#MerkurXR4Ti
Rare Rides: The 1988 Merkur Scorpio, a Luxury Liftback for Nobody
Rare Rides broached the subject of Merkur in the past with a very clean XR4Ti. Today we have a look at Merkur’s only other offering — the luxurious liftback called Scorpio.
TTAC Project Car: The Deeper You Go... (Part II)
Do enough tasks independently from each other and there’s enough content for a two-fer update on TTAC’s Ford Sierra.
So let’s get to it.
TTAC Project Car: The Deeper You Go…
Most of this dialogue happened:
Brian: “My wife and kids are going on vacation somewhere I’d never go (Disney World) so that’s a good time to drive up to Dallas and work on the Sierra.”
Me: “Your family just had to pick the hottest week of the year to dump you on me, didn’t they?”
Brian: “Shut up, Sanjeev! Get over here and work on your stupid brown car!”
Rare Rides: This Merkur XR4Ti From 1989 Is Pristine
Imagine you’re an American auto executive in the 1980s, looking on in desperation as all the youthful and wealthy customers head almost solely to BMW showrooms for their sports-oriented sedans and coupes.
Now imagine you work at Ford, and you’ve decided to do something about it. By the way, you’re Bob Lutz right now.
It’s Merkur time.
TTAC Project Car: It's About Time!
Junkyard Find: 1988 Merkur XR4Ti
The Merkur XR4Ti (turbo-Pinto-engined Ford Sierra XR4i to you European types) wasn’t selling so well by the 1988 model year, but enough were built that I was able to find this example in a Northern California wrecking yard. In fact, this is just the second XR4Ti in this series, after this ’89 from two years back.
Junkyard Find: 1989 Merkur XR4Ti
Every so often during the 1970s and 1980s, the suits in Detroit had an inspiration: Take one of the corporation’s European-market vehicles, throw some new badges at it, and sell it in the United States. Chrysler did it with the Hillman Avenger aka Plymouth Cricket, GM did it with the Opel Kadett aka Buick Opel, and Ford did it with the Ford Capri aka “the Capri.” While these deals never worked out so well when it came to the bottom line (though the Simca-derived Omnirizon did pretty well for Chrysler), Ford didn’t give up on the idea. Bob Lutz decided that a Mercury-badged Ford Sierra with a turbocharged Pinto engine would be just the ticket for stealing BMW customers: the Merkur XR4Ti.
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