Also known as the Capri MKIII, Ford’s 1978 coupe for the European market was a heavily revised 1976 Capri MKII.
Ford made the Capri to be everyone’s grand tourer. It offered a similar style at the price of a regular, family sedan. No wonder that, in 1977, the Capri was the seventh most sold car in the U.K. Ford pushed harder its engineers to make the vehicle even more fuel-efficient and improved the aerodynamic and the powertrains. Fortunately, it didn’t change its overall shape.

At the front, the 1978 Capri featured an improved design with quad headlights. Its plastic grille resembled the same idea from the Fiesta and Granada. At the bottom, an apron reduced the air quantity that entered under the car. These modifications improved the car’s aerodynamic by almost six percent and reduced the lift by 18 percent. At the back, a spoiler was mounted on specific versions. All these modifications decreased fuel consumption by ten percent. Another particular detail for the 1978 Capri was the matte black door handles and windows surroundings. Later models featured color-coded door mirrors and grille.

Inside, the base version was simple and, somehow, dull. On the other hand, the Sport version was available with Recaro sport bucket seats and a complete dash with an original Ford radio-cassette player.

Under the hood, Ford kept the base engines for their high-volume sales but added impressive engines such as the 2.8-liter fuel-injected version paired to a 5-speed manual. In South Africa, a particular shop used to install the big, 5.0-liter Ford V-8 engine in the Capri. But it was too nose-heavy, and the agile car became unstable.

Ford’s intention with the Capri was to create Europe’s own pony car - front engine’d coupe with rear wheel drive, sporty performance and affordability.
And in 1968 it did it with the introduction of the first generation model you see here. The car was mechanically based on the Cortina and was built at the Halewood plant in the U.K., the Genk plant in Belgium, and the Saarlouis and Cologne plants in Germany. A way to make it affordable was to offer it with a huge range of engines, from a 1.3- to a 5-liter V8. The front suspension used MacPherson struts while the rear adopted the classic leaf springs and a live axle.