1985 Merkur XR4TI

 

The Merkur XR4TI is one of the more interesting and easily one of the more confusing 80’s, small block, high horsepower engine cars that you might find. Interesting just to look at, for one thing. But also interesting because this German made car, is technically a Ford. If you go into a parts store looking for an oil filter for the stock engine, be prepared to confuse the hell out of the person behind the counter. You say you have the part number but they want to know what car it’s for. First you tell them the manufacturer: Merkur. You spell it out and explain that it’s German when they say they’ve never heard of it before. Then you give them the model: XR4TI. Then they hit search, and the results begin to populate; now the real confusion begins.

There are Ford parts coming up, but then there are also German parts in the search result. You provide the item number for the part that you need, but the person behind the counter is now confused. It’s a fiasco, but after much insisting upon the part number that you need, you may possibly leave with the oil filter in hand.

Apart from that, it’s the look and style of the car that excites the small following that Merkur’s have. If they’re like Matt, what they really want is a Ford Sierra RS Cosworth. Seeing as how they were made by Ford Europe, specifically for the European market, the cost of acquiring and then importing a Cosworth to the United States tends to run far higher than the value of the vehicle itself.

The Merkur looks a lot like the Sierra Cosworth and has a similar engine that can be built to make equal or higher horsepower. Of course Matt plans to turbo-charge this one. He acquired it a couple of years ago, and the head gasket went a few months later. It needs machining, and Matt wants to upgrade most of the internal parts. So every holiday I get him parts for it from his Summit Racing wish list. Every time there’s a good sale or excuse to nudge him to buy a part, I try to do it. He has everything to deal with the head gaskets, but we’re working on slowly getting all of the other internal parts it’ll need.

He’s funny because I know he could deal with the head gaskets, drive it and do upgrades later. That’s not happening though. That would mean tearing into the engine multiple times, and why would we do that when we can get it right the first time? My brain works the same way. It does mean that we have multiple projects that we are accumulating parts for instead of working on, but when everything is acquired for a project, it goes faster. 

Anyways, that’s Matt’s Merkur XR4TI. I think the wing and small side windows give it character. I’m looking forward to when we pull the engine and begin the rebuild. Matt's hoping to have me do the headliner and seats, but I'm no real seamstress, so we'll see if I can find them install-ready. 

1970 Ford F150

 

Did you ever have a vehicle that you really loved and wanted growing up? Maybe somebody your family knew drove something you liked, or you had a neighbor with the coolest mustang you ever saw. Well, Matt grew up eyeing his parents 1972 Ford F150, with a short-bed and a gleaming red and white two-tone paint job. Like so many of us, he wasn’t fortunate enough to get his hands on it as a teen and has spent his adult life looking for his own truck. It was like striking gold to find the pick-up he did acquire a few years ago now.

We took a road trip a few hours south of where we lived to look at it. Then we made another trip with a trailer to bring it home. He was like a happy kid who had just been given an ice cream cone on a hot day. He doesn’t really sing, but I remember him clearly singing along to a couple of songs as we drove home.

But then he gets quiet. And like any woman, I ask, “what’re you thinking about?” Only to be told about different cam-shafts and lifters and head studs and rings and things, to build the block that’s under the hood to make it stronger and more powerful so it can be turbo-charged. But then there’s also that V8 on the engine stand in the backroom and there’s plenty of room for it under the hood, but I would want to actually do blah, blah, blah. I get lost sometimes when he gets into the details of his dream projects.

Needless to say, I’ve learned that if Matt is silent and deep in thought, he’s thinking about engines and building horsepower. I know that if I ask to be prepared to try and follow the technical side of engine building, which I’ve learned more about than I would ever have guessed, because you talk about it a lot when you marry an engine builder.

Anyways, this is Matt’s 1970 Ford F150 Short-Bed pick-up. The engine hasn’t really needed much attention, only the carburetor required rebuild and tuning to get it running smoother. Matt has mostly had to focus time and energy on fixing the failing stabilization and suspension system. This picture shows before replacing those parts, and after replacing suspension components and lowering the truck. The entire brake system is next.

Olds Cutlass Supreme

 

When Matt and I started dating, he would pick me up in the 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme he had recently acquired. It seemed like it was a mile long, and made just to have a polished set of longhorns attached to the grille. Anytime I got to drive it, I would think about it and then joke that folks put those there so they could actually see where their front bumpers were. That thing was made to be the ultimate in comfort and luxury, and with how clean and well cared for it was, it was as comfortable as the year it was sold.

It was one of those rare estate finds that Matt was lucky enough to get his hands on. The gentleman who had originally purchased it had just passed away, and through the right connections, Matt was informed of the pristine Cutlass sitting in the man’s garage. He jumped at the opportunity to purchase it from the surviving family and actively drove it for a few months.

We happened to go on our first date only a few weeks after Matt had taken possession of it. Since he already knew that I had an appreciation for old cars, I think he was delighted to show me more cars and see what I really knew. I just remember being excited, both by the cool car and the date. I knew he really liked me when he handed me the keys to the Cutlass and asked me to follow him as he delivered his Mom’s car to the airport so she could get home the next morning. He entrusted me with his car. And then every other one since, but I digress.

The Cutlass was fun to drive and comfortable to cruise. We took a couple road trips with it and never once did I notice my sciatica flare; the seats were like sitting on clouds. It had an 8-Track stereo and the radio picked up reception in canyons and on mountain passes where it shouldn’t have gotten signal. All of the original paperwork was in the trunk from the purchase, along with thorough service records. The original owner ordered it from the factory with the 403 V8 engine. It was powerful and got out of its own way without trouble.

We sold it before we got married, probably about three years ago. Every now and then we talk about how fun it was and that we should have simply held on to it. But life is such that certain toys come and go according to needs, circumstance and priority. But this will always be one of my favorites in what I will call our shared-life-car-collection.