GP4 Vins?

Post by **negusm** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 5:57 pm

Are they all known?

-Mike

Euro#13 · Post by **Euro#13** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 9:55 pm

Mike,

My first "in-person" experience with one of these GP4's was back in 1985 when a good friend of mine bought one from the local FLM dealer here.
I fell in love with that car and in my search for one I came across the EuroCoupe that I know own. My friend still had that car when he passed away a few years ago and I had the opportunity to purchase it from his wife but I had just bought my house and I spent all the money I had on the downpayment and couldn't come up with the funds.

I still plan on having a GP4 in my collection someday so I have been keeping my own list of them and adding new cars to it as I come across them.

As far as I know, the only "official" list of known GP4's out there is on Jason's website and he currently lists 16 of them that he has located. The one currently on Ebay is not on his list so that would make it 17.
I haven't confirmed it yet but I think I know of another one too.

An F.Y.I.
At the 1985 Detroit Grand Prix, the "festival" car was the Cougar XR-7 and Mercury had several of them there for the executives to drive around during the race weekend. Each of the cars had a decal that ran across the back window that said something like "Official Car of the 1985 Detroit Grand Prix".

Since I have a one of these cars I really need to get a GP4 car to sit next to it in the garage, then I would have BOTH of the "official cars" of that race.

Brent

Sandy · Post by **Sandy** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 2:55 am

The only VINS I have are likewise, from Jason's listing.

tfs2121 · Post by **tfs2121** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 4:16 am

hey brent were you trying to sell your buddys GP4 at last years dream cruse?

Euro#13 · Post by **Euro#13** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 2:37 pm

Nope, not me.

The guy who currently has it is the second owner, and I am sure that he bought it from my friends wife because she was trying to sell it when I was thinking about buying it and he has had it for about 3 years now. I know who he is and I have seen him around the area but I don't know him personally.
From what I can tell the car has pretty much been for sale ever since he bought it. He has advertised it in the local Auto Trader about a year after he had it, at that time he was asking $13,900.

How much did he want for it at Dream Cruise?

Did he still have the Orange asc/Mclaren Coupe wheels on it?

Brent

tfs2121 · Post by **tfs2121** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 2:50 am

yes i know for a fact it had the wheels... i guess i could correct my self on the whole the first ASC i ever saw was mine.. cus this one would have been my first

last aug. i crashed my first car and my dads buddy had come by his house with my (then his hehe) 85 ASC McLaren coupe (his buddy had no clue what it was) i was not at his house at the time but my dad told me about how cool it was. the next week end me and my dad went to woodward and as we were walking down the street he stoped and said thats what it looked like pete. so my dad stoped and talked with him about his buddys car. the guy with the GP4 asked my dad if his buddys still had the orange wheels and pointed to his he told us how the car was a buddy of his who had passed away. i recall one of the tail light covers being broken and maybe one of the head light covers i do remember the inside not looking to clean

i didnt really pay much attention cuz i thought the car was the verry ugly and i still was missing my first car as i always will

i dont remember how much he wanted for it but it was for sale

ps i have since then changed my minde abotu the GP4 looks... i wish i had one of my owen

its so neet

Euro#13 · Post by **Euro#13** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 3:44 pm

Peter,

I think that most people find the graphics on that car a little over the top but I haven’t come across very many Capri fans that don’t end up liking that car to some extent.
It's like you said, I think the neatness factor of it gets to you.

The original wheels from that GP4 are currently on my Cougar XR-7, here is the story behind why those Popsicle Orange wheels are on that car.
Mike (the original owner) called me one day and said I needed to come over and check out his car because he had ordered the "correct" wheels from ASC that his car "was supposed to have come with".
Well, when I saw them I kind of questioned him about it because I thought that they clashed a bit being orange and there wasn't any orange anywhere else on the car. He said that they were correct and I took his word for it. At the time his GP4 was the only one that I had ever seen and I hadn’t heard of, or seen a real asc/McLaren Coupe yet.
He knew that my original 10 hole wheels on my Cougar XR-7 were starting to deteriorate so he offered his wheels off of the Capri to me for next to nothing, and they were still like new.
A year or so later I came across another GP4 at a restaurant parking lot and noticed that it too had the O.E. Capri 10 hole wheels and it made me start looking into the wheel situation. Then came Sandy’s article in Collectable Automobile and soon after that I bought my first Coupe brochure at a swap meet.
I showed it to Mike and now it all made sense to us.
You see up until that time he was under the impression that his GP4 was actually an asc/McLaren Coupe and that is why he thought it should have had those wheels on it.
He had thought that they (ASC) had used the Coupes as the basis for making the GP4’s.

Brent

tfs2121 · Post by **tfs2121** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 9:12 pm

i guess that was his car then... it looked alright from what i can recal...

the guy with the car was really dumb and clue less about ASC McLarens

but he did point out an 86 coupe that drove by as we were talking. he also thought that he was like the only one that knew who hank was

all in all i wish you ended up with the car... that guy was kinda rude i guess you can say...

Euro#13 · Post by **Euro#13** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 9:21 pm

tfs2121 wrote:all in all i wish you ended up with the car... that guy was kinda rude i guess you can say...

Now you know why I said I knew who he was, but not personally. He hangs out in the crowd that I would rather not hang out with. Yes, he can be very rude.

And another thing, if he sells that car for what he was asking he will double his money......at least he will if he paid what it was originally offered to me for.

It seems to me like he just bought the car to make a good profit.

1985 Motorsport Capri · Sat Oct 02, 2004 5:14 am

An F.Y.I.
At the 1985 Detroit Grand Prix, the "festival" car was the Cougar XR-7 and Mercury had several of them there for the executives to drive around during the race weekend. Each of the cars had a decal that ran across the back window that said something like "Official Car of the 1985 Detroit Grand Prix".

The Cougars were mostly used away from the race area in downtown Detroit. they were given to out of town Mercury /Ford executives as transportation to & from the race & to Ford facilities. also the Cougars were given to race VIP's for the same purpuse, to get around town.
the Capri's were the actual cars that were used at the race as festival cars. Along with being used around the race area, some of the Capris also were set up in several Mercury display areas in & around the race in downtown detroit.

In addition to the Cougars & Capris, there is also a Ford F-150 Truck with Detroit Grand Prix IV decals. the trucks were also used around the track area. i believe one of the decals stated "official truck of the 1985 detroit grand prix"

Euro#13 · Post by **Euro#13** » Sat Oct 02, 2004 1:35 pm

Jason,

Thanks for the correction, I knew that they were somewhat involved with the race but you're right, "festival" car was the wrong term to use for them, maybe more like "VIP" car instead.

In your research, have you been fortunate enough to come across any pictures of some of these Cougars?
I am interested in getting a reproduction of the decal made but I have yet to find a picture that might show it.
About the only information I have been able to go by is from two friends of mine that were at the race and had driven the cars. They remember the decals being on the rear window, but understandably they can't recall the specific details of it.
I would assume that to some degree, it would have mimicked the letter style that was used on the Capri but at this point it is only a guess as to the exact wording of it.

Thanks.

Brent

1985 Motorsport Capri · Tue Oct 05, 2004 7:47 am

the decals more than likely were produced by the same company that made the capri decals. the name of the company is Graphik Concepts. they are based in Farmington Hills, MI.
since the capri decals are still available, i would imagine original decals for the Cougar would still be available. give them a call & find out.
j

Sandy · Post by **Sandy** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 12:57 pm

Jason, have you ever been able to find out the signifigence of the 3 silver GP-IVs made? As in, WHO rode in them, or WHY 3 cars were Silver?

Post by **negusm** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 1:02 pm

From the GP4 site:

The manufacture ended up getting the rest of the cars off of local Lincoln/Mercury dealer's new cars lots. Some of those cars were already sold to customers. Even after all this, Mercury still failed to get exactly what they wanted. Unable to produce or find the 30 white models with the engine & trans combo they were hoping for, some cars ended up having the less powerful 5.0 EFI with Automatic overdrive transmission. Even then they were only able to come up with 27 white cars. The remaining 3 cars were to be silver metallic.

tfs2121 · Post by **tfs2121** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 4:03 pm

1985 Motorsport Capri wrote:the decals more than likely were produced by the same company that made the capri decals. the name of the company is Graphik Concepts. they are based in Farmington Hills, MI.
since the capri decals are still available, i would imagine original decals for the Cougar would still be available. give them a call & find out.
j

i live in farmington hills MI haha...

but im at school right now in hicks vill ohio

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