At 10am on Saturday morning I slid into the semi-sporting front passenger seat of a new Ford Capri EV, the already controversial SUV-coupé the company launched a few days ago and wants to sell in healthy numbers beside its sibling, the Explorer.
The car was extremely noticeable in the yellow hue the company has clearly chosen as its launch colour, and to my eye it looked great. Big and tall – which is the cause of the controversy – but great. Roomy inside, too, just like the Explorer, with a minimum of showy architecture but a practical, quality feel. Very Fordish.
The task was to drive as fast as possible up the Goodwood Festival of Speed hillclimb, and my driver was the kind of bloke who’s perfect for the job: well-known stunt specialist and former auto test champ Paul Swift, well accustomed to performing at a high level in front of crowds without “dropping it” as someone had inconveniently done the previous day in a Lotus Evija.
Swift’s plan was to do a timed run this time (yesterday’s with football icon Eric Cantona aboard had been a bit more of a Friday drive). The plan was to bust 70 seconds, which would be very brisk, even for a 335bhp 4WD EV with 402lb ft of torque on tap. I hadn’t the heart to tell Paul, but for this errand he probably should have chosen a passenger who hadn’t had quite so many breakfasts. Still, he did his best to compensate by driving this thing as hard as it would go.
On the green signal our Capri erupted out of the blocks as abruptly powerful EVs tend to do, but with nary a squeak from the four driven tyres. We bolted up the start-line straight until I was starting to wonder, in the jaws of that first, fast right-hander (overseen by tens of thousands of eyes) whether we’d get around it. We did. Our cornering pic shows a bit of well-contained body roll; Swift's hands on the steering wheel displayed the car’s impressive handling neutrality. The stability I could feel through the seat of my own pants.
