Ford Europe design boss wants Capri back

The Design Director of Ford Europe has spoken out in favour of reviving the iconic Capri as part of the Blue Oval’s recent resumption of dormant monikers.

Speaking to Britain’s Autocar on the back of the Puma launched in June this year and with the Bronco due to arrive next year, Amko Leenarts, who replaced Joel Piaskowski in 2017, said that the much revered coupe that ended production in 1986, would be the ideal model to inspire exterior design in the coming years.

“Who would not want to bring back the Capri as a design? We’d love it. But it’s got to be in the zeitgeist and has to fit, and work as a plural, not just exist as something for a designer to bring back an old car,” Leenarts said.

Denouncing a return to designations for its design language along the lines of the Kinetic nomenclature, Leenarts said that while specific names worked in the past, “it’s now pretty old-fashioned to have a name”.

“It’s just to tick a box, rather than design around. We have many different vehicles in the portfolio that no single design language or philosophy could cover. It can be good to have [a design language name], but you can end up with as many failures as successes,” he said.

“We’re a global company with different roots and territories. There are different ways to cut design philosophies. Cutting it to one is not fair or honest to make a range of products”.

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