Simon Gentle’s closely modified Ford Capri V8 has been almost 40 years within the making. The Middlesex native has taken it from Highway Saloons within the Nineteen Eighties, via fixed growth – by way of a prolonged sabbatical – to its present monstrous type. And he’s accomplished all of it, with assist from fellow Capri fanatic John Hutson, in a single storage at house in Greenford.
With no household racing background, the mechanical engineer was impressed to take to the tracks after watching Australian Touring Automobiles on tv as a 21-year-old in 1985. Even the Capri’s #17 is a nod to Aussie legend Dick Johnson, who was entertaining the lots again then in a Ford Mustang GT.
“The Aussies have been first to place onboard cameras within the automobiles, weren’t they?” remembers Gentle. “They have been speaking as effectively, and Dick Johnson’s such a personality. I simply thought, ‘Oh that is so cool, I’ve bought to have a go at this’.”
Gentle purchased his Capri in 1986, debuting at Snetterton the next yr. The burgeoning Highway Saloon scene was the best place to begin. Automobiles needed to be pushed to and from the circuit, retain their inside, and have been allowed solely restricted modifications.
The place now a 520bhp Ford Mustang Cobra V8 is shoehorned into the engine bay, initially sat a humble three-litre Essex V6 motor that generated 138bhp off the manufacturing line. Even in Highway Saloon-spec, Gentle managed to search out nearly one other 100bhp in his quest to maintain up with the V8-powered Rover SD1s.
“The engines needed to be visibly commonplace, however you possibly can bore out the carburettor and do what you favored inside,” he explains. “I put the carburettor on the lathe at work and spent ages boring it out wafer thin, and placing larger butterflies in.
Automobile’s first season of racing was in 1987 (above), however it suffered a setback with Oulton Park crash two years later
Photograph by: Colin Peckham
“The automobiles have been fairly highly effective however had commonplace brakes, which have been strong discs and drums [front/rear]. But it surely made for lots of enjoyable. Nonetheless right now, that was essentially the most enjoyable I ever had. Generally you almost fell off laughing, the antics of all people.”
Among the many scrapes, Oulton Park was a nemesis in Gentle’s early years. An enormous off at pre-chicane Knickerbrook on his first-ever lap of the circuit in 1988 preceded a heavy smash exiting {Old} Corridor a yr later. A wayward Rover ran huge earlier than spearing again throughout the circuit and smearing Gentle’s Capri alongside the interior wall.
“‘Oh God, not once more’,” Gentle remembers considering. “‘That’s it, by no means doing it once more.’ However we had it re-shelled and again out once more in three weeks’ time.”
With kids Bryony and George on the horizon, Gentle parked up the Capri in 1997 and didn’t race it once more till 2018 – save for an unsuccessful one-off in 2010
Paradoxically, that shell – which the Capri retains – took Gentle to his first victory on the similar circuit in 1990. A contact of gamesmanship assisted one other at Knockhill.
“The championship battle was very shut between me and Dave Thomas in Capris and a pair of Vitesses,” says Gentle. “On the quiet, Dave and I bought the circuit teacher to journey in our automobiles throughout testing and train us the traces to shorten the training curve. It did the trick as we put our Capris on the entrance row. The Rover boys weren’t very glad once they came upon!”
A yr later, Gentle claimed the Highway Saloons title after a season-long battle with Tony Harding’s Rover Vitesse went to the wire at Mallory Park. He remembers: “I needed to both win or come second with quickest lap, which I did by simply 0.11 seconds.”
Championship received, it was time to progress to Tremendous Highway Saloons, which allowed extra growth. “The turbo [Mitsubishi] Lancers dominated there, and a few Saab 9000s,” he remembers.
Gentle loved a profitable spell in Tremendous Highway Saloons
Photograph by: Colin Peckham
“You have been allowed totally different wheels, larger brakes, however they needed to be off a highway automobile, and will take the inside out. And I may run the RS rear spoiler, in order that made a distinction as effectively. Engine-wise, carburetion was free then so I placed on the massive IDA Group 1 carb. I believe I had an all-steel backside finish, so I used to be revving it to 8000, for an {old} V6 Essex! It went effectively – it was about 300bhp.”
Regardless of greater than doubling the engine’s unique energy output, reliability wasn’t a difficulty: “We’d realized loads by then, doing all our personal stuff.”
After three years, many wins and two Class A titles, the following step was Modified Manufacturing Saloons. “I believe I had the RS Turbo tail on then, a bi-plane one I couldn’t use within the Supers,” Gentle remembers, “and I believe the Falkens [tyres] have been value a little bit of time over the Toyos. But it surely was tougher. Within the Highway Saloons and Supers, the restrict was 4 litres; within the Mod Prods there was no higher restrict.
“Gerry Cain, who was bloody good in a 4.5 Rover Vitesse, I don’t suppose I beat him as soon as. At Croft I had a very good scrap with him, however I used to be gifting away an excessive amount of energy actually. And Peter Barnes in a five-litre Holden Commodore, and the turbo automobiles… I had some good outcomes however I didn’t win one outright.”
With kids Bryony and George on the horizon, Gentle parked up the Capri in 1997 and didn’t race it once more till 2018 – save for an unsuccessful one-off in 2010. He tried satisfying the urge by constructing a 24-valve Cosworth-engined Capri for trackdays however “it simply didn’t actually give me a buzz so I offered the automobile and used the cash to get the race automobile prepared once more as soon as the children have been older”.
The {old} V6 unit cried sufficient on its transient return in Basic Thunder at Cadwell Park: “After which I believed there’s no level pouring a great deal of cash within the Essex once more as a result of it was on the restrict, power-wise.”
A comparatively low-cost provide of five-litre Mustang Cobra V8s grew to become obtainable after MG – which imported them for its XPower sportscars – folded. Gentle snapped up one of many Shawn Eire-modified 385bhp variations used within the SV-R.
Gentle’s Capri definitely packs a punch courtesy of its V8 engine
Photograph by: Mick Walker
“It had a whole lot of stuff accomplished to it,” he says. “The heads have been ported, solid pistons and rods, totally different cams, bored inlet…”
He put in throttle our bodies and fabricated new exhaust manifolds earlier than his comeback, contesting races in Basic & Historic Thunder and Modified Fords.
“I did 11 years of chasing championships,” says Gentle. “I loved it, and beloved the stress it put you beneath to be fast and never make a mistake, however now I simply wish to have enjoyable.”
The automobile’s roof is its solely metal bodywork left. The entrance undertray, dam and splitter are a single piece of carbon fibre, whereas the Dodge Viper GT3 rear wing was one other eBay discover
Additional developments included new cams, whereas the suspension is now BMW M3-derived – E46 CSL entrance legs and an E90 rear subframe – with self-fabricated arms. Gentle downplays the engineering concerned and is equally self-effacing about educating himself composites throughout the pandemic.
“I purchased a subframe off eBay, lay beneath the automobile, put it up, and thought, ‘Yeah, this’ll work!’” he quips, including: “I used to be furloughed for 4 months so I caught huge blocks of froth on the aspect of the automobile, formed them and made the moulds, after which did the resin-infused carbon fibre. I watched YouTube and was an knowledgeable in moulding!”
The automobile’s roof is its solely metal bodywork left. The entrance undertray, dam and splitter are a single piece of carbon fibre, whereas the Dodge Viper GT3 rear wing was one other eBay discover. Gentle fabricated the beneficiant diffuser from aluminium: “I could make a carbon one sooner or later however it in all probability received’t save loads.”
Rear wing was devised for a Dodge Viper GT3
Photograph by: Mick Walker
When he broke the T45 Mustang gearbox – “terrible; horrible ratios and actually gradual gearchange” – put in alongside the V8, Gentle changed it with a Tractive six-speed sequential three years in the past.
“I needed to modify all of the bellhousing and we made the adaptor-plate ourselves to mount it,” he provides. “It’s a pleasure to make use of now.”
Over the previous winter, work included carbon fibre diveplanes and new cylinder heads that additional raised energy. And regardless of the massive V8 and massive wheels working second-hand British Touring Automobile rubber sourced from WSR, the automobile ideas the scales at round 1030kg – not dissimilar to its unique Highway Saloon weight.
The eagerness and enthusiasm of Gentle and Hutson stay undimmed, with infinite developments within the pipeline.
“Energy-wise with the engine, with out sticking a supercharger on it or one thing, there’s not much more to come back,” he admits. “The compression’s a bit decrease than I’d like so possibly put some totally different pistons in sooner or later and get that up.”
Aspect skirts and a flat ground could also be subsequent. Larger brakes, larger wheels, a extra fashionable sprint… And with son George growing his personal Mercedes 190, there may quickly be two generations ripping up the tracks of their distinctive creations.
“John and me, we’re each pleased with what we’ve achieved,” displays Gentle Sr. “After we began, we have been simply messing about actually and didn’t suppose I’d be any good. The 2 of us bat concepts off one another, some wild and silly concepts, and a few of them we would go along with. However we’ve all the time loved doing that.
“The racing offers you the excitement however the satisfaction comes equally from enhancing the automobile and considering of issues that hopefully work, and the outcomes.”
The one-of-a-kind Capri can at present be discovered racing in Basic Thunder
Photograph by: Mick Walker