1983 Mercury Capri (RS, 5.0 and special editions)

1983 was the last year of the Black Magic edition, which Wikipedia describes as running 1981-1983, black with gold striping, gold metric TRX wheels, and a gold cat's-head emblem on each side of the front valance; no production count for it was found. A separate, one-year-only Crimson Cat also appeared, painted Bright Red (code 27) with gold striping and Cougar XR-7 TRX wheels, borrowed from the Cougar XR-7 rather than the Capri's own wheel design, again with no production count found for it. This record carries only the material found in a surviving Capri Turbo RS folder for the year, so the base Capri, L, GS, and plain RS trims are not separately documented here for 1983.¹

That Turbo RS folder introduces a multi-port fuel-injected, EEC-IV-controlled 2.3 turbo, described as a "blow-through" turbocharger arrangement, rated 145 hp SAE net (SAE J1349) at 4,600 rpm on 10 psi of boost. It was paired with a close-ratio 5-speed overdrive manual, close-ratio through the first four gears with a 0.76 overdrive fifth, and the folder describes this as standard equipment on the Turbo RS rather than an option. No torque figure for this engine was found in the sources available for this record, and no other 1983 Capri engine is documented here at all, so the engines section carries only this single Turbo RS entry.

Beyond the engine and transmission, the Turbo RS folder names a sport handling suspension, TRX tires on cast metric aluminum wheels, and a Traction-Lok axle as part of the Turbo RS's specification; no separate ratio is given for that axle in the folder as excerpted here, and no separate price or part number is given for any of these four items individually, since the folder presents them together as the Turbo RS's own standard specification rather than as a-la-carte options. The folder also states a quick 15:1 power steering ratio for the Turbo RS, described in the panel excerpted here alongside the 10 psi boost figure and the 4,600-rpm horsepower peak.

No sourced production figure was found for 1983 Capris or any of its performance trims, including the Turbo RS, Black Magic, or Crimson Cat specifically; this record notes that a Ford production report or the Mercury section of a Standard Catalog of American Cars would be needed to close that gap. No price is carried in this record either: one drawn from J.D. Power's live valuation pages was removed across this project on 2026-09-24 because those pages can change without notice and cannot be independently checked, and no source this record can stand behind has yet been found to replace it.¹

No exterior color chart or interior trim listing beyond the two special editions' own paint and wheel descriptions was found in an accessible documented source for 1983, so the paint and interiors sections carry nothing further, and no wheelbase, overall-length, or curb-weight figure was found for the year either; only the two Turbo RS-specific figures above, boost pressure and steering ratio, are carried in the specifications section for the year.