The Morning Call and Mcall.com's view

One thing the Merkur XR4Ti can’t be accused of is being a look-alike European sports sedan. With its bullet-like front-end, biplane spoilers on the rear deck and overall aerodynamics, it looks as if it could have passed up the boat ride and flown the Atlantic.

If you haven’t seen one of these German-built cars, there’s a good reason. It was introduced in this country only last month (after several delayed starts) and very few are around right now. But if Ford Motor Co. has its way, you will see many more of these high-performance road cars. In fact, Ford states that the car was not designed to compete with the likes of BMW, Saab, Volvo and Audi but to whup ’em. Those are pretty lofty goals, but it should give you some idea just how serious this car is. But, then, any car weighing less than 3,000 pounds and powered by a turbocharged four cranking out 175 horsepower is, in a word, serious.

Beginning with the basics, ”Merkur” is the German word for Mercury and is pronounced mare-coor. The translation becomes obvious when you learn that the car was designed and engineered by Ford Werke Ag, Koln, West Germany (Ford of Germany), assembled by Wilhelm Karmann GmbH at Rhein, West Germany and imported by Ford’s Lincoln-Mercury Division. Ford isn’t a fly-by-night outfit in Germany. It has behind it some 60 years of designing and manufacturing cars in Germany and it predates some of the well-known European automakers.

And although the Merkur XR4Ti is a brand new car in this country, it didn’t just come off the drawing boards. It is based on the highly successful European Ford Sierra XR4i sports model. (The ”T” in the domestic version’s label, of course, stands for turbo.) In fact, more than 600,000 Ford Sierra cars have been sold worldwide since the model made its debut in October, 1982, and last year, the Sierra was the best-selling nameplate in its class outside North America. Before we get any farther, it should also be mentioned that Merkur is a separate franchise and the XR4Ti is the first in a line of models that will include a station wagon and four-door sedan, which are already under development.

With all of this in mind, let us move on to the test car.

As mentioned, here is a very distinctive-looking car. To resurrect that old cliche one more time, it looks like it is speeding even when standing still. And while it may not look like any of the other European sport sedans, it certainly has some touches of American muscle car spoilers of the hot Mustang SVO. This blend of European sport sedan and American muscle car gives it an aggressive stance. Ford’s passion for aerodynamic styling is obvious. The XR4Ti has a coefficient of drag rating of 0.32, one of the lowest for a production sedan. And surprisingly, this is with five-mile-an-hour bumpers (these bumpers aren’t required and they should cut down on cost of auto insurance).

Specs on the XR4Ti i nclude a wheelbase measuring 102.7 inches; overall length, 178.4 inches; width, 68 inches; height, 54.8 inches, and curb weight, 2,920 pounds. There’s nothing really radically out of line here for a compact sport sedan, but it is a little wider and a little heavier than most. The extra width is obvious in the interior and the weight seems to give it a solid feeling.

Interior space is roomier than it looks from the outside. The room, however, comes from its body style. At first glance (and maybe even third or fourth) this car does look like a coupe. But it is a sedan happens to be a hatchback sedan. (Its official designation is a three-door sedan, which, too, can be somewhat deceiving.) The two front seats are roomy with high side bolsters to keep one in place and, in typical Teutonic fashion, firm. Perhaps not a seat that would please everyone but a seat that should please sport sedan enthusiasts. Also, these front seats have electric heaters in them for t ose cold winter mornings.

The car is designated as a five-passenger sedan and five adults can fit into it. The back seat sits high which means that most passengers will be able to fit in with their feet flat on the floor. Even with the front seats extended fully rearward, there is still some back seat leg room. The seatback is split which, of course, means that one side or both can be folded down for additional cargo room. With the seatback in place, cargo space measures an impressive 17.1 cubic feet. With the seatback down, it measures an even more impressive 35.7 cubic feet.

Driving the XR4Ti, as can be expected, is a real hoot. Performance is above average and its crisp and responsive handling can turn an average driver into a good driver, a good driver into a great driver and a great driver into Burt Reynolds. Front suspension features MacPherson struts, nitrogen-filled strut dampers and rear mounted stabilizer bar. The independent rear has semi- trailing arms, variable-rate coil springs, nitrogen shocks and stabilizer bar. Also helping things out are variable-ratio rack-and-pinion power steering and Pirelli P6 195/60HR tires. Merkur is definitely designed for those who take their driving seriously.

The fuel-injected, turbocharged, 140 cubic inch (2.3 liter) engine develops its 175 horsepower at 5,000 rpm while torque is rated at 200 foot pounds at 3,000 rpm. The engine redlines at 6,200 rpm. The test car’s close ratio five-speed manual transmission was smooth and if you play the gears and clutch right, the XR4TI should go from 0-60 mpg in a little less than eight seconds. I’m not quite sure how fast is top speed but there was a sticker affixed to the test car’s tachometer that said, in so many words, not to exceed 4,500 rpm in fourth or fifth gear while there is less than 2,000 miles on the odometer. With a little bit of simple math, this would come to 90 mph in fourth and about 110 in fifth.

There is a three-speed automatic version of the car but I’m not sure if Ford really wants to sell any. First of all, there are very few of them on this side of the pond. Second, there must be some thought that the driver of an automatic can’t be trusted with the same amount of horsepower as the driver of a five-speed since the turbo engine in the automatic version is rated at a lower 145 horsepower at 4,400 rpm and 180 foot pounds torque at 3,000 rpm.

Although European in design, the XR4Ti has an American 85-mph speedometer. That is, the numbers only go up to 85 mph. The speedometer has a full swing and if you count the lines beyond the 85 numeral, the final figure comes out to 145. During the fun-filled Carter administration, automakers began spitting out speedometers that bottomed out at 85. The rationale being that if drivers could not see the big numbers they wouldn’t be tempted to go out and bust them. But the foreign automakers just ignored the whole thing an d that’s why you have import economy cars with 140 mph speedometers and American sports cars with 85 mph dials.

Fuel mileage for the test car came to 16 mpg for city driving and 25 mpg over the highways. The turbo does require high test unleaded.

The Merkur XR4Ti is one of those one-price fully equipped cars. For the $16,361 base price, the standard equipment package includes air conditioning, cast aluminum alloy wheels, power brakes and steering, halogen headlamps and foglights, electronic AM/FM stereo cassette, dual power heated mirrors, multi- adjustable front seats, rear wiper and washer, rear window defogger, illuminated passenger side vanity mirror and a whole bunch of convenience and trim items. The test car had a bottom line of $17,979. Other expenses included metallic paint, $274; tilt/ slide screened moonroof, $549; heated front seats, $183; convenience group (power central door locking, power windows), $470, and a destination and delivery chargeof $142.

Although not cheap by any means, this price is in line with its competition – the competition that Mercury’s new kid wants to stomp.