Tim Cross is one of those peculiar nutjobs who just can’t bear to be without a project on the go at all times. “I like to buy project cars that are half-done and finish them off,” he laughs. “I reckon I’ve done 30, and then there’s more that I’ve bought for a bit of fun and got rid of.” However, not all of Tim’s cars pass through his shed doors so quickly, including this 1969 Ford Capri.

First published in the July 2025 issue of Street Machine

Fifteen years ago, Tim bought the car from Lee Bloom of Real Dyno Performance, painted it VE Commodore Morpheus Purple and dropped a turbo 360-cube Dart Windsor in it. After a few years of racing, that combo resulted in a PB of 7.80@178mph, but then Tim got the opportunity to purchase his now-familiar Cortina (read more below), and the Capri was moved on. Five years later, however, it showed up again as a white roller, and he couldn’t resist having another crack at it.

This time, Tim wanted to build something a bit more streetable, so of course he repowered it with a billet-headed Windsor running 13.5:1 comp, which required constant maintenance and wasn’t much fun to deal with on a leisurely cruise. Fortuitously, Tim has been a dyed-in-the-wool Dandy Engines customer since Frank Marchese fixed a thrust bearing issue in the Capri’s first Windsor, and while the pair were having a yarn about Tim’s headaches with the new small-block, Frank suggested it get turfed in favour of a brand-new 7.3-litre Ford Godzilla wearing a Harrop huffer.

It’s scary just how much of the Godzilla in question is bone-stock FoMoCo; the only serious departures from a factory F-truck mill are some of the valvetrain, the 417 Motorsports double-hump sump, and the belt-driven inlet manifold. These mills come with variable valve timing, but the Dandy boys deleted that when they fitted the healthy bumpstick; other than that and a set of appropriate valve springs, the internals are ridgy-didge original.

The factory heads are crowned by an intercooled 2.6L Harrop TVS2650 blower, and a diet of E85 sees the ’Zilla crack the four-digit barrier with 1090hp at the crank. The brains of this outfit is a FuelTech FT600 ECU that’s been carefully tuned by Nads of FuelTech Australia, though Tim’s not scared of making changes himself to improve his times.

However, pure power was never the goal with this little combo – Tim wanted to be able to go for a cruise with his family and also cane the Capri on the track without having to budget for new valve springs every time he filled the tank. “This is by far the best it’s ever driven,” he enthuses. “It’s so smooth, and the torque is ridiculous – it’ll smoke the tyres at any speed if you stab the loud pedal!” As for the all-important ET, the Capri has happily scooted down the quarter to the tune of 8.87 seconds and spits out 5.8-second eighth-mile runs all day long.

Besides the very modern engine, the rest of the Capri’s running gear is pretty tried and true tech-wise. The gearbox is a tasty Reid-case Powerglide from Protrans, and Nads at FuelTech hooked Tim up with a custom-built Circle D converter from the States. From there, a Universal Driveshaft Services chrome-moly tailshaft transfers the power to a spooled full-floater nine-inch. Kyle from 6boost was called upon to set up the rear leaf springs and Afco shocks, as well as convert the front struts to Koni coil-over inserts. Scotty from Gazzard Brothers has quite a bit of experience improving these Pommy coupes, so he supplied an anti-dive kit that relocates the steering rack to clear the sump and improve the handling.

While it’s seen plenty of different colours and engine combos over the years, the Capri’s bodywork was still quite tidy. As it had been a race car wrapped around several nasty engine combos, the inner guards had been cut away, so Tim sourced new ones and replaced the outers with fibreglass parts while he was at it.

Amazingly, the shell was rust-free, though the bootlid had so much tinworm that it wasn’t even worth stripping back, so it was also swapped for ’glass. Tim runs a business that employs a couple of full-time spray painters and things get pretty quiet during winter, so he handed the body and paint work over to Bruce and Kody Scotland. You won’t see this colour on another car: “I picked a blue, and Bruce sprayed out three custom mixes and told me to pick one; that’s why it’s called Custom Bruce Blue,” he says.

Tim’s over the moon with how the Capri’s turned out, and recently he even took home the top gong in the Radial Ruckus class at Kenda 660. “With the old engine, it was a cool car, but I couldn’t put the family in it and simply go for a cruise,” he says. “Now it’s just effortless, so easy to drive, and with the throttle response, you can even drift it around corners!”

Easy eight-second passes, cruises with the fam, and a number plate that doesn’t lie: now that’s some street car!

GREEN IS NICE

Tim’s been into cars since he was a little tacker and has been racing them since he left school. After building a few swift Dattos and participating in some particularly perilous rounds of Group NC action, he decided to have a crack at drag racing, and he’s been chasing numbers ever since.

He built a big-block powered XY that ran 12.0 on skinny 195-wide tyres, followed by the first iteration of the Capri. When it became clear that he wanted to go quicker than the little coupe was capable of, he swapped it for a Cortina that Profab’s Joe Gauci had just built for fellow radial racer Jay Goodwin.

Tim and the bright green Cortina were among the very first Aussies into the sixes on a 275 radial tyre, and he and Perry Bullivant held the world record for quickest side-by-side 275 radial quarter-mile pass for a little while.

Powering the Cortina is a Dandy Engines/Pro Line/Tremaniac twin-turbo billet small-block Ford. These days, Tim doesn’t campaign the Cortina so hard, and usually gets it out for some fun at eighth-mile events like Kenda 660, where it’s capable of spitting out consistent 4.2s. Maybe now that the Capri’s finished, it’s the Cortina’s turn for some upgrades!

TIM CROSS
1969 FORD CAPRI

THANKS
My wife Nikki for all her help and understanding; my sons Braxton, Rylee and Jai for helping out a lot; Frank Marchese at Dandy Engines for organising the engine; Harrop for the blower; Nathaniel Ardern at FuelTech Australia for encouraging me to use this engine platform, tuning the car and tech support; Troy at Skid Fabrications for getting any job done; Fred at Protrans for building the best gearboxes; Bruce and Kody Scotland for the panel and paint.