I still remember when the 2.8 injection Capri came out and the advert “It goes like…” followed by a bolt of lightning.
A couple of weeks later I saw one come up a slip road ahead of me on the M9 . I was in my W114 280E which was the quite rare 5 speed manual version .
The Capri came on doing about 80 , this was when I was younger and apt to do things I might not do nowadays . He accelerated to 90 , 100 and more , and I just sat behind him .
We got to what was an indicated 130 on my speedometer and he started to blow some blue smoke … as Scotty might have said “ she’s giving it all she’s got “ .
At this point I drew alongside , looked over , smiled and gave the driver a thumbs up ; he smiled back . Then I changed into 5th gear and slowly drew away from him .
However the shoe was on the other foot on another occasion: I was heading up the M90 towards Perth and , in my usual fashion for the time ‘ making good progress’ when a red car came up a slip road ahead of me ; I moved to the outside lane to let him on , whereupon there were four puffs of smoke from his quad exhausts and the car went to warp speed , leaving me for dead - that car was a Ferrari BB512 ! I never saw anything on wheels move as fast in my life , although my friend in my hometown who had an Alfa Romeo Montreal would have chased it a bit harder than I could , but ultimately I don’t think he’d have kept up with it either . Never got a shot of the Montreal , but he did let me drive his GTV2000
