The Ford Sierra was the world car that just didn’t quite make the cut in the United States. It might have had more to do with it’s name change than anything else…while “Ford Sierra” would’ve worked just fine if it wasn’t for GMC holding the trademark, instead Ford tried to play up the European aspect of the deal and instead called it the Merkur XR4Ti. Let’s break that down, shall we? Say “Maare-Coor”, then a shotgun blast of letters and numbers that don’t really mean jack squat to most people. Really, it breaks down to XR4 Turbocharged Injected. Well, then.
It was going to be hard to compete with the Mustang’s presence in the U.S. marketplace, but there was a way that it could have worked out better. Take a lesson from South Africa! Touring car racing is popular down there and they have a habit of making V8-powered beasts out of rather pedestrian vehicles. This is the Sierra XR8: a 5.0L powered, five-speed shifted beast that would compare pretty well against a Fox body Mustang. Other than the lack of smog equipment which gave it a horsepower edge (215 horsepower), it would have basically been a five-door Mustang. This one that Bring A Trailer found on Gumtree is sitting at about $24,000 dollars…steep, yes, but remember this is a low-volume local market package. How much do you think you could do this swap for reasonably? Nothing against the XR4Ti’s turbocharged 2.3L mill, but confusing the hell out of your opponent before handing them their backside sounds like fun, and the fully independent suspension both front and rear could have your V8 creation handling amazingly well.
Thoughts?
I used to know a guy that drove an XR4Ti for years. R.I.P. Verne.
You could pretty much recreate that for about 5K. Decent Xr4ti for 2-3K. Used V8, running gear, and misc bits 2-3K.
Does “didn’t quite make the cut in the United States” mean they sold some? We had those here in Canada. Thankfully I don’t see them anymore, ugly then, still ugly. But I guess the appeal of this build is a 4 door hot rod that handles well?
The main problem was they put them in Lincoln-Mercury dealers to be sold. Most of their salespeople of that era would have no clue on talking to customers about a car with sporting intentions.
They brought over a pair of cars. The XR4TI and the Scorpio. If you knew anything about road cars, the Scorpio was spectacular. Very low RPM and FAST!!!!!!!! Great fuel mileage also. Only had the for 88-89. The XR4TI with its 4 banger turbo 5 speed combination was a very fun car to drive and was a lot more fun at stop light drags than anyone would have suspected. Every one was a 2 door hatch back. The Scorpio was a 4 door or 5 door. Mostly Automatics. The few manual transmission cars were actually much better. If you went into a dealer, and saw the car, 98% of the sales staff didn\’t know crap about them. Being that we were involved with Ford since basically birth, I was one of the few to be fortunate enough to gain some knowledge on these things. My dad, Alex was a walking book on these cars, among others. Most chicagoland dealers didn\’t know what they were, much less have the correct drivers for the seats. Many brand new leftover cars were sold as used cars until they ran out of them. We started buying them at the Factory Authorized Ford auctions for pesos on the dollar and sold boatlaods of them. Only ever knew of 3 manual trans Scorpios. 2 black and 1 brown.
They brought over a pair of cars. The XR4TI and the Scorpio. If you knew anything about road cars, the Scorpio was spectacular. Very low RPM and FAST!!!!!!!! Great fuel mileage also. Only had the for 88-89. The XR4TI with its 4 banger turbo 5 speed combination was a very fun car to drive and was a lot more fun at stop light drags than anyone would have suspected. Every one was a 2 door hatch back. The Scorpio was a 4 door or 5 door. Mostly Automatics. The few manual transmission cars were actually much better. If you went into a dealer, and saw the car, 98% of the sales staff didn’t know crap about them. Being that we were involved with Ford since basically birth, I was one of the few to be fortunate enough to gain some knowledge on these things. My dad, Alex was a walking book on these cars, among others. Most chicagoland dealers didn’t know what they were, much less have the correct drivers for the seats. Many brand new leftover cars were sold as used cars until they ran out of them. We started buying them at the Factory Authorized Ford auctions for pesos on the dollar and sold boatlaods of them. Only ever knew of 3 manual trans Scorpios. 2 black and 1 brown.