The black and gold Merc belongs to our old friend, "Fairlane" Bob, owner of that fabulous '66 427 Fairlane that I drag tested a while back. Though not quite as rare as his 1-of-57, dual-quad, four-speed Fairlane, the Capri is also uncommon--but, most importantly--it is in good running order, and Bob told us we could have at it. Right now, it's mostly stock, yet ran mid-13s, Bob told us. We were surprised to hear that because the '85s were high-14-to-low-15-second players in stock trim. With some TLC, they could run low 14s--but 13s--what gives?
Bob explained that the car was modified with 1 5/8-inch shorty headers, the unnecessary front engine accessories were yanked, and 4.10s were slapped in the rear. He had also "tuned" the factory carb by adding a secondary metering block and proper jetting, and he removed the EGR valve and replaced the setup with a four-hole spacer. His Mercury also has a four-point rollbar, skinnies, and sticky tires mounted on "old-school" Center Line wheels. My mind calculates that 13s are possible with this combo, but a trip to the dyno would more or less confirm the claim. Our plan was to employ basic hot rodding tricks such as a free-flowing air filter, a new carb, and a better intake manifold.
We placed a call to Barry Grant and ordered one of its Speed Demon air/fuel mixers, a 575 to be exact. The Demon would rest on a Weiand Stealth intake, and the package would be topped with a filter from S&B Filters. While the Demon is small, we knew it would provide good response and power in the desired rpm range. If we do add a cam and heads, which we are strongly considering, we'll try a larger carb. We also figured the high-riser, dual-plane Stealth was a good choice since it did wonders for the 302 in Pit Bull back in the day. It's designed to have excellent flow, but not kill bottom-end power. The literature states that it makes good power from idle-to-6,000 rpm, but we've seen this manifold work well past 6,500. Yet another item we'd be testing is the Airflo from Professional Products. The Airflo is a simple, plastic device that looks like an upside-down valve and fits over the air-cleaner mounting stud. It is designed to smooth the flow of air into the carb.
With parts in hand, we ventured to Crazy Horse Racing (South Amboy, New Jersey), and put the Capri to the test on the Dynojet. Baseline numbers showed the 302 was indeed alive--it produced 206.4 hp at 4,650 rpm and 277.0 lb-ft of torque at 3,400 rpm. The timing was previously set to 30 degrees total advance and air/fuel never got leaner than 13.2:1.
By day's end, we added 34.4 hp at the peak and almost 40 hp at redline. Best of all, there was an increase of 30 hp or more from 4,600 to 5,400, which is right in the meat of the power curve. Torque at the peak climbed only nine numbers, but the curve is broad and doesn't fall off nearly as quickly as stock.
We were jazzed with the results, so we're planning to give this thing even more breathing power with a bigger cam and a set of aftermarket heads. Then we'll put the Capri on the track and see how quickly the combo will go.