The Professionals' Ford Capris for sale – if you've got a spare £200,000
Cover me, Bodie! You can now own the Ford Capris which starred in television action series The Professionals – if you've got a spare £200,000 knocking about.
The fast-paced espionage drama, which ran from 1977-83, not only turned Walsall-born Martin Shaw into a national heart-throb, it also made Ford's run-of-the mill coupe into a cult car rivalling the Dukes of Hazzard's General Lee.
Millions would tune in each week to see tyre-squealing car chases, with Shaw's character Ray Doyle driving a Solar Gold Capri, and his buddy William Bodie – played by Lewis Collins in a Strato Silver car.
The pair of these cars will go under the hammer on Saturday in a sale organised by West Midland auction house Iconic, with a guide price of £200,000-£230,000.
That would represent a remarkable return on the cars which would have cost £6,147 when they were new in 1980. It would also break the record for the highest price ever paid for a Capri, beating the £55,000 paid – for another one driven in the series by Bodie – which went for £55,000.
The silver car in this auction also has the distinction of having more screen time than any other car used in the series.
The Professionals centred around the fictitious Criminal Intelligence department No. 5, or CI5. The unit, a portmanteau of CID and MI5, was set up to tackle terrorism and organised crime. Its leader, ruthless ex-army officer George 'The Cow' Cowley, was given carte blanche to operate outside the law. Most episodes saw Cowley, played by Gordon Jackson, sending his trusty lieutenants Doyle, a fiery, hot-headed former detective constable, and Bodie, a cold, calculating ex-SAS man, to foil terror plots and infiltrate crime gangs.
The Capris were involved in countless car chases, or were where Bodie and Doyle exchanged macho banter during tedious stake-outs.
The cars have both been in the ownership of a private collector since 2006, and were restored in 2021.
They bear there original 'V' registration plates, but the plates were altered to the later 'W' suffix to make them appear new when the series was aired.
The auction takes place at Silverstone race track, starting at 11am.
