A Mercury for a Miss

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Playmates have been a popular subject here since the prettiest of them, as determined by a vote in a well-known men’s magazine, used to win a car painted in ‘Playmate Pink’ every year. As this is something that was naturally recorded, we like to use the images every now and then. Claudia Jennings, seen here, was the 1970 winner of the title, which earned her a Mercury Capri.

Yes, a Mercury, not a Ford Capri. In reality, it was, of course, a badge-engineered Ford, slightly altered for the American market. According to the press of the time, it was developed as a ‘baby Mustang for Ford of Europe' while being sold through Lincoln-Mercury dealers in North America. The Americans marketed it as ‘the first sexy European for under $2400’. Like its Ford siblings, the Mercury was built in Cologne, Germany, and was very similar to its Blue Oval-badged relations. Initially it wore no Lincoln badges but just had ‘CAPRI’ spelled out on its bonnet (European cars had ‘FORD’ on it). At launch, it was only available with Ford’s 1600cc Kent crossflow engine (larger engines up to a 2.6-litre V6 became available later on), which led one Playmate enthusiast to the judgment that “Sadly it lacks the power or style to keep up with the other Playmate of the Year cars.”

We wanted to share it with you nevertheless.

Picture: Playboy magazine

Originally published on March 8, 2018

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