This article on Steven’s Capri was originally published in the August 2018 issue of Street Machine magazine

FAMILY can drive us berko at times, but it can also be a beaut source of vehicular awesomeness. Hand-me-down cars might seem daggy at first to teenagers wanting the latest and greatest, but often, these family heirlooms worm their way into our hearts and wind up being built into righteous street machines. Such is the case with Steve Stojanovski’s ’71 Ford Capri.

While he has built a cool one-of-a-kind machine, Steve took notice of some of the tough Capris knocking about in Sydney. “Back when I first started there was a Capri known as DBEAST which was my inspiration,” he says. “I remember watching that car at the old Eastern Creek drags, and also Tristan Ockers’s MINCER too”

“My uncle bought this car brand new back in the day, so it has always been in the family right up until I got it from him in the early 2000s,” Steve says.

What Steve took over from his uncle was nothing like the candy-coated, tubbed, big-inch Windsor-powered brute you see on the pages before you. “It was a four-cylinder model and he was going to get rid of it, so I got it off him and then I left it for maybe four years,” Steve says.

Braking is handled by Wilwood gear, including an under-dash master cylinder, with four-pot calipers clamping 300mm discs up front and two-pots in the rear working on 290mm discs

It wasn’t going anywhere fast until Tony Petrovski from New Age Customs got in touch with Steve. “Tony said to drag it around and we started working on it. It was just meant to be a nice street car at first, but Tony was building an elite-level twin-turbo ’65 Mustang for Joe Agnello. I saw that car and I wanted the Capri to be the same quality.”

Steve’s Capri has awesome stance thanks to King Springs up front with QA1 coils out back, captured by Strange shocks all ’round. The handling has also been tidied up with the addition of a Flaming River tilt column and SuperPro bushes

This meant much of the Pommy sheet metal ended up in the bin, as the Capri scored a flat floor, recessed firewall, new transmission tunnel, six-point rollcage, rear clip and huge wheel tubs. “It is really only the exterior shell that is original,” Steve says.

Once the tinware had been massaged to an appropriately tough and clean finish, Steve took the shell down to Andrew Ash from AA Panel Craft in Bowral, and had him lay down the awesome House Of Kolor Copperhead Kandy.

Steve had his Weld Racing V Series drag wheels on for the shoot, spanning 15×4 on the front and 15×12 on the rear, wrapped in Mickey Thompson 26×4 and 28.5×11 rubber. But you may have seen the Capri at various shows on big-inch KWC 19×6 and 22×13 rims

Even though it looks right at home on the Capri, it actually took Steve some time to pick the colour. “I left the car with him and it took about six months for me to come up with that colour,” he says. “I actually saw it on a Matchbox car Andrew had brought back from the SEMA show in Las Vegas, and I loved it.”

While the colour punches you straight in eye, FRAER1 isn’t just a pretty face! There’s a ground-pounding 440ci Windsor built by Sydney Ford specialists BK Race Engines under the bonnet.

“I bought a motor from the USA but I ended up destroying that, so Bill [Kaglatzis from BK] ended up building me the motor that is in it now,” Steve explains. “He put it on the engine dyno and it did 830hp, but I still have a 500-shot of gas I can put through it as well!”

The Windsor swings 440ci thanks to a Dart block, Lunati Pro Series crank, CP pistons and Carrillo rods, with JE rings, Clevite bearings, Jesel keyway lifters and a Bullet roller cam stuffed into the block. The combo has been topped with BK-ported Trick Flow 240 heads and an HRE sheet-metal intake manifold with billet runners, wearing a pair of Book Racing Enterprises 900cfm twin-blade carburettors.

The boys at BK Race Engines sure know a thing or two about building stout aspirated Ford engines. Steve’s twin-carb 440 makes over 800hp on the engine dyno, but he has a 500hp shot of gas plumbed directly into the intake manifold should he really want to push the envelope

The oil system of the Capri isn’t dramatically involved, with a high-volume pump and a customised Moroso sump, while the 13:1 compression ratio means Steve prefers to run it on 109-octane VP Racing fuel. This is supplied to the dual carbs by a MagnaFuel ProStar pump.

Steve wanted to drive his Capri on the street, so it needed a cooling system. To this end, a 75mm PWR radiator and twin 14-inch thermo fans keep a lid on temperatures, while the twin three-inch exhaust system holds the Windsor’s 800hp bark to a tolerable level.

Behind the monster Windsor is an ATI Supercase-fronted Pro Glide two-speed auto built by Protrans and fitted with a high-flow oil pump and a transbrake, plus a 5800rpm TCE converter. The drivetrain then turns a three-inch chrome-moly tailshaft wearing 1350 unis, ending with a nine-inch diff sporting 4.56 gears and 35-spline axles.

FRAER1’s cabin is a testament to the car’s competition focus, with a pair of Kirkey drag seats replacing the original vinyl items, a six-point ’cage, billet steering wheel, and Magnum Grip Stealth Pro Stick shifter giving plenty of strip attitude. Rather than a gaggle of gauges, a Pro Comp dash display shows the engine vitals

“When I get a chance I drive it on the street,” says Steve. “I want to take it down the track, but I just haven’t had time. I haven’t really taken it to shows all that much, but every show I’ve gone to I’ve won awards; I’ve got into the Top 20 at Summernats every time I’ve gone there. I didn’t expect the car to turn out this way. It took about five years to build once we got into it, but we didn’t rush it.”

And what does his uncle think of what Steve has done to the car he drove home from the Ford dealership 47 years ago?

“My uncle is impressed because it’s a long way from what he bought back in the day,” Steve says. “He won’t drive it, though!”

STEVEN STOJANOVSKI
1971 FORD CAPRI

Colour: HOK Copperhead Kandy

ENGINE
Type: Dart Windsor
Capacity: 440ci
Crank: Lunati Pro Series
Rods: Carrillo
Pistons: CP
Heads: Trick Flow 240, ported by BK Race Engines
Carburettors: Dual BRE twin-blade 900cfm
Cam: Bullet; 270/[email protected], 112 lobe
Lifters: Jesel keyway
Pushrods: Comp
Oil pump: High Volume
Ignition: MSD 7AL-3

TRANSMISSION
’Box: Pro Glide two-speed Powerglide, transbrake
Bellhousing: ATI Supercase
Converter: TCE 5800rpm
Diff: 9in, 4.56 gears, 35-spline axles

SUSPENSION & BRAKES
Front suspension: King Springs, Strange shocks
Rear suspension: QA1 coil-overs, Strange shocks
Chassis: Flaming River tilt column, four-link tubbed rear, SuperPro bushes
Brakes: Wilwood; four-piston calipers and 300mm rotors (f), two-piston calipers and 290mm rotors (r); Wilwood under-dash master cylinder

WHEELS & TYRES
Wheels: Weld Racing V Series; 15×4 (f), 15×12 (r)
Tyres: Mickey Thompson; 26×4 (f), 28.5×11 (r)