![Image](http://www.slotcarouthouse.com/photos/gtcaprilhs.jpg)
By Phil Wicks
The UK Ford Motor company have never been frightened of wandering from the track when it comes to car design and innovation. Ever since they purchased the Jowett Company’s body works and then eventually the struggling Jowett Company and subsequently marketing the next Jowett model due off the line as the 100E Prefect, they have boldly gone where no hand would set foot! If you check out some of their boldness over the years there was the replacement of the Cortina name with the adventurous ‘Sierra which saw sales plummet, There was the Focus which replaced the Escort, another potential disaster which strong advertising turned round. There were strange new models like the Ka! (excuse me while I clear my throat) and bold new models like the Consul Classic and Capri!! (Thunderbirds in miniature!) and there was the bread and butter.
The Ford Anglia (how English can you get!) and the Cortina (how Mediterranean can you get!) allowed Ford to regroup financially in the sixties and during this time they plotted the future for the English car buying public. The mainstay luxury car was the Mk3 Zephyrs and Zodiacs. By English standards, monstrous cars with more space under the bonnet that a BOAC hanger! And it was obvious that with the rise in popularity of the BMC range of functional English cars like the Minis and 1100’s, Ford where about to head off in a new direction.
The MK2 Cortina was basically a shrunken Falcon shape with a four cylinder engine but its name alone carried it through almost to the seventies and the Anglia got a couple of motor upgrades and some sporty looks and that managed to take them up to the late sixties. Vauxhall released the HB Viva (a miniature Camaro!) and it’s variants and the writing was on the wall for the Anglia. Its reverse sloping rear window wasn’t going to help it this time. The Escort became top priority and several months later it took the Viva ‘head on’ and the rest is history. The MK3 Cortina was rated as too big and with its ex US Pinto engine, the staid British public were wary of change. Ford obviously never did research in to the size of the average British garage. Garages which were built in the forties and fifties to house Standards, Morris 8’s, E93 prefects etc weren’t going to house a MK3 Cortina comfortably. It must have been about this time that the UK chain of auto stores, Halfords, brought out the door edge scraper strip!!
Ford’s only tactic was to swamp the fleet market and get every other travelling salesman in Britain driving one, which is what it did. While all this battling was going on for the hearts of the British car buying public, Ford and other manufacturers were toying with models to tempt the selective car buyer. Someone who was looking for something a little different to compete with the exotica coming from Europe in general and Italy in particular. From this think tank came some innovative if not misguided thinking. One was the V4 engine. A great space saver but a bit of a donkey. It even replaced the two stroke engines in the SAAB cars for a while! Next was the V6 a bit more feasible but still strange to the public. Another bolt from the blue was the MK4 Zephyrs and Zodiacs!1 WOOOOW!!! NOBODY saw that one coming!!! And also there was this quirky yet quite affable car known as the Capri.
Ford had already made a Capri in the early sixties but that had faded into oblivion and most saw this as a new model and a new name. It drew a line between the conservatives and the more adventurous liberal car buyer and soon the model was rolling out of Dagenham in several guises. Motor sports enthusiasts soon picked up on its sporty appearance and its main arena was to be circuit racing. Engines were swapped and all sorts of suspension mods and speed enhancing extras were on the market.
The final breakthrough came when the V6 engine in 3.0 litre form was fitted at the factory and the 3 litre Capri was born!! From this point on the Capri and its owners hacked out a niche in the motor sport arena which knocked on to the public buyer. The car was available in a variety of configurations from the basic 1300c.c. to the 3.0 litre GT in metallic colours.
The 3.0 litre Capri still has that ‘WOW’ factor. At motor rallies and classic motorsport venues people gather round these models just to share the ‘ambience’. I have to admit that whilst as a young motor vehicle technician, I had the opportunity to take a GT Capri for a road test and to this moment the sheer exhilaration of the grunt of an off the shelf road car has stayed with me. Far more so than the ‘E’ types and Ferraris and Aston Martins that were to follow.
So, this model is pinned near to my vital organs when it comes to an affinity. I bought the model a couple of years back now from John Hayward’s ‘Classic slot’ website along with some other stuff long since finished. I had toyed with making it up on two or three occasions and was always put off but the poor fit of the vacuum formed glass. I wasn’t relishing the thought of making new glass from clear plastic and fitting it so I chickened out and put it all in a bag and left it on the ‘to do’ shelf.
![Image](http://www.slotcarouthouse.com/photos/gtcapriunder.jpg)
With racing commitments on the increase it got left and it was only a couple of months ago during our southern ‘Flu epidemic season’ that I succumbed to the virus for the first time in many years and the pain of laying in bed became too great to bear so I crawled along to the garage and dug out the unfinished projects ‘too hard’ box. I looked and looked at the one piece glass insert. It wasn’t going in any way! In a medicine induced numbness I must have sat and stared for what could have been hours. Pushing the clear form in, looking at the abysmal fit, taking it out, putting it back and wishing that it was like the Airfix kits of old where each pane of glass (plastic) pushed into its own opening??!! Wait a minute, THATâ€S IT!! Make it into individual glass panels Eureka!! The clear form was cut into individual sides ensuring the cut was in line with the centre of the posts. The front screen was offered up, GREAT! The side glasses were pressed in, fantastic and finally the rear screen was inserted, AMAZING!! In their own write, all were excellent fits ! The clear formed windows must have contracted after the vacuum forming process and separating each window left some good individual screens. The solution then was to fit the glass’s last up when the body was finished, so lets do it!!
The first step was to cut the PCB Chassis to size and mark out the axle positions. This body seems to be an accurate replica so the model was going to have a narrow track on it. Wanting to keep the outside dimensions true to scale it meant that the model was going to need some ballast underneath but to help with stability, the track was going to be taken out as wide as possible. The wheels and tyres are from the Scalextric Lotus Seven and are a faithful reproduction of the ‘MInilite’ wheels of the sixties. Axle lengths were determined and wheels and tyres were fitted to the blank axle. Using a carborundum drum in a ‘Dremel’ type tool I carefully ground out the resin inside the arches until there was just enough thickness left to leave a bit of strength in the arches. The axles were then trimmed exactly and the wheels and tyres were left til later.
![Image](http://www.slotcarouthouse.com/photos/gtcaprichassistop.jpg)
As per the MK1 Cortina elsewhere in this section, the chassis was marked out and cut. Axle mounts were made and fitted loosely and the motor hole was measured and cut. Whilst all this has been going on I have also epoxied a couple of narrow strips to the inside body edges. This model is going to have my favourite ‘two screw’ mounted chassis and the strips will act as stops when the chassis / body joint is floating. It is also helpful during construction as it sets the body to the right height on the chassis before the axle heights have been determined. The axle mounts are a stiff fit in the PCB and the final body ride height can be set well before the completion of the model. In this case I wanted the body to sit ‘down’ on its wheels which hopefully I have achieved.
The axle mounts are then soldered in place and the motor is soldered in too once its best position has been attained. I have chosen the NC1 motor as this is my favourite for small track, home racing. Anything faster will detract from the model and I’ve a box full of fast models anyway. This will make it fit in with such models as the Cortina MK1 and the Austin Healey I have already. The rear of the chassis was cut and turned up to meet with the end of the resin body. I did this to tidy up the rear end rather than leave an unsightly platform at the back of the model. The turn up was soldered in place on the inside.
![Image](http://www.slotcarouthouse.com/photos/gtcaprichassisfront.jpg)
Once the Ninco sprung guide was fitted I decided to use the PCB to conduct the power to the motor. The chassis had four scores put in it to isolate a couple of strips from the rest of the chassis. After testing their isolation with a multimeter I soldered the motor wires to one end and also soldered the shortened guide wires to the other end. Doing this allowed the springiness of the lead wire to act as a self centring mechanism! Two birds with one stone there I think!!
Whilst all this has been going on I have been doing the body in stages. First stage was to spray the body inside and out in flat grey. This showed up all the blemishes and pinholes which were then suitably filled and treated. They were then sprayed again and any final fettling carried out. Door and bonnet seams were picked out and abnormalities like the tail lights and roof channels were fixed up. The body comes with some pewter parts. The side vents and grille. There are also a pair of headlights in what looks to be clear resin. The holes that take the rear side vents were carefully cleaned up with some hobby files. The grille opening too was cleaned up and the grille was test fitted until I was happy with it. The headlight openings were shaped too. The headlights were filed until they were a regular shape and a snug fit in the openings. None of these parts were fitted at this stage. The body had its final coat of grey which showed the body to be good.
Next was the first gloss coat. The primer was rubbed down with a piece of coarse linen and the front of the model was sprayed with a thinned coat of Tamiya acrylic silver. This was allowed to dry overnight before the rear had its coat of yellow. I didn’t mask any of this work and just let the two colours overlap. After letting this dry for a day, I applied a coat of Tamiya acrylic clear. I prefer acrylic paints as they have a certain brightness about them when compared to oil paints. Another plus is you can wash your spray gun and paintbrushes out in warm water!!
![Image](http://www.slotcarouthouse.com/photos/gtcapritop.jpg)
When the clear was handlable, I placed all the decals on. Doing one side at a time and allowing them to dry. I also gave the rear light clusters a coat of silver enamel. The whole model then had its first coat of clear acrylic. This was left for several days to cure as acrylic picks up fingerprints if handled too soon after application even though it is dry to the touch. The rear lights then had their clear colours applied. Tamiya ‘Clear’ red and ‘Clear’ orange. A small area was left silver to represent the reversing lights. Again a period of drying time was allowed.
Next were the dreaded glass bits. These were placed into their openings one at a time. A minute amount of superglue was placed at the corners to pin all in place. Care being taken not to get the glue near the pane as it turns clear plastic cloudy. Super glue was use because of its rapid drying time. Once all the windows were in and pinned, I mixed up a quantity of slow drying epoxy resin. This was painted around the edge of all the clear parts ensuring that the glue overlapped both the window glass and the inside frames and posts. Paint brushes used for epoxy application can be cleaned quite successfully with acetone or even humble brake fluid. All this activity was left to dry for a couple of days.
![Image](http://www.slotcarouthouse.com/photos/gtcaprirhr.jpg)
The grilles mentioned earlier were placed in their openings one side at a time. The grilles were glued in from behind again using epoxy resin. Lastly, the front grille and headlights were epoxied too.
The chassis mounting posts were to be next. The screw holes had already been drilled in the PCB so it was just a case of sticking a depth gauge through the positioned body and deducting the chassis thickness. The tubes were made from a series of telescoping plastic tubes from the local hobby store. Three lengths of tube were glued one into the other and a thread was cut in the ends of the inner tubes. With the tubes screwed to the chassis and trimmed approximately to length, the chassis was dropped in the body and the posts finely trimmed until the chassis rested on the side plates. Next, the opposite ends of the mounting posts were scored to take epoxy and where they contacted the body was also scored. A liberal coating of epoxy resin was applied to both the posts and the body. The assembled chassis was dropped in place and after alignment was altered, was left for 24 hours to cure. The finished article was a chassis secured by two in hex screws into tube mounts attached to the body, my perfect mount.
Lastly, the body had its last coat of clear and this included the glass bits. The inside was coated too. Care is needed here to ensure there is no dust which can blow up and stick to the insides of the windows. Lastly, the whole thing was left to cure for several days whilst the driver’s tray was constructed.
![Image](http://www.slotcarouthouse.com/photos/gtcapritray.jpg)
The driver’s tray is a standard tray as used on most of my inline models now. It consists of a flat piece of plastic which runs the length of the body on the inside, just below door window height. The dash is made from laminated plastic glued together until it is approximately the right height. It was then shaped by hand until it resembled a sixties dashboard. It was glued on the end of the driver’s tray and slight trimming was carried out to get it to tuck in nicely behind the wind screen. The steering wheel was from the bits box and that was glued in place through the tray. The driver is a classic Fly half driver from a viper or similar. He was duly painted in Wixwacing colours and left to dry. The top of a seat was then required. This was rustled up from some plastic card and shaped to look like a bucket seat with wrap around top. Eventually it was all glued in place and painted. I try not to make my interiors too dark as it negates making them detailed if they’re too hard to see! The drivers tray wasn’t glued in place. It’s a snug fit in the body and when the chassis is in place, there is just enough contact for the top of the motor to hold the tray in place. This was planned.
Next, the moment of truth. The pinion and motor have already been run in with fine polish. The wheel clearance at the arches had been painstakingly honed down to a clearance measure in thousandth of an inch. The vehicle’s ride hight had been pondered for some time until finally being settled on and the chassis got a bit of extra ballast (about 10 grams) underneath and its final coat of grey was applied. Off to the test track. More delay as I don’t have a track of my own. Friends to the rescue and eventually I got down to a friends four lane board track. After a few tentative laps, I got up the courage to drive this little baby a bit faster.
There was very little lacking in the handling department and the NC1 motor was quite adequate for such a narrow car. There was no tendency to roll over deslotting and the odd deslot was an oversteer type deslot which tells me the guide was doing its job and maybe the rear needed a little extra help. The front tyres touched the inner wheel arches and this was noticeable on left hand corners with the model baulking in some turns. I didn’t want to reduce the front axle width anymore so a little judicious shimming and a reduction in the front axle side play eventually saw this cured.
Statistics. Weight 82.0 grams Front Axle load 38.0 gms Rear Axle load 44.0 gms Weight distribution 46% / 54% Front Axle width 45.5 mm Rear Axle width 47.0 mm Body Ocar GT Capri from Classicslot Chassis PCB coppered one side Front axle 3/32 music wire Rear axle Ninco with 27z crown gear Wheels Scalextric Lotus Seven Tyres Scalextric Lotus Seven Axle mounts Interlocking tubular brass Guide Ninco sprung loaded Motor Ninco NC1 with 8z brass pinion Driver Fly half driver, viper etc. Paints Tamiya Acrylic, Humbrol Enamel Glues Araldite type epoxy resin, Superglue, Humbrol polystyrene cement. Decals Patto’s Place
![Image](http://www.slotcarouthouse.com/photos/gtcaprirear.jpg)
The model has turned out as I was hoping. It has a good turn of speed and has enough low down weight to hold it in the slot. It races well on both plastic and board tracks and at its outings to date it is comparable with a lot of the NC1 products out there. I keep it in the box with a lot of my race cars and take it for a spin when there is a lull in competition. It never fails to attract attention from young and old but that may just be due to its livery!