Do you all speak Murker here? or is that way way different?
i think there are a few guys that can at least read and understand merk.
and i know at least one guys is crazy enough to own a few...
MERKUR
(Hey Gumby....get on the road! :p)
I'm 100% lost right now....:punchballs:
Isn't that a Escorstang! You know that European Lookin Ford thing where they crossed the Escort and Mustang into one body. LOL
Chuck is very fluent in Merkur, in fact, he often speaks Merkur-Birdish. :D
But the Birdish he speaks is the older dialect, most notably early '80s, LOL.
Mikey, Merkur was a car company.
No, Merkur was the "brand" badging put on a pair of European Fords sold in the US-market. They are Fords.....
What are you wanting to know?
If you're asking about any commonality with the US Fords....it stops at the engines. The platforms are totally unique.
I'm learning what I know as I read this.
think scorpios from the 80's
theres a white one near my i have been trying to talk to the guy about it cant seem to find where he lives, i want it! its a XR4ti? i think thats what they are called
XR4Ti
(http://www.turbochuck.com/images/86%20XR4/86xr_8.JPG)
Scorpio
(http://www.turbochuck.com/images/ScorpioV2/New%20wheels_1.JPG)
Both are RWD w/ IRS. The XR4Ti had the 2.3T and the Scorpio the 2.9V6
yup, and there's a white one on ebay right now
yep its a XR4ti
A friend in Yuma is about to swap for one and was curious about the engine and collector value.
my dad owns an 85 XR4Ti pretty fun little car needs a clutch now i wonder why lol. and some more things since its been sitting and kids cant leave other peoples things to themselve's and try n destroy everything
Those Tri-bars in black might not look so bad if they had center caps. I didn't know you had an XR4ti as well Chuck.
I have to get rid of that stupid horsey on the center caps before I'd use them.
I don't have the XR4 any more. I sold it last year.
I still think that one of the coolest features of the Scorpio was it's power reclining dual rear seat backs.
Those cars were just way ahead of the curve for the average F/L/M buyer to grasp at the time.
Brent
:cougarsmily:
pr0nounced "Mare-koor" for reference.
There is a complete XR4Ti in my local boneyard that isn't wrecked. I assume the turbo went bad. It's a 5-speed car with the sunroof, but it would need some work to get it back on the road. What a shame...
In 1986 my wife and I purchased a new Escort GT.
At that time they had new Murkers on the lot and were selling for big discounts, in fact it was less than the Escort GT. But my wife or I did not like the styling. May have been a big mistake but the Escort was a great little car but I sure took a loss on it when I sold it.
My wife wanted a red Escort GT and "what women want, women get".
The dealers could hardly give those Murkers away.
TED
It is Merkur.....
The dealers couldn't give them away because they didn't know what to do with them. They should not have been at the L/M dealers...they should have been sold as Fords and gotten proper advertising...then they would have sold. Instead they sold them under a made-up nameplate and dumped them on sales folks who couldn't even pr0nounce the name properly. Hell, they didn't even bother enough to make sure it was said properly in some commercials....if that tells you anything.
They were imported, not supported, abandoned, and still folks wonder why they didn't sell.
Do the right thing...
My name is John Lewis......and I own an 87 Merkur......it's been like hell since I started working on it but I'm loving every minute of it, and appreciating some of the German design elements, and hating some...
If I only had the space, time and money. Things are just too chaotic in my life right now.
It really is a shame, too. The car is complete with all glass, good lights, leather interior, etc..
The management at the junkyard claim they received the car with no information on it. Seeing as how the T3 has massive shaft play, I have to assume that the owner gave up on it and sent it off to the junkyard. Amazing.
Again, I would consider saving it if things were actually stable in my life.
I want to say that in the owner manuel there was a warning about the way they handled. Basically telling people that it didn't corner like grandmas LTD.
And that was with them undersprung and undertired (stock).....
There was an XR4Ti for sale at the local Ford dealer in thier 'junk cars' area in the rear corner of the lot about 5 years ago. It was silver, had the basket-weave kinda wheels. Called about it because it had no price and they wanted $1800 and it needed a turbo they'd said. Did they all have FMICs? This one did. I sometimes wonder if I shoulda bought it.
No, none of them came with intercoolers factory.
Isn't the Xr4ti really just a cosworth? You know that ford car across the big lake. Also that one in the junk section at the dealer could have had the Ford motor sports FMIC kit installed or aftermarket.
No..the XR4Ti and that racing program spuppiesed the Cosworth Sierra. The Cosworth uses a totally different DOHC 2.0T engine...
that one with the junk turbo at the junkyard how much they looking for, my dad is interested....
So the cossie has a differnet motor? I was just thinking about how well the cosworth does. Everyone seems to love it. But the XR4ti didn't do so hot.
The XR4Ti didn't do well in the US because Ford had their head firmly implanted in their asses when it came to marketing them.
The Sierra sold VERY well in the UK/Europe, even the non-Cosworth versions. The XR4i (Euro V6 predecessor to the XR4Ti) and the XR4X4 versions were popular and well supported. There were some wicked V6TT AWD aftermarket tuner cars that would put the Cosworth to shame.
Folks "love" the Cossie Sierra because it was not available in the US....thus hard to get, and was the "top" of the marque. And yes..the Cosworth uses a different engine than the XR4Ti.
i love the cosworths, i want an escort cosworth!
Yeah, I have one of those Mercar things, too. I'll be driving it again after I sell my daughter's 'birdy.
It's imperative to have one of each!
Jim
"The" Cosworth engine to have in this chassis is the YB block, 2.0 liters, turbocharged, 500 bhp easily achievable.
since cosworth came up,,,,,,, there is one running around here as a daily driver. Im still kinda lost on what i think about them overall. there are too many things you gotta look for to make sure you got the right one (most powerful) that i dont really think i have the time or energy to do it. there are a half dozen cosworth's in my jy here adn they all look alike. they are different years though.
I did a thread a while back and put a lot of research into it.
Oh, Scott! I forgot to mention... when Fila, my other friend Mike and I went to the local Chili's car show, there were TWO Cosworth Vega's there... one brown, one black, if I recall. I said ", shoulda got pics, Scott woulda went nuts." I might go back up this weekend and see if one of 'em is there.
Yeah man, I totally forgot about that. Badass little cars in person.
So far that makes one who can speak Merkur, and that's not the thread starter. :hick:
The Corworth engine in the Vega is nothing like the Cosworth engine in the Sierra.
Shame about how poorly they sold. A friend of mine had an '85. Hellishly fast car.