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[Neglktd]

Hey Guys!  Picked up a 92 xr2 last week with the intentions of turning it into a "rat" sort of ride. Nothing too crazy but a fun project for sure. I'm struggling to find anyone that has truly "slammed" a capri and I'm wondering if there a reason for this beyond just ridiculously bad handling. is it not possible?    I'm thinking of lowering this car at least 3 inches maybe more and I'm looking for a way to do this CHEAP.  If all else fails the shop down the road does custom springs for $500 but I would much prefer to drop this on the cheap..  I'm not terribly concerned with handling as I've driven some highly unsafe static dropped setups in my day and survived.

Any help finding a super economical drop method and info as to the mechanical limitations would be greatly appreciated!


- Dustin in Clearwater Florida

[Rocketman]

This chassis really doesn't lend itself to being slammed, as you are finding out - as well as why there arent many (if any?) others out there.
The geometry doesn't lend itself to that much of a drop. You might want to investigate custom drop spindles or modifying the spindles to support more drop. You're going to find a lot of things will really bind or no clearance that low.

And like you said, the ride & handling will be terrible, in addition to not really being safe.

Cheap & low are not going to mix, at least not on this chassis.

You may want to look into 88/89 Mazda 323 sedans, they are the almost exactly the same chassis. I've seen some crazy ones come out of Puerto Rico and California. No idea how much $$$$ but they put a tremendous amount of custom work into them.

My $0.02
-Matt

[Neglktd]

Thanks Matt.    I came across a post where you spoke of using 95 civic coil over sleeves.  Could you be more specific as to what exactly was used? and what sort of drop they provided?

[Neglktd]

Just had the car up on a my buddy's lift and notice that indeed it's binding city under there.  In light of the tight conditions under the car and the realization that there will be constant part replacement if lowered more than 2" I'm thinking of throwing the HR springs in there and bolting up some 18's w/ 215/35R18 tires I know there will be rubbing but I'm sure its nothing that some fender rolling and wheel well removing cant take care of.    Anyone here have experience with 18's

[Rocketman]

I've seen only one Capri with 18s, he had to run spacers, do a lot of cutting to make them fit. Not sure about fender rolling. He burned through wheel bearings like crazy, 17" + are very hard on wheel bearings. These are small cars made for 14/15" wheels. But there's a fair number of people running 17s. The larger the wheel the harder it is on the braking system, as well - something to keep in mind.

The cheap civic coilovers I would not bother with again, the springs were devastatingly stiff, I pulled them off and put stock parts back on.
If I had to do it again, I would buy universal sleeves from Summit Racing as well as their 2.5"ID springs. you can get them in any length & springrate and piece together your kit. (I built a custom rear suspension on my Grand Prix this way to replace a monoleaf spring)
Ground Control makes a coilover spring kit for the 88/89 323 that works pretty well, I think you can achieve 2" drop with it. It's also fairly affordable, it rides good - my only complaint is the front springs are only like 8" overall length which seems too short to me

Maybe look into a custom ground effects kit to bring the body down lower, to give the illusion the car is lower to the ground? There is one or two options out there, look into the Razzi kit

[aw2oban]

side note the 18's i threw on just to see what it looked like fit on the front but rubbed against the shocks/struts on the rear of my 92 xr2

[azgtx]

What a waste of time, effort and money...go buy a 66 Impala and bag it.

[Neglktd]

Waste of money?  I traded an damn xbox 360 w/ 15 games for this car.  SERIOUSLY.  So I have a bit of room.    I can find a bagged impala with the click of a finger but a slammed capri would be a rare duck.

[aw2oban]

It would be rare I will give you that.......I have owned a bunch of limited edition type of cars and it gets harder and harder to find "un-molested" ones.

I am guilty of modifying many cars but I think the resistance you are feeling on this post comes more from the fact that what you plan to do will make it so when you are done with it it will likely go to the junkyard rather than another owner because you are setting it up for your tastes and it will wear out some of the suspension parts much quicker which will turn off many potential buyers when you are done.

Having graduated from high school in 1991 this is one of those cars I test drove new but couldnt afford and now seem to be collecting.......Centurion 4 door bronco, 5.0 Mustang, etc.

It is hard for some of us to see that they have become the kind of car you could swap a game system and 15 games for.......

just my opinion....hope i didnt offend anyone.....

[blueamber]

Yeah, I've been ragged at off-line by one guy who thinks no mods should ever be made to a Capri, but I still have made the 4 tail light mod for safety, converted my 93xr2 to a 94 interior, and put a black vinyl headliner into one of my hardtops.  Of course mostly what I do is reversible, not by choice, but just easy to do.

Of course, there were only about 1300 1992 xr2's shipped to the US... maybe 1/2 of them left... might be cooler to restore it...

[aw2oban]

Did you actually see the production number on them?  That is even lower than my Centurion was (roughly 2000 per year).....Would love to see the actual ford production numbers......Did it include just US or world-wide?

[blueamber]

In response to an old argument that I wanted to win... several years ago... I created a search program to query the free CARFAX information site with every possible VIN number for Capri, 1991 to 1994.  The free info the CARFAX site furnished confirmed if the VIN had actually been associated with a car registered in the US, and let me know xr2 vs NA.  These aren't total production numbers, just what is in the US

YEAR           NA           XR2           Totals
1991         25362         10034        35396
1992           5915          1390           7305
1993           7972           1262           9234
1994           3318             361           3679
Totals       42567        13047        55614

Total Australia production was 66382 (from Roo-sport.com... they have another view at production figures)

These remaining cars were never imported into the US and titled.  Those would be right hand drive Australia cars, and other non-US exports.

[aw2oban]

Interesting....I thought the non-US ones bore the Ford badge and not the Mercury.....interesting....Thank you!!!