Simon Light’s heavily modified Ford Capri V8 has been nearly 40 years in the making. The Middlesex native has taken it from Road Saloons in the 1980s, through constant development – via a lengthy sabbatical – to its current monstrous form. And he’s done it all, with help from fellow Capri enthusiast John Hutson, in a single garage at home in Greenford.
With no family racing background, the mechanical engineer was inspired to take to the tracks after watching Australian Touring Cars on television as a 21-year-old in 1985. Even the Capri’s #17 is a nod to Aussie legend Dick Johnson, who was entertaining the masses back then in a Ford Mustang GT.
“The Aussies were first to put onboard cameras in the cars, weren’t they?” recalls Light. “They were talking as well, and Dick Johnson’s such a character. I just thought, ‘Oh this is so cool, I’ve got to have a go at this’.”
Light bought his Capri in 1986, debuting at Snetterton the following year. The burgeoning Road Saloon scene was the ideal starting point. Cars had to be driven to and from the circuit, retain their interior, and were allowed only limited modifications.
Where now a 520bhp Ford Mustang Cobra V8 is shoehorned into the engine bay, originally sat a humble three-litre Essex V6 motor that generated 138bhp off the production line. Even in Road Saloon-spec, Light managed to find almost another 100bhp in his quest to keep up with the V8-powered Rover SD1s.
“The engines had to be visibly standard, but you could bore out the carburettor and do what you liked inside,” he explains. “I put the carburettor on the lathe at work and spent ages boring it out wafer thin, and putting bigger butterflies in.
Source: Autosport