OfflineI was born in 1969 and, as it happens, so was the Ford Capri! Thinking about this prompted me to think it would be a good idea to do something spectacular in my Capri to mark this momentous occasion ... so in celebration of my 40th birthday and the 40th anniversary of the sexy European Pony Car, I thought I would spend the summer of 2009 driving to Mongolia and back!!!
The team is inspired by a number of legendary capri rally cars, chief among whom are the Larry Wells/Norm Murdoch 'Team Blitz' 2.6 V6 Mark I Capri which takes part in rally competition events in North America (as featured in Classic Ford Magazine Dec 2007) [www.teamblitz.com]. It was reading the article featuring 'Team Blitz' that really made me believe I could make the Capri my rally car. Since then, internet research has led me to discover that Stig Blomquist and Ben Rainsford won the London to Sydney Millenium Marathon Rally in 2000 in a Ford Capri Perana. This car and other Capri's have a long and distinguished classic race/rally record; it is these cars that are the basis and blueprint for my own effort.
In short, I am going to turn my ordinary road going 1980 Ford Capri Ghia 2.0L into a rally car; and as if that wasn't a monster job in itself, I am then going to drive it from London to Ulaan Baatar, and back! And in doing so I am going to raise a shed load of money for the really important work of the charities working with street children in Mongolia and elsewhere. If you are in doubt about the need or validity of this help, consider this: abandoned children as young as 2 years old are cared for by siblings as young as 4 years old. They live underground in office and apartment building heating ducts to keep warm; and survive by scavenging for scraps! Restoring the lives of such desolute and deserving kids to some sort of normality is not only worthy but absolutely necessary .... I intend to do my bit ... what will you do?
One thing you could do is lend Team50*North your fullest support; follow the blogs as they record the story of this amazing adventure and challenge, and if you enjoy what you read then make a donation through the 'Just Giving' link.
The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is have already gone over...
Russia and car colours
Just had to reply with our experience in 2005. Stopped by the usual kalashnikov carrying teenager with a flying saucer hat at what appeared to be an internal border... I was ushered upstairs to where Uri sat with a huge ledger in front of him. Looking at the V5 he said "Red and Black?" and looked outside at our yellow and grey car... then nodded and filled the details in the book!