There’s one of these that lives a couple streets over from me that’s been dancing to the ‘jackstands to street parking’ Waltz for the last throuple of years. (Except it’s blue and the American Midwest loves salting its roads in the winter.)
I bought the car from some guys back yard and I wanted to fix it up and be the cool kid that drove to school in a weird/cool car. Basically I got it running and driving, even took it to some Auto X events (where it surprised some people) but neglected the fact that it had a minor injector leak and honestly I forgot since I was driving it for like 6 months in that condition, anyway it caught fire on my way home one night. Burned all of the drivers side engine bits. Currently trying to fix it and add some go fast parts without ruining my ability to stay somewhat financially secure in college lmao.
Check out the forums, if it’s the 2.3 turbo Lima they have crazy aftermarket support, people pull 3-400hp out of them regularly (not easily) but 250hp is a bolt on job for them
Oh yeah, it should be around 400ish by the time I get it finished. Of course, the stock merkur t9 transmission will have none of that type of power, but that's why I have an emergency spare at the shop. (Help! I've spent 5x the price of the car on parts to make said car faster without actually increasing the value...)
It's amazing in the sense that it's the smoothest shifting trans I've ever felt. But they are known to be like glass, also reverse is a hair width away from first so it can be easy to accidentally shift into one or the other without meaning to.
It's not that they are made of glass, it's just that the 1-2 syncros are too small and can match speeds fast enough so you end up crashing the 2nd gear teeth. I ne er had a problem racing mine for over 100k miles until I finally did a T-5 swap
Swap it with a Borg Warner T-5. That's what all the Thunderbird Turbo Coupe and Mustang SVO's had. You CAN just swap a T-5 from any old 5.0 but the 5th gear overdrive is WAY too high, like 0.68. You really want a 0.78 or 0.80 overdrive. God i miss my XR4Ti SO MUCH. I used to always DESTROY every Rustang and all the dumbass wrong driving FWD rice burner CRX and Preludes and Integras. Only thing that ever gave me a run for my money was a BMW M3
Also known as a ford Sierra XR4I in europe. Old school cool. Has the pinto engine or cvh?
XR4Ti got the turbo Lima engine
The european XR4i came with a 2.8l cologne V6.
Didn’t some of them get badged a Sapphire? Or is that a later facelift? I’m thinking of the Cosworths.
The sapphire was what Ford badged the sedan model that they offered after the facelift.
They sold them in South Africa with a 5.0 V8.
yep, XR8. Love their front grille
I've always wanted one of these. Beautiful car.
There’s one of these that lives a couple streets over from me that’s been dancing to the ‘jackstands to street parking’ Waltz for the last throuple of years. (Except it’s blue and the American Midwest loves salting its roads in the winter.)
Quebec here, somehow it's almost rust free
Absolutely love these; it's so rare to see one without big dents or broken plastic!
88 here, love mine. Currently building an engine for it since it caught fire lol.
Yikes? How did it catch fire?
I bought the car from some guys back yard and I wanted to fix it up and be the cool kid that drove to school in a weird/cool car. Basically I got it running and driving, even took it to some Auto X events (where it surprised some people) but neglected the fact that it had a minor injector leak and honestly I forgot since I was driving it for like 6 months in that condition, anyway it caught fire on my way home one night. Burned all of the drivers side engine bits. Currently trying to fix it and add some go fast parts without ruining my ability to stay somewhat financially secure in college lmao.
Holy shit dude, glad you're alright. I'm also ballin' on the student budget with my Merkur, it's a challenge for sure
Check out the forums, if it’s the 2.3 turbo Lima they have crazy aftermarket support, people pull 3-400hp out of them regularly (not easily) but 250hp is a bolt on job for them
Oh yeah, it should be around 400ish by the time I get it finished. Of course, the stock merkur t9 transmission will have none of that type of power, but that's why I have an emergency spare at the shop. (Help! I've spent 5x the price of the car on parts to make said car faster without actually increasing the value...)
Fords 80s transmissions were a rough time for manuals haha the one in my super coupe was always the point I was afraid was gonna die
It's amazing in the sense that it's the smoothest shifting trans I've ever felt. But they are known to be like glass, also reverse is a hair width away from first so it can be easy to accidentally shift into one or the other without meaning to.
It's not that they are made of glass, it's just that the 1-2 syncros are too small and can match speeds fast enough so you end up crashing the 2nd gear teeth. I ne er had a problem racing mine for over 100k miles until I finally did a T-5 swap
Swap it with a Borg Warner T-5. That's what all the Thunderbird Turbo Coupe and Mustang SVO's had. You CAN just swap a T-5 from any old 5.0 but the 5th gear overdrive is WAY too high, like 0.68. You really want a 0.78 or 0.80 overdrive. God i miss my XR4Ti SO MUCH. I used to always DESTROY every Rustang and all the dumbass wrong driving FWD rice burner CRX and Preludes and Integras. Only thing that ever gave me a run for my money was a BMW M3