The Capri was Ford of Europe's mini-Mustang, and was sold in the U.S. as Mercury. Today's Capri is a V6-packing pony, but is its price worth horsing around?

In their most recent Top Gear DVD, British Mutt and Jeff impersonators Clarkson and Hammond traverse Italy in a series of lust-worthy cars, culminating (spoiler alert) in an attempt to drive Ford Capris on the isle of Capri. Things (SPOILER ALERT, seriously, stop reading this!) don't go as planned and they end up communing with the Capri constabulary rather than the island's Ford namesake.

If it weren't all for the camera we could feel a smug sense of superiority to the British pair and their predicament. Adding insult to feigned injury, we can also boast of the opportunity to drive a Capri in a coastal clime, that car being this Tampa-located .

Now, I'm not attempting to compare favorably this 2600 to the Euro 2.8 that got Clarkson salivating, nor the FI-equipped 3.0 MkII that was the Hamster's block-long ride. That would be like comparing Tampa to the Isle of Capri, and well, yeah no.

Still, this 1972 looks to be a fine example and both well preserved, evidencing no road rot, and appropriately cared for, with its fresh coat of Florida Orange paint and pith-hued interior. This was the last year of both the smallest blade bumpers and narrow tail lights. This one has the latter still on the car, and the former off.

The 2600 is one of Ford's Cologne family so you know it smells good. In U.S. trim the 2,550-cc carbureted mill pumped out 107-bhp and 130 lb-ft of torque. As equipped with a 4-speed like this, that could push the 2,450 lb Capri from zero to sixty on just over 10 seconds. Hey, stop laughing, that wasn't bad back then.

Of course, this is now and ten-second-plus zero to sixty times are nowadays relegated to forklifts and old ladies on walkers. Acceleration isn't the sole determiner of fun however, and these cars offer decent handling and seriously good looks. In fact, you'll be perceived as better looking just from driving it.

That is of course if the car is rolling on its factory Rostyles as seen in the pics and not the 17-inch ten spoke tuner wheels threatened to be included in the purchase price. Eff those modern mothers straight to hell even without looking at them.

This is yet another car that seems to have had recent work put into it - the aforementioned paint, 20K-fresh engine and recent carb rebuild - that is now seemingly sufficiently unloved by its current owner to remain in his or her stable. As such, it's offered up for $8,500, or as it's somewhat incongruously noted in the ad, about the price of a nice Corvair.

I don't know when Corvairs became an intermediary representation of monetary exchange but I like it, and I want to see everything priced in terms of Corvairs. Until that fabled day arrives however, we'll have to deal with cold hard cash, and in that case, you'll need to decide if this Capri is worth its $8,500 price tag, or if interested parties should just keep shopping the Aisle of Capris?

You decide!

Tampa , or go if the ad disappears.

H/T to unklebob for the hookup!

Help me out with NPOCP. Click to send a me a fixed-price tip, and remember to include your Kinja handle.