Go through the old back catalog of Ford performance cars that were exclusively offered outside the US and you'll come across plenty of exciting machinery. There was the Lotus-fettled Ford Cortina and the monstrous Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth in Europe, and the Australians had the Ford Falcon XB of "Mad Max" fame. One sports car import from overseas that we did get hold of (albeit in a rebadged Mercury form) was the Ford Capri, a car that many people (including ourselves) would love to see return one day.

Someone else who's an equally huge fan of the Ford Capri is French designer Fabien Rougement's brother, with his sibling's enthusiasm being so great that it inspired Rougement to design an all-new version of the iconic Ford performance coupe. And, if we do say so ourselves, we reckon he's done a mega job of it. The car clearly inherits the core shape of Capris of old, such as the long hood, the raked rear and the vents in front of the rear fenders, whilst incorporating them into a really sleek and contemporary look. Plus, Rougement's theorized a few alternatives to the Capri, with the more wild iterations claimed to be the spiritual successors (performance-wise) to the 500-hp Group 5 Capri touring cars.

Will Ford ever release a new Capri? Most certainly not, on the basis that it would just steal sales from the Mustang. In many ways the EcoBoost-powered Stang is about the closest thing we have nowadays to a Capri successor. On the off chance that Ford is looking at bringing back the car unofficially cited back in the day as the "poor man's Mustang" we do hope it brings Fabien Rougement to help design it.