I'm all for backyard engineering. It allows you to re-purpose what is otherwise useless to anyone else. That's why this one-of-a-kind twin turbo, SHO V6-powered Merkur XR4Ti needs to be find a home with someone who will appreciate its quirkiness and its absolute, unrelenting insanity.
Here's a quick history lesson: This car started life as a 1988 Merkur XR4Ti, a carbon copy of the Ford Sierra sold in Europe. But unlike the European counterpart, we never got the firebreathing Sierra Cosworth. Instead, we got a car powered by the same turbocharged 4 cylinder as the Mustang SVO and Turbo Thunderbird - an engine derived from the most epic of performance cars - the base model Ford Pinto.
The seller of this car apparently had enough of the car's less than stellar performance figures and apparently went hard AND went home, as it looks like the work was done entirely in his garage.
According to the seller, here's what was done to this car:
1988 Merkur Xr4ti with SHO 24v 3.2 twin turbo engine with less than 1000 miles on the engine and parts.
Engine
Ford Taurus SHO Engine 3.2 24v v6
Compression 9:1 Wiseco Pistons
Stock Rods
Lightly Port Heads
New Valve seat and Valve stem seals
Balanced Crank, Flywheel and Rods
Custom made engine mount brackets
Custom made oil pan
Custom made oil pick-up
Earl Oil Cooler
Transmission
Toyota Supra Turbo 5 speed Transmission
Hydraulic clutch pedal
Custom made Bell housing
Balanced Flywheel
Stage 3 clutch Kit
Custom made drive shaft and adapter
BMW LSD 4:11
Custom made axles
Exhaust System
Custom tubular turbo Manifold
Custom turbo down pipes
Heat wrap down pipes
3 Exhaust Silencers
Chrome Exhaust tips
Turbo
2 T04E T3/T4 .48 A/R 50 TRIM Turbo/Turbocharger compressor 300+HP Boost Stage III
Front mounted intercooler
Custom intercooler piping
Tial 40mm Blow-off Valve
Brakes/Suspension
4 Pot Nissan brake calipers
17x7 Fronts
Contour Rear brake calipers
178x.5 Rear
19mm Front Sway Bar
16mm Rear Sway Bar
Complete Bushing Kit
Sumitumo 225/45 ZR Front
Sumitumo 245/40 ZR Rear
Air/Fuel
75mm Throttle Body
70lb Injectors
Custom made intake manifold
Fuel Pressure regulator
Stand Alone Engine Management System
Wolf engine management
Coil on plugs
Body
RS Headlights with HID
RS Grill
RS500 Bumper
RS500 Whale Tale
The rear hatch glass needs to be replaced; right now I have an 85 glass in its place. Also the quarter glass needs to be replacing too, but have it tape up.
Also the gas gauge doesn't work, I try to put in an aftermarket gas gauge sender and reader in there GM style sender and reader. And hydraulic clutch pedal is very low.
You can see a more complete album of the car, the parts included, and a few videos of the car running here.
The car does need some work, and the pictures aren't the best, but with this extensive parts list, and with the bidding currently under $2500, why pass up an opportunity to have a truly unique, light, and characterful sleeper?
If you're interested in more bonkers horsepower per dollar values, check these out:
Tavarish is the founder of APiDA Online and writes about buying and selling cool cars on the internet. He owns the world's cheapest Mercedes S-Class, a graffiti-bombed Lexus, and he's the only Jalopnik author that has never driven a Miata. He also has a real name that he didn't feel was journalist-y enough so he used a pen name and this was the best he could do.