The Flying Tiger

Advantages: Glamorous, eye-catching, you meet a lot of nice people owning this car.
Disadvantages: It can pass anything but a petrol station.

‘The Car You Always Promised Yourself’, enthused the adverts for the Ford Capri, and in the case of the Flying Tiger, we did … three times.

As passionate Capri enthusiasts, the number we have owned easily exceeds fifty. They are usually bought cheaply and either restored and kept by us for a while, or if they are too far gone, the useful parts are taken out and transplanted into Capris that would otherwise remain on the ‘critical list’. I always find it hard to watch as the corpses of the donor cars are carried off to the scrap-yard, but comfort myself with the thought that one more Capri is going to stay on the road because of it. They come and go at such a rate that I’ve kind of gotten used to it over the years.

The Flying Tiger was different though. From the moment I first saw her it was a ‘lurve’ thing. A 2.8 mkI, she had the elegant lines common to all Capris, but she had an indefinable something else too – she was a head turner. She got her name partly because of her speed and power, but primarily because of her colour, gleaming orange, with a black vinyl roof. Everywhere we went with her, people would stop us to ask questions about her, or simply stand and stare. Her finest hour came when, all dressed up with white ribbon, she took us down to the registry office where we were married.

The wedding proved to be her undoing – it had made a huge dent in our finances and that, together with the fact that, at around 15mpg, she drank petrol faster than the Queen Mother drinks gin, led to my husband’s reluctant decision to sell her.

A few boring but practical Vauxhall Cavaliers later, funds were looking healthier and my husband was browsing the papers for another motor when he spotted an advert for a very familiar sounding Capri … and the Flying Tiger was on her way home again. She had been very much neglected, and was absolutely filthy inside and out, but a thorough cleaning and some minor cosmetic repairs soon had her pulling in the admiring glances once again.

Men can be very fickle however, and while I’ll admit it’s not easy squeezing three kids and a weeks worth of shopping into the back of a Capri, I was nonetheless amazed when my husband commented that we could do with something bigger – ‘something like a Ford Granada’. Once more, she played a part in sealing her own fate - the roar of her engine as she fired up on a morning and her outrageous good looks had attracted the attentions of a neighbour – who just happened to be growing tired of his Ford Granada.

Much to my disgust, the deal was done, and the Flying Tiger went to live next door, and life for her went on in pretty much the same way as before. Then one day I came home to find her in a very sorry state. Always unconventional, she’d decided to give the brakes a miss and use the car in front to stop herself instead. The front of her was completely caved in, and the bonnet and one wing were badly buckled. I was heartbroken.

For months she stood on next-door’s drive deteriorating daily, while I just tried to ignore her. Our neighbour seemed to be trying a lot harder as he had by now transferred his affections to an American Camero. He had offered her back to us for sale, but taking into account the cost of having her repaired, the asking price was just too high.

Her luck changed on New Years Eve last year when we met our neighbour at a party and managed to negotiate a price that was acceptable to all. By now he wanted her out of the way, we just wanted her back, and she was ours … again. Midnight, and the dawn of the new Millennium found me sitting alone in the Flying Tiger with rockets going off above my head, and the whole world enjoying one big noisy party. Magic!

It took just six weeks to restore her to her former glory. To date she has had more than a thousand pounds spent on her, but she is worth at least double that sum. She was recently shown for the first time with the South Glos. Capri Owners Club at the Bristol Classic Car Show, and even our neighbour turned out to see her. She still experiences the odd problem (both she and her sister, 1.3 mkI ‘Crapi Capri’ are currently being a pain in the back axle) but this time, she’s definitely home for good.