A Girl My Age, 88-89 Merkur XR4Ti "Selena"

What you are looking at is genesis, well not really. If you look at Jamaica's two most prominent sport cars, the Mitsubishi Evolution series and the Subaru WRX STi series, one often asks, whos the chicken and who's the egg? The answer is at Ford. There is a saying that Ford brought racing to the average man and when you look at it in depth, it couldn't be any truer. In America Ford brought the V8 to the average man and in Europe they made cars built to run in the WRC and sold them to the public [sorta what Subaru and Mitsubishi are doing now] These rally vehicles were also petted by Cosworth this resulted weirdly in them being better road cars than rally machines. Some prime examples include the Escort RS2000, Sierra Cosworth RS, Sapphire Cosworth RS, Escort Cosworth RS, RS200 and Focus RS.

The vehicle pictured here is a Merkur XR4Ti, which is a detuned Sierra Cosworth shipped to the USofA. I first got wind of this vehicle from a friend who said I should expect to see it running this summer. I didn't get to see any pics of it until I went to my mechanic [as you'd say a mutual friend among us] and saw this sitting here. At first my mechanic thought it was a Sierra [so did I] and told me it used an engine, not seen before in a Sierra, which is true, so he assumed it was a modified Cosworth BDA turbo. I went back today to visit him when I decided to take pics especially since it was the first I saw it there with the engine bay open. After inspection I noticed it wasn't a BDA, my mechanic then suggested it was a Cosworth Mercedes engine [they both were around the same displacement], it wasn't that either. After playing guess the engine for a while ding ding ding, the Merkur name popped back in my head.

Now after the success of Sierra sales in Europe wanted to spread the love to the Americas. In order to make it to America some things needed to be changed. The name was changed from Sierra [so as to not mix it up with a car made by rivals GM] to Merkur, back then a division of Ford. It also lacked the Sierra's Cosworth 200hp 2.0L YB turbo engine [which couldn't digest America's watered down gas] instead it got a 2.3L turbo 4. Despite the increase in size it was 25hp less than the Cossie. This engine swap also downgraded it to a single overhead camshaft [SOHC] as opposed to the YBs dual over head camshafts [DOHC]. It lacked an intercooler, which is something that is unheard of in todays turbocharged engines [which is a direct result of a very tiny turbo and low boost levels]. Another thing missing was the Sierra Cosworth's 4WD system which was dropped in favor of a lighter and less complexed RWD layout. The most important thing it lacked however was the big whale tail spoiler. This is a Sierra Cosworth with its trademark spoiler and as you would have noticed, the Merkur's aint exactly all that big. Now I am informed that they did come with them but in 88-89 they were replaced by the small wing seen here [mainly for issues of taste]

I really do like this car, its like a Sierra Cosworth except fanboys won't hunt me down if I modify it a bit. It also has RWD which I prefer to 4WD and its MANUAL [5 speeds too] It also has that classic unsuspecting 80s shape which looks boring yet it could give Type-Rs trouble. Its also sturdy, right now it needs a new clutch and my mechanic pointed me to a huge piece of metal shrouding covering the transmission, sort of like a protective shield design left over from the rally car engineers. Seeing that it is a rally car for the road, the ride is soft yet won't roll too much, just how I like it. I seem to have a liking for cars my age.....weird

[It would also be much more economical than Zoe but much slower]

Share this post