1980 Mercury Capri Is Junkyard Treasure in Colorado

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Fox Mustangs have become harder to find in the Ewe Pullets of the land in recent years, and discarded examples of their Mercury-badged twins are nearly extinct today.

Nearly a decade had passed since I last saw a Fox Capri in a junkyard, when I ran across this much-weathered '80 in a self-service boneyard near Denver, Colorado.

The Capri name (taken from the Italian island) has a long history in the Ford Empire, beginning with the Lincoln Capri in the early 1950s. Then there was the Ford Consul Capri, built in the UK during the first half of the 1960s, followed by the 1966-1967 Mercury Comet Capri in North America.

The best-known use of the name was on the European-built Ford Capri, sold here by Mercury dealers (without Mercury branding) for the 1970 through 1977 model years.

Those Capris sold reasonably well in the United States, so it made sense to revive the name on a Mercury-badged twin to the brand-new Mustang that debuted as a 1979 model.

Replacing the Pinto-derived Mustang II, the Fox-Platform Mustang was a tremendous sales success and stayed in production all the way through 1993 (or 2004, if you consider the Fox-based SN95 platform to be a true Fox). Its Mercury Capri sibling was sold for the 1979 through 1986 model years.

The Fox Capri was available only in hatchback coupe form, so you had to get a Mustang if you wanted this car as a notchback coupe or convertible.

The build tag tells us it was built at the San Jose Assembly plant in Northern California, now site of the Great Mall, and sold through the Denver sales office. The paint is Bright Blue and the interior is Wedgewood Blue.

That interior upholstery doesn't look so blue now, because it got nuked for decades by the harsh High Plains Colorado sun.

When a car sits outdoors here for year after year, especially with the windows broken out, various species of wildlife tend to set up housekeeping inside. This Mercury has a deep layer of rodent poop throughout the interior, which means it's bristling with hantavirus danger.

The base engine in the 1980 Ford Mustang and its Capri sibling was the 2.3-liter "Pinto" SOHC straight-four, but this car has the good old "Thriftpower" 200-cubic-inch pushrod straight-six that first went into Ford cars during the 1963 model year and was the base Mustang engine from the 1965 through 1970 model years. The 200 six served as the basis for the HSC four-cylinder of the 1980s.

The 200 (aka 3.3-liter) in this car was rated at 91 hp and 160 lb-ft, because that's how life was during the Malaise Era. It was a $256 option ($1,032 in 2024 dollars). A turbocharged Pinto 2.3-liter with 150 hp was available for $451 extra ($1,818 after inflation) and came standard on the RS Turbo model. For $338 ($1,362 in today's money), 1980 Capri buyers could get a 255-cubic-inch (4.2-liter) Windsor V8 with 115 hp.

The transmission is the base four-speed manual with overdrive fourth gear. A three-speed automatic was available for $340 ($1,370 today), and buyers of '80 Capris with the 2.3-liter engine could get an optional five-speed manual.

The Mercury Capri name was revived for the 1991 through 1994 model years, when an Americanized version of the Mazda-based/Australia-built Ford Capri was sold here. Mercury itself was discontinued after 2011.

The Fox Capri was mechanically identical to its Mustang sibling and was built for the 1979 through 1986 model years.

While the Fox Mustang was available in notchback, hatchback and convertible form, all Fox Capris were hatchbacks.

The Fox platform was introduced for the 1978 model year and was quite modern compared to its early-1960s-technology predecessors, but this car has an old-fashioned engine that wouldn't have looked out of place under the hood of a first-year Mustang: a 200-cubic-inch pushrod straight-six.

Its transmission is likewise a throwback to the 1960s: a four-on-the-floor manual, with an overdrive top gear.

This car spent many years outdoors in the harsh High Plains Colorado climate and the interior is in rough shape.

It appears that a tree fell on it at some point.

Ford used some unashamedly fake wood in its cars during the Malaise Era.

The Capri name goes way back in Ford history, beginning with the 1951 Lincoln Cosmopolitan Capri. The German-built Ford Capri was sold by Mercury dealers in the United States (with neither Ford nor Mercury badging) for the 1970 through 1977 model years. After the Fox Capri, we got a Mazda Familia-based Capri built in Australia during the early 1990s.

"Ride-Engineered" was a Lincoln-Mercury marketing term for… well, having a suspension.

Fox Capris have become very rare, but this one is too far gone to be worth putting back on the road.

This one was built at the San Jose Assembly factory in California, now the site of The Great Mall.

1980 Mercury Capri in Colorado wrecking yard.

1980 Mercury Capri in Colorado wrecking yard.

1980 Mercury Capri in Colorado wrecking yard.

1980 Mercury Capri in Colorado wrecking yard.

1980 Mercury Capri in Colorado wrecking yard.

1980 Mercury Capri in Colorado wrecking yard.

1980 Mercury Capri in Colorado wrecking yard.

1980 Mercury Capri in Colorado wrecking yard.

1980 Mercury Capri in Colorado wrecking yard.

1980 Mercury Capri in Colorado wrecking yard.

1980 Mercury Capri in Colorado wrecking yard.

1980 Mercury Capri in Colorado wrecking yard.

1980 Mercury Capri in Colorado wrecking yard.

1980 Mercury Capri in Colorado wrecking yard.

1980 Mercury Capri in Colorado wrecking yard.

1980 Mercury Capri in Colorado wrecking yard.