Capri - All British Day, Brisbane 2017

Sunday (17 Sept) was the annual All British Day. This is always a good day & held in the very pleasant surroundings of the St Joseph’s College Sports Ground at Tennyson. As usual there was a big turnout of beautiful British cars representing all the famous brands. The event is organised by the MG Car Club with proceeds being donated to the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute.
There were 4 different Capris present: a white 1600 Deluxe, my white 1600 XL, a peppermint green V6 & a rare Daytona yellow RS3100. We parked beside the British Small Ford Club which had a really good display of Cortinas & Escorts.
Just down the row was the largest display of Loti or Lotuses I have ever seen. There were some beautiful cars & the photos show this. The Rollers & the Jags line up down on the second oval and have their own picnics. Here we saw a 1922 Rolls Royce that had 3 exterior levers. The gear shift & the hand brake were obvious but what was the third lever for? The owner explained it was to dip the massive headlights! A first for me!
You name the British makes & they were all there: Land Rover, Bentley, Jaguar, Vauxhall, Morgan, Austin, Morris, Mini, Jowett, Rover, Zephyr, MG, Alvis, Scimitar, Sunbeam, Singer, Hillman, Humber, Triumph, Jensen, Aston Martin & even a McLaren.
Here are some photos. (click to enlarge)

Capri - Air Conditioning

I have been away for a couple of weeks so not much has happened on the car front but on Sunday I went to the Yatala Drive-In Swap Meet. I had heard that last year this was a very big event so I was looking forward to seeing what it was like & if there were any Capri or small Ford parts.
You may be wondering what this has to do with air-conditioning & I will get to that soon.
Although I did see two Capri items, a rocker cover & a set of V6 extractors (I have the phone number of the guy who wants to sell them), it was rather disappointing. There were not as many sellers as I expected & many started packing up by about 9.45 am. There were a few hot rods & cars on display, including a nice Escort RS 2000. Here are a few photos.


Now to the air-conditioning.
I have frequently thought about how great it would be to have air-conditioning in my Capris. However, this has just remained a thought bubble due to the cost & the power drag that would occur on the 1600 engine. That has all changed after seeing this new Rencool DC Air Conditioning Compressor. A young guy from Maddair (maddair.com.au) had a unit on display and also had a unit installed in an old EK Holden. The really interesting thing was that he had installed it in the boot - see the picture. He told me that the wiring did not need to be upgraded as the unit ran directly off the battery. The electrics may need a bit more exploration but he had the wiring & hoses running to & from the boot. The cost of the compressor is around $1700 but you would need to add the other bits. These could possibly be sourced from car wreckers. He also displayed a number of options for under the dash outlets. A really great alternative if you were really serious about air conditioning your Capri. I don't think I will bother but I wish that I had seen these a few years ago.

Here is the photo of the unit in the boot & a brochure on the unit. (Click to enlarge)

Capri - All Ford Day 2017

Our Capri Club planned to make this year's All Ford Day a major event on our calendar. I had not been able to attend last year but have managed to attend many of these displays over the years. However, despite all the great organisation that had been done by club members, the whole event was nearly scuttled by the weather. On Saturday evening there was widespread heavy rain with showers predicted early on Sunday & then clearing. Sunday morning dawned & it looked so miserable that I went back to bed. After several phone calls assuring that the rain had cleared, I headed off to Willowbank, outside of Ipswich for the big day. And, what a big day it was!
After a good 40 min drive with no rain, I was surprised by the number of cars already there & the long queue waiting to get through the entrance gate. My senses were really aroused as I inched slowly towards the gate beside two Falcons with huge lumpy V8s spewing vast petrol fumes out their exhausts. What a way to start the day!
After driving slowly through the many vehicles, my next surprise was to see how many Capris had turned up. In all we had 14, all different with 1600s, 2 litres, V6s, RS3100s, Mk 2s, V8s & an NC racing version. In addition, we had 2 lovely Escorts, a Cortina, a Mustang & 2 Falcons join our club for the day. Here are some photos from the day. (double click to enlarge)


There were a huge number of Fords at this day. My entrant number was 647 & there were more to come. All models & all eras were represented. Here are few examples.



One of the big attractions of the day is the ability of entrants to drag race their cars on the Willowbank dragway. The variety of cars & noise was unbelievable. Here are some pics.



A good day for all.