Ford decided to experiment a bit in the late 1980s with importing some of its overseas models into the United States. One of the imports was the German-made Ford Sierra, which got renamed to Merkur XR4Ti for North America. It never became more than a niche sports car, but JH Restorations decided to honor it with a comprehensive tune-up this year.
The original plan was to swap the stock 2.3-liter turbo-four mill for a modern, cleaner EcoBoost engine. However, the EcoBoost proved a tight fit for the old Merkur, necessitating a bulging hood cover. Dissatisfied with the look, JH Restorations reckoned it would be nice to redesign the whole body and interior from scratch while at it.
One thing led to another, and the result is a powerful and good-looking sports car pumping out around 500 PS (492 hp / 370 kW) to the wheels – three times as much as the original did. SN95 Mustang donated its suspension to the project, and a new infotainment system made it into the cabin. You may mistake it for an old-timer radio, but it has a USB port and supports Bluetooth.
According to the tuner, the main drawback of the project is that it held the team too busy before SEMA to actually test it out on the streets. This phase should begin any day now, and we are pretty excited to see some live footage of one of the world’s few tuned Merkur XR4Ti examples driven like it was supposed to all along.