OUT OF THIS WORLD

With outlandish wings and 460 bhp, 1.4-litre engines, the amazing Zakspeed Capris looked, sounded and drove like nothing else on earth.

It was almost as if Zakspeed’s body designers had been sampling mind-expanding chemicals or fiercely potent booze. In their sober moments they must have studied a Capri or two, but none of them could ever have been like this. Wider, lower, faster and more powerful, you’ve never seen this sort of Capri before. And neither, when it appeared in 1978, had anyone else.

Where do you start to describe Zakspeed’s near-unique cars of the late ’70s. Capris or not? Saloons or racing sports cars? Modified production cars or race cars with familiar styling? One thing was certain: no-one but Zakspeed ever built faster or more successful cars carrying the Capri title.

In the ’70s, motorsport was run according to a long list of FIA categories, from Group 1 (showroom standard machinery) to Group 7 (two-seater racing sports cars). In the late ’60s, when Alan Mann’s Escort Twin Cams ran with FVA engines, and Ralph Broad’s 105E Anglias had 115 bhp, we saw just how exciting Group 5 racing could be. Ten years later, when the technology and regulations had moved on a lot, the Germans took on Group 5 for their own national sporting categories. Start with a standard shell, Group 5 regulations stated, but feel free to alter almost everything else. Which explains why non-original fittings like engine transplants, massively reinforced monocoques, turbocharged engines, composite bodywork and extrovert aerodynamics all swept past the scrutineers without challenge.

Take 5

In Germany, BMW and Porsche had Group 5 racing all to themselves at first — Ford and Zakspeed were still committed to Touring Car racing, where more restrictive Group 2 regulations applied. By the mid ’70s, Ford’s works Capri RS3100s were fastest of all, though it was Zakspeed’s RS1800s which won the European and German Championships.