The Great Turbo Conspiracy!
| While I was exhibiting 002 at the Yeovil Festival of Transport in 1991, I was approached by a |
| gentleman who said he thought that he had taken a photograph of my car when he |
| worked for a local newspaper in Barnstaple. |
| The photo below arrived in the post a week later. |
| After 002 was delivered to his first owner who was Martin Wild from Barnstaple, |
| Tickford took the opportunity for a publicity shoot together with |
| 005 (A412MHK) at RAF Chivenor Airfield. |
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| 002 and 005 on the runway at Chivenor Airfield - early 1984 |
| I then found out a bit more regarding the story. |
| I was contacted by a visitor to the web site who recognised the photo. |
| His mother was the first owner's secretary. |
| The publicity day was quite an event, organised between Taw Garages who were the |
| local Ford dealership and the North Devon Motor Club. |
| The proceedings were covered by the North Devon Journal. |
| At one point, 005 had a race down the runway against an RAF Hawk jet and won! |
| The Chairman of the Tickford Owners Club, Shaun Skinner, un-earthed some photographic |
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proofs from the event that were given to him by a previous owner of A412MHK. |
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| The driver was Malcolm Knight, a salesman from Taw Garages |
| The officer in uniform was Group Capt. Jeremy Saye, Chivenor Commander at the time |
| And finally.......after 20 years of searching.......I have managed to track down |
| the original full report that was hiding in an old Capri Club International |
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magazine from 1984. |
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| Now the performance figures always quoted for a Tickford Capri are a maximum speed |
| of 140mph with a 0-60mph time of 6.7 seconds. |
| You will notice in the article above that they are claiming 5.5 seconds to reach 60mph and |
| that the car was just about to go past 143mph when it ran out of runway! |
| You will also notice that they actually used 005 for the trial, which was a factory-owned |
| car at that time, where 002 was already sold. |
| Martin Wild's car 002 didn't take part in the actual speed tests. I wonder why? |
| The standard Tickford Capri had the wastegate on its turbo adjusted to allow |
| a maximum boost of 7.5psi. |
| It is a well-known fact that on Tickford's ex-Motorshow demonstrator FMJ624Y, |
| the boost was frequently set to something nearer 10-12psi |
| to impress potential customers. |
| Detective Dening's guess is that the turbo on 005 had been wound-up a bit for the day! |
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