I bought the car in late May of 2000 from another Merkur enthusiast in North Carolina. The price was right and the most compelling things about it were excellent mechanical condition, a near perfect cloth interior (with heated seats good for Alaskan winters!) and low miles (around 65K). Right after buying it, I drove the car up to Pennsylvania for the largest yearly Merkur gathering in the country, the Carlisle All Ford Nationals. There were over 120 Merkurs there, in varying condition and levels of modification. Many of the cars were just incredible. What a great time. I met lots of fellow Merkur nuts (all very nice, and many of whom I had met via email) and even won a couple of awards for having traveled the furthest to attend the show. Though I intended to drive the car back to Alaska that summer, it turned out that my schedule for the next year was so busy that I couldn't afford the week or two it would have taken to drive the car home, so I ended up leaving the car for the winter with my brother and his wife in Maryland.
During the winter the car was left in Maryland, I had plenty of time to think about what I wanted to do with the it. With the car on the east coast, I had an opportunity to do something I'd always wanted to do with an XR4Ti ever since I owned my first one in 1994, which was to have Nick Mannarino of Modern Performance in West Long Branch, New Jersey, upgrade the engine for me. I had already been dealing with Nick for a few years buying parts to upgrade my '89 XR4Ti, and got to know him as a very friendly, reliable vendor who provided remarkably good long-term customer service for the upgrades he had sold me.
The car was reasonably sound but I had some concerns about the noises the rear differential and transmission were making. So in addition to an engine upgrade, I also wanted to take the opportunity to have one of the best Merkur mechanics in the world go over the car with a fine-toothed comb before it was sent up to "exile" in Alaska. I dropped the car off at Modern Performance in summer 2001 with the intent of having Nick build me a reasonably powerful engine (280HP or so at the flywheel) and to get the rest of the car mechanically up to snuff for a five-thousand mile drive to Alaska. Nick and I got to talking and I stewed over it for almost half a year, and in the end I finally made the decision to spend significantly more than I had originally planned on. I decided Nick should go to reasonable extremes with the engine because I wouldn't be completely satisfied with anything less, and in all likelihood I wouldn't have another chance to have Nick Mannarino build me an engine, which, to me, is a very special thing indeed. When the engine is done being tuned I expect it to put out somewhere in the neighborhood of 350HP and 400lbs of torque at the flywheel.
Given a few limitations and considerations, I had Nick come up with the most powerful, durable, and capable XR4Ti drive train he could. It should be reliable. For example, I'm not interested in changing the head gasket every 10,000 or 20,000 miles. Since it's intended to be enjoyed all year 'round and will be run in the Alaskan winter, it's preferable that there aren't any parts down low (such as intercooler air dams) that might be ripped off by a snow berm. It has to be tuned to run well on 90 octane gas (I continue to be baffled that's the highest grade available in Fairbanks), and allow for more power with higher octane fuel.
With so much horsepower, it is critical to have a transmission that can handle the stress. A Tremec/Borg-Warner World Class T5 transmission (photo) was installed, and to put all that power to both rear wheels, a Quaife Automatic Torque Biasing differential is still the best choice. To aid the Quaife, I've selected the Racelogic Formula1-style traction control, which as far as I know is currently the best such system available for street cars. The Racelogic includes features such as full-throttle shifting (just floor the gas pedal and let the Racelogic handle engine control during shifts), and adjustable levels of traction control to dial in the perfect amount of over steer around corners on dry roads, or to handle wet or icy conditions with a high degree of safety. The trickiest part of the Racelogic install is that it requires installation of wheel rotation sensors, as found on ABS-equipped cars (ABS was never an option on the XR4Ti).
Having committed to that much, I figured if it's going to be fast, it had better be able to handle and to stop. I added in a few things that I've had success with on my '89 XR such as the Cosworth sway bars, adjustable SPAX suspension, rear shock tower brace, and Thunderbird rear disc brakes. And given all that I had decided on, I had to finish it off with Powerflex suspension bushings all around, upgraded front brakes, and bigger wheels and tires. Those components not only make the car far more enjoyable to drive, the higher handling limits and improved braking make it safer. That reduces the chances of losing my expensive toy to a roadway mishap (such as a moose picking a bad time to step into the road).
Photos of some of the mechanical modifications are below. There is a fairly extensive list of all the mechanical modifications done to the car here.
Before dropping the car off at Modern Performance, I installed a stereo system including a high-end Kenwood MP3 player head unit, Polk speakers, and HSU Research subwoofer with 300 watt amp.
Further improvements: The body was a little rough with some east coast winter rust spots, tree sap marks, a few dings, faded paint, and a dent in the hatch. I had it fixed up and restored with some Cosworth parts, including real Cosworth bumper, wing, grille, and lights. The work was done by Lees Garage in West Long Branch, NJ and they did a terrific job.
Photos of the body work, taken while it was in progress and after it was completed are included below.
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