As performance and sport compact cars from the 1980s and 90s continue to appreciate, the Merkur XR4Ti seems to remain an outlier. I’ve shared a similar sentiment about another turbocharged Ford product, the Ford Mustang SVO. Is there a curse surrounding the turbo Fords? No, not necessarily, but there’s certainly a smaller following for cars like this XR4Ti, which has low miles and some very desirable upgrades if you’re a Merkur enthusiast. Find it here on Facebook Marketplace for $10,000, which he indicates is a firm price owing to the genuine RS500 body kit and other upgrades.
On the surface, there really wasn’t much not to like about the Merkur. It’s rear-wheel drive, makes good power, and has that obvious European influence. You can see this in the driver-focused cockpit, the nicely bolstered front buckets, and of course, a 5-speed manual (in other words, there’s no mistaking this for a Thunderbird). The bi-plane style rear wing and hatch design was a direct shout-out to the car’s rally lineage, with its exploits in Europe showcasing it to be a formidable competitor on the cruelest stages nature could throw at a driver. On paper, the Merkur seemed to have every box checked.
Once again, the failure of the Merkur had less to do with its actual engineering and more to do with marketing. As someone who works in the public relations field for his day job, it blows my mind to look back and see how badly my industry forebears did at pushing enthusiast vehicles to actual enthusiasts. The Merkur was sold via Ford’s Lincoln-Mercury dealership network, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. To send an actual enthusiast car geared towards someone cross-shopping it with a Toyota Celica or a BMW 3-Series to a Mercury dealership makes zero sense. In stock form, the SOHC Lima engine made 175 horsepower and 195 lb.-ft. of torque.
The seller of this example has added a variety of upgrades beyond the RS500 bodykit, which is a big dollar item by itself. He’s also added these smoked taillights, which were all the rage for European car fans in the 1980s. The wheels are aftermarket jobs as well and look pretty sharp, but I’d be shopping for something a bit more period-correct if it were me. The exhaust is a Borla unit, it has an adjustable fuel pressure regulator, and a steering wheel from a Sierra. The asking price is likely entirely fair given the condition, low miles, and rare parts, but it will take some time to find that buyer.
They left out the vents on the hood,and that front end
doesn’t look right for an RS500.
I helped sell a big Cortina collection of saveable cars
& engine parts.My jaw dropped when I looked in one box and
found a Cosworth head that went to a 2 litre engine.
I couldn’t edit my original post.Here’s the right one.
I think the car was unsuccessful here because, well, it’s ugly. It looks like a jelly bean that wanted to do NASCAR. Plus a ridiculous spoiler times two. Besides that, it had to go against a whole plethora of mostly better (and better looking) Japanese, American and other European iron. Not that I wouldn’t want to own one today. I’d just cover part of it with a blue tarp.