I’m not a fan of ‘garage queens’, those kind of cars that are built up, but you never see them on the road.
I believe that all cars should be driven. It doesn’t matter if it’s a stance car, a truck, or a legend of motorsport – the worst fate a car can have is accumulating dust. That brings me to this 1971 Ford Capri…
Just by the look of it, you can tell it’s a race car. The engine has been built and taken from 2,600cc out to 3,100cc.
The owner is a man well known here on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands for building race cars. He has owned and modified a number of cars, from Alfas GTAs to a Ford Escort RS Cosworth.
He is restoring a Mk1 Lotus Cortina to use as a daily driver, but he loves Capris. He has put uncountable hours to get this Capri to where it is now, but he has to sell it, despite really not wanting to. He would love – as he told me – just put it on the trailer and blast it on a racetrack on a Sunday. But he can’t.
In fact, none of the almost 1 million people living on this island off the coast of northwestern Africa can.
After football, motorsport has been the second most popular hobby here for decades. Every rally has thousands of fans standing next to the road, just to see the cars pass by. And yet, a racetrack has still not been built.
This is not a complaint about no one wanting to spend a lot of money doing it, but about how the politicians have lied to us for 20 years now.
There is indeed a plan to build a circuit, and a piece of land was chosen around 10 years ago. Construction was set to start last year, but as far as we know they only moved a rock to take a picture for the newspapers.
I know this seems like a rant, but it may make you look different at your local racetrack, even if it’s small.
Anyway, what saddens me the most is that even if they end up building the racetrack, the Capri is going to be very far away from here, which means I’ll never have the chance to capture it in motion.
Aarón Pérez Torres
Instagram: flappypaddle
How To join the IATS program: We have always welcomed readers to contact us with examples of their work and believe that the best Speedhunter is always the person closest to the culture itself, right there on the street or local parking lot. If you think you have what it takes and would like to share your work with us then you should apply to become part of the IAMTHESPEEDHUNTER program.
Read how to get involved here.