consul Classic would be a mid-size piece of American ostentation, especially had it been released in 1959 as intended. Instead, in large part due to the popularity of the Anglia, there was not enough production capacity to bring the car to market, and so it would be delayed until 1961. Strike one.
The Consul Capri project, code named “Sunbird”, was meant to be a European “personal luxury vehicle”, in the vein of the original Thunderbird. A sloping fastback roof replaced the Consul Classic’s reverse rake, and the rest of the car was redesigned as a pillarless coupe. Production of the body was outsourced to Pressed Steel Company, who shipped partially assembled bodies to Ford factories for completion. The expensive construction of these bodies ballooned production costs, and their heavy weight contributed to poor performance by the underpowered early 1.3 Kent engines, which in turn suffered reliability issues caused by weak crankshafts. Unreliable and expensive – strike two.
A larger version of the Kent engine with improved mechanicals went a decent way to improving the reliability and performance of the car. While still by no means lightning quick, the 64 hp 1.5 Kent could propel the car to over 80 mph, and wouldn’t break itself doing it. When the Capri GT was released, it came equipped with a Cosworth-tuned version of the engine that made it comparable to the specs and performance of vehicles it aspired to be, like the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint. However, even this could not fix the biggest problem with the Consul Capri.
The fact was, nobody really wanted them. When Sir Horace Denne (the director of exports at Ford of Britain) first began the “Sunbird” project, it was meant to be purely an export model for continental Europe, not intended for any kind of sales in the UK. Unfortunately, its debut at the Frankfurt Auto Show in 1961 only garnered a paltry 88 orders, well short of Ford’s plans. With production underway, development costs to recoup, and Edsel still fresh in the minds of many, the Capri was offered for sale in the UK starting in January of 1962. Eventually the Capri would be exported as far as New Zealand (assembled locally from knock-down kits) and a few were even imported into the US. It was nowhere near enough, however.
The styling of the Consul Capri was a factor, both too dated and too ostentatious for most British Ford buyers. Even regarded fairly well by those that did purchase them, in the minds of many a Ford was never going to compete as a premium automobile compared to something like an Alfa. This might not have been a problem, if not for the fact that largely these were the customers Ford was seeking. For those seeking something more practical, something cheaper, or something upscale but more firmly European, even Ford themselves offered better alternatives.
Much of the Capri’s woes (and indeed, the Consul Classic itself) came from its siblings, the Anglia and the Cortina. The Anglia was popular and highly successful in its lower market segment, both cheaper and considered more practical by many. The Cortina, meanwhile had always been planned as somewhat of a successor to the Consul Classic. Designed (somewhat ironically) by Roy Brown Jr., the man responsible for the Edsel, the Cortina was modern, sensible, and lighter than the Consul Classic and Capri, and was almost immediately praised as an excellent car. When one of the best features of the Capri Classic, the Cosworth-tuned Kent, became available on the Cortina (in both its original form and later the further improved Lotus version), the final coffin nail was hammered. The first gen Cortina sold nearly 1 million units over its five-year span; by comparison, around 111,000 Consul Classics and 19,000 Consul Capris were built over their ‘61-’64 run, with about 2,000 of those being Capri GTs. While Ford would enjoy continued success with the Cortina for decades, they quietly killed the Consul Classic and Consul Capri, officially replacing it with the Cortina-based Corsair.
Why it’s cool/unique/significant: Is it really fair to compare the Consul Capri to the Edsel, as many modern automotive historians do? Both cars faced reliability issues, both featured controversial styling, and both suffered as sales failures in part from targeting market segments that were poorly understood or perhaps didn’t really exist.
Yet, the Consul Capri does not suffer from the same negative name recognition as the Edsel. In many ways it is quite forgotten, which admittedly way be a worse fate (depending on how one looks at things). However, it is worth noting that the “Capri” name lived on with multiple popular Ford models, in Europe and Australia, and as a popular import to the US (in the form of a Mercury). Even more worth noting is an odd first: The Consul Capri GT was the first Ford to bear the “GT” name later used on the Cortina, Mustang, Escort, Sierra, and a number of others (not to mention the GT40 itself and its GT spiritual successors). Of course, this naming tidbit, while interesting, doesn’t really say anything about the car itself.
But there are more than a few stories about these cars being quite well-liked by their owners, lauding their style and (in the 1.5 models) reliability. More than a few were hot-rodded over the years, in part thanks to their American look and the fact that they were not considered particularly desirable. Conversely, they have now become somewhat sought after, difficult to find in unmolested condition and commanding fair but not unattainable prices to those that would seek them out. While the Consul Capri GT might not be the first Ford GT that springs to mind, it may yet be deserving of a place among its better known brethren.
