There are two running cars in existence - one owned by Zakspeed at Niederzissen and one at Equipe Stenger in Bavaria - soon to be joined by a third. There are also two display models (one at the Auto & Technik Museum in Sinsheim and one at Ford-Werke in Cologne). The third running car is under preparation by the Muecke Motorsport team in Berlin.

A 14-page article in Classic Ford magazine (June 2006) carried exclusive details of this 1981 Division 2 car which has been immaculately restored at Niederzissen by Zakspeed engineer Marco Fichter over seven years. This is believed to be the chassis also raced in white Ford & Sport colours in 1983, the final official works/Zakspeed Capri to participate in the DRM.

The car is just about in full running order and is reportedly in the best condition since it first turned a wheel. It is certainly stronger too: new bodywork panels were layed-up using the original moulds but CFRP (Carbon Fibre) was used rather than Kevlar 49 !

Rumours circulated early in 2006 that the car would appear at the Goodwood Festival of Speed but sadly this did not happen. The car is still owned by Zakspeed but the company itself is under new ownership.

The awesome Auto & Technik museum in Sinsheim, Germany have this immaculate example of a Zakspeed Capri in Klaus Ludwig's 1981 championship-winning colours. This is not the original 1981 car and may possibly be one of the other chassis re-sprayed or simply one of the display cars that Zakspeed built for Ford. In other published pictures, it can be seen that the car does not have the ground-affect tunnel. The notice board alongside the car also states that this car has a 1.7 ltr engine which the 1981 Ludwig car did not. This car is reportedly a permanent exhibition.

This car is owned by Ford Team RS-Motorsport and is kept at Ford Werke in Cologne, Germany. In 2005 it was on display at the Auto & Technik's sister museum in nearby Speyer, as part of a special Ford exhibition. It was featured alongside one of the MKI Cologne Capris and a Sierra Cosworth. It was also seen (and is pictured above) at Ford's 100th Anniversary bash in Cologne in 2003.

As with the Zakspeed-restored car at the top of the page, this has a 1982 spec front spoiler and ground-affect plus slightly different graphics (more branding, different fonts).

However, the car is actually an original 'display car' (chassis number CA1981-1) built by Zakspeed in 1981 purely for Ford promotional work. To underline this fact, some of the bodywork is actually constructed from wood.

EQUIPE STENGER in Sommerkahl, Bavaria have owned this example since 1982. It was offered by Erich Zakowski to Herbert Stenger for European hill-climb racing (or 'Bergrennen' in German). Stenger is a celebrated European hill-climb specialist and this car gained him the European title (Europabergmeisterschaft) in 1983.

The car is still in running order and appeared at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2003. It is not known if the car was built specially by Zakspeed for hill-climb or if it was first raced in the DRM and subsequently modified. The headlamp cluster and rear wing/fenders are notably different to the DRM car. The SACHS sponsorship may be significant as the company supported both Stenger and Harald Ertl - this could explain how the Zakspeed/Stenger collaboration came about.

The car was also known to have been on display at various times at the now closed Rosso-Bianco museum in Aschaffenburg, Germany.

There is an interview with Herbert Stenger (in German) about the car here: GT-Eins interview. The Equipe Stenger website contains more pictures and video of the car. There are also two videos of the car in action in our video gallery.

In 2003, Berlin-based DTM team Mücke Motorsport purchased the 1980 Division II car that was restored by Erhard Gunter in the 1990s. The Mücke team have been running a MK I 'Cologne' Capri in the Historische Tourenwagen-EM series in Germany and have also previously campaigned an ex-Zakspeed Group 1 Escort.

Documentation that came with the car reveals that it was built in 1980 and first raced by Klaus Ludwig in the final race of the season at Hockenheim on 28th September (More information here). The car then completed a full season in 1981 (in white Wurth colours) and four races (in powder orange Jagermeister livery) in 1982. The car is being restored to running order and from the pictures below - supplied to www.zakcapri.co.uk by Stefan - we can see that the original BDA engine will be re-fitted. Stefan is hoping for a possible initial media roll-out of the car in mid-2009 followed by a few outings in the HT-EM series.