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.