Ultimately, Ford's experimental Euro-import brand for the U.S. market was only saved from being its statistically worst brand by a single model year. Merkur's existence had a lot in common with the story of Edsel in hindsight, but that doesn't mean they can't come back from the dead with a cool restomod. When the base vehicle is a sporty Ford Sierra, it's not hard to turn greatness into something SEMA-worthy. That's exactly what Jesse Henke from JH Restorations in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, accomplished.
First shipped from the Wilhelm Karmann GmbH factory in Rheine, West Germany, for the 1985 model year, North America's Ford Sierra, the Merkur XR4Ti, might not have had a Cosworth engine like its European cousin. But it did at least make a tasty-looking sporty German hatchback with a manual gearbox available to a market routinely starved of foreign market's most outstanding vehicles. The XR4Ti's 2.3-liter turbo Lima four-pot might have been passable in its day, but the Jesse Henke reckoned he could do better.
So once he was done gutting this 1987 XR4Ti's engine bay and the rest of the car almost down to a bare shell, he replaced the old Lima motor for a 2.3-liter EcoBoost short block four-cylinder crate motor from Ford Performance dubbed "the EcoBeast." At $6,875.00 shipped straight from Ford Performance, this motor is a good three-quarters the price of a running and driving XR4Ti. But with trinkets added at JH Restorations like a forged crankshaft and H-beam rods from Callies, Mahle forged pistons, and a Ranger oil pan larger than the stock one, it's hard to argue with power figures between 475 and 500 horsepower.
Once the engine was snug inside its new abode, Jesse started work on the rest of this Merkur's internals. First, the engine was paired to a Bowler TKX five-speed manual transmission, which links to an 8.8-inch rear end with Wilwood 14-inch brake disks at all four corners and suspension components from an SN96 Mustang. QA1 multi-setting adjustable coilover shocks complete a set of underpinnings built to handle the forces this restomod's engine can lug around. Throw in a pair of retro-styled Recaro front bucket seats, and this is the kind of custom car you wouldn't mind spending a day at the autocross with.
To match the pure, unbridled rizz going on inside this build, JH Restorations went all out with the body paint and wheel colors to really make it his own. Through the magic of Ford's wicked Area 51 Blue paint OEM paint and a set of custom front and rear bumpers and fender flares, this is the kind of custom restomod that can be appreciated regardless of whether you're German, American, or if from the surface of Mars.
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