[Patrick3000]

I seem to recall that we had a few Merkur XR4Ti fans around here back in the day.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1988-merkur-xr4ti-10/

[Dandelion]

When I was 22, it was a very good...oops, wrong sentence.

When I was 22 I spent a few weeks "working" in Luxembourg. My boss drove a Ford Scorpio (imported to the US as the Merkur Scorpio) and one evening we, er, drove it up to 200 km/h, which was probably the fastest I'd gone in a car up to that point in my life. I remember it being pretty low drama.

ed

[Richard Curtis]

nice looking example. I have owned and rebuilt four, all before my current Porsche. The DMV used to have a large percentage of the members of the Merkur Club of America. the club took home Largest Marque award at many of Carlisle's annual All Ford Gathering in early June. Sweet cars, great handling, capable of prodigious horsepower but very could be easily and cheaply tuned to 225-250.

[turbo23dog]

X2 What Richard said.

Had several XRs and two Scorpios. Nice cars in their day.

[zygomatic]

That's a good looking XR4Ti, but somehow it just isn't complete without the ludicrous biplane wing

[racer]

x2 on preferring the big wing.. but man.. these cars hardly sold at all back in period. A classmate in Highschool had a red one like this.. and her brother a black one. I think it was a 2 for 1 sale

[zygomatic]

I was living in Europe when these - in Sierra Cosworth guise - were winning in the touring car championships (BTCC, DTM, ATCC, WTCC) and putting on a good show in WRC. It always saddened me that we couldn't get the Cosworth motors in the US. But, apparently, us not getting Cossies is not a bad thing. You can steal them in under 5 min using just a screwdriver.

[Eurotechms]

Still part of my daily searches, very cool cars

[DonNewton]

While on my second ship, we pulled into Bremerhaven for a visit. I rented a Sierra Cosworth and drove down towards Bonn and back. I swore that if that car were imported to the US, I was going to buy one. Later, while on staff at Navy OCS in Newport, the Merkur made its appearance. I test drove one down West Main Rd in Newport, turned around and asked just what the hell Ford did to the car. When I found that it had a Pinto engine in it, I left. Very easy decision.