Adrian Brigham

This car has a history with the Capri Club of Chicago. This was Adrian's MCSCC showroom racer from the mid 70's. He had worked for a Lincoln/Mercury dealer as a mechanic, specializing in Capris. Growing up around Watkins Glen, Adrian was heavily involved in sports car racing and had been quite successfully campaigning a Fomula Veetern repeated through the early part of the season. In late May or early June the Council held a 4-hour enduro for Showroom that drew widespread attention. AutoWeek even sent out a reporter and photographer. The main competition were Porsche 914's, BMW 2002's, and Opels. The Capri was more powerful then either, but couldn't handle or brake quite as well as the 914 2 liter. Nevertheless they easily took the pole and led the first hour until the dipstick vibrated lose just past the entrance to the pits dumping all of the oil out on every right hand corner. By the time he pitted, the bearings were wiped, and the team was finished. AutoWeek nicely mentioned them for having the most "beautifully turned out" car and they called attention to their unique "2-way" radio system from car to pits--that was unheard of then except for Indy cars.

After that the season became more difficult with the arrival of the 240Z's. They never suffered any more breakdowns, but it didn't matter because they couldn't match the 6 cylinder power. They consistently finished third or fourth behind them. Upgrading to the 2.6 V-6 would have match them, but the supplies of this engine was too scarce. They tried to squeeze more out of the 2 liter 4, but even with an illegal cam, they couldn't match the Z's.

The following year the council restructured the classes and moved the 2 liter Capri and most other 4 cylinders to the B class, that year they only ran a few races due to other constraints. Adrian spent time build ing others cars and they were winning, however, their own was jinxed. The car was the fastest in it's class, but perhaps was being pushed too far. Other Capris came along and won many races over the years after that.

This car was sold in '77 to another CCC member, then it moved on to another and finally wound up as one of the "Club cars" used for slaloms. Where is the car now?....... the mystery starts here. :-)