Pulled into a gas station tonight by work and passed this red coupe that at first glance I took to be a mustang.

When I got closer I read the badge "Merkur", and then XR4Ti on the rear bumper.

Turned on the road, and the guy ended up pulling up next to me, had a pretty mean 5.0 mustang growl mixed with a 4 cylinder Turbo'd sound to it. One of the better sounding cars i've heard. Then he took off and the thing had ballls.

So i looked it up when i got home, turns out its a german built Ford with a 2.3L inline turbocharged 4 cyl. built between 85 and 89. Looked a lot like this one. Just thought I'd share, its always nice when something rare / unusual comes along to add a brightspot to a dull and cold day here in chicago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkur_XR4Ti

Originally posted by EclipseSix
Pulled into a gas station tonight by work and passed this red coupe that at first glance I took to be a mustang. When I got closer I read the badge "Merkur", and then XR4Ti on the rear bumper. Turned on the road, and the guy ended up pulling up next to me, had a pretty mean 5.0 mustang growl mixed with a 4 cylinder Turbo'd sound to it. One of the better sounding cars i've heard. Then he took off and the thing had ballls. So i looked it up when i got home, turns out its a german built Ford with a 2.3L inline turbocharged 4 cyl. built between 85 and 89. Looked a lot like this one. Just thought I'd share, its always nice when something rare / unusual comes along to add a brightspot to a dull and cold day here in chicago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkur_XR4Ti

Thats pretty cool, I have heard of them before.
Heres another turbo muscle car look alike http://dayton.craigslist.org/cto/1542320024.html it looks like a camaro to me in a way.

Originally posted by Tuxdreamerx
Thats pretty cool, I have heard of them before. Heres another turbo muscle car look alike http://dayton.craigslist.org/cto/1542320024.html it looks like a camaro to me in a way.

Looks like a rebadged Starion to me. A few years ago when in college I looked at a apartment that had a Conquest / Starion graveyard on the property. It was neat, but the owner of the cars wouldn't sell any of them.

Originally posted by 95_ESi_Person

Originally posted by Tuxdreamerx Thats pretty cool, I have heard of them before. Heres another turbo muscle car look alike http://dayton.craigslist.org/cto/1542320024.html it looks like a camaro to me in a way.

Looks like a rebadged Starion to me.

This.

Originally posted by Tuxdreamerx
Thats pretty cool, I have heard of them before. Heres another turbo muscle car look alike http://dayton.craigslist.org/cto/1542320024.html it looks like a camaro to me in a way.

Looks more like a RX7 to me.

The Merkur's are pretty neat and not too common. There is a guy in my town that owns 3, 2 of which are running and he has the worst time getting parts for them.

I seen one of those before, I had to Google that shit too. Looks like a super Saab imo. If I had one I'd have to put "MURKED" for the license plate lol

when i was in college one of my buddys had a merkur and had a 100mm turbo on it and was nasty the true meaning of "SLEEPER".

From the ford Escort line only the merkur was a turbo model. Common back in the 80's and they rotted out too.

Edit: Came with a 2.3L SVO motor if i recall