'85 Merkur XR4Ti Rally Car

I have wanted to make a "spec sheet" for this thing for a while.  Page 30 seems like an appropriate place to do it, since it's actually functioning right now.  Picture for fun:  

1985 Merkur XR4Ti Rally Car

Chassis/Body: 
Seam welded as shown in Ford Motorsport prep manual
Double skinned rocker panels and strut towers
Logbooked cage tied to all upper suspension pickups
1/8" plate reinforcements in critical areas
1x1" tubing radiator guard/skid plate mount
3/16" aluminum skid plate
Lexan windows
Roof scoop
All cladding removed
Wheel wells clearanced
Gutted hood/hatch bracing

Suspension:  
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ front struts (RIX housings, Bilstein 40mm inserts, machined stubs, 350lb/in springs, 300/100 damping, Escort forest bump stops)
JVAB rear shocks (unknown damping Bilsteins, 175lb/in springs, junkyard Ford bumpstops)
Seam welded front subframe
Upgraded bushings all around
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ reinforced rear subframe
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ reinforced trailing arms
Bigass 5/8" NASCAR lug studs

Wheels/tires:
15x5.5" Ronal Saab front with 175/75R15 gravel tires
15x6" Ronal Saab rear with 195/65R15 gravel tires

Brakes:
Stock front discs w/ Hawk pads
Thunderbird conversion rear w/ Hawk pads
Hydraulic handbrake
Adjustable proportioning valve

Engine: 
Ford 2.3 SOHC
Stinger center mount header
Stock Garrett T3 compressor housing, oil cooled Chinese CHRA w/ 1 year replacement warranty, Cosworth turbine housing
3" side exit exhaust
Cosworth intercooler, steel intercooler piping
Saab 900 radiator, Volvo 740 coolant tank, cooling lines rerouted
Mustang throttle body, fabricated upper intake manifold, ported lower manifold
Thunderbird ECU/injectors/VAM
Ranger (possibly other?) roller cam, Esslinger cam pulley, advanced 6 degrees
Esslinger billet auxiliary shaft and bronze drive gear 
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ dual redundant TFI
Inner head light gutted and converted to air intake
AEM dryflow filter
FC RX7 oil cooler
Big steel fabricated motor mounts

Drivetrain:
Thunderbird T5 transmission, Chinese short shifter, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ tall shift lever.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ transmission mount
Mustang steel driveshaft
4.3 LSD mk3 Supra differential with ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ adapters and mountins,  shimmed to ~250ft-lbs breakaway using Tractor Supply parts

Interior/Nav:
Old-ass Garmin GPS
Terraphone Pro Intercom
Figo phone running Rally Navigator app
Codriver accessible fuse panel w/ smartglow fuses
Momo seats and steering wheel, heavy duty 1x1" tube seat bases/anti "up the ass of Timo" bars

Lighting:
LED headlight bulbs
Red interior LED lighting for navigator
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ bolt-on light bar w/ MICTuning curved spot/flood combo bar and 4x Auxbeam LED pencil/spot driving lights
All tail lights/signals converted to LED

That's a lot of stuff and I'm not sure I got everything!  There are parts from a ton of other vehicles on this beast so I wanted to get everything in one place, I'll update this as I inevitably remember other stuff.

picked up something for you. Some light reading...

In reply to irish44j :

That's basically the Necronomicon of 80s turbo garbage you've got there.

After an extremely trying time with the many headed trash hydra that is FedEx (phone calls, trips to multiple locations, security run-ins, and more!) I finally got my new distributor gear.  Put it on a new distributor, old (100 miles or so, spare) on left new on right:

Soggy test drive confirmed that we are still good:  

I ended up retarding the cam back to 4deg of total advance, since the power really falls off over 5k rpm.  Plan is to continue driving the car and see what else goes wrong as I continue to improve little things.  No rallies on the calendar for this year, 2019 plans will solidify as the car hopefully proves itself to be trustworthy.

I have been driving the car- to work, on weekends, etc.  So far so good, although I had to re-torque the front wheel bearings and I have raised the front coilovers about 1/4" for a little more caster/steering feel.  It leaks oil, but it always has and is otherwise behaving itself.  Unfortunately, I don't have snows for it yet so I didn't get to play with it in our snowstorm this week, but I did get to try a grooving experiment and see how it worked on a snow/slush/gravel combo:  

Hard to tell, but the tire on the left has a sharpened inner edge and a new groove running around it in the middle- with two of those on the front and some similarly grooved ancient Michelins on the rear, the car is capable of getting down a snowy road better than it was without the grooving.  Snow tires will still be better, but I think I can come up with a set of "intermediate" tires for warm and melty snow events this way.

Photos from "testing" today:  

I have a set of stock Merkur 14x5.5" wheels I got from IndyGuy a while ago- I checked and they just barely clear the Thunderbird rear brakes:  

I think I'll be putting snows on these, unless somebody has a compelling reason why I should put them on some of my 15" wheels instead.  Three of them have a pretty lousy black paint job, so I hit them with a wire wheel on a drill and cleaned them with Purple Power:  

The non-smooth surface seemed like a good candidate for a paint scheme I've wanted to try for a while, so I made splatter painted wheels- when the finish chips we'll call it performance art:  

So- snow tires.  I think I'm going to do 14s because hopefully the taller sidewall will give the tires more of a chance to squish/move out of the way before they just explode.  The only snows I've rallied on so far have been 15" Altimaxes, which worked great in snow and ice but punctured very easily.  What I would like to do is get a set of snows, mess around on them during the winter, then groove the hell out of them a month or so prior to WMWR (assuming we're doing it) and test a bit to hopefully get slightly better gravel/slush performance out of them.

Here are the tire options I like in 14", all around $70/tire:

General Altimax Arctic 185/65R14, 12/32 tread depth,  17 lbs.  Known quantity, good tire but is weak and floppy. 

Dunlop Winter Maxx WM02 175/70R14, 11/32 tread depth, 17 lbs.  Well reviewed for steering response so possibly a stiffer sidewall than the Altimax?  Siping looks good too.

Cooper Evolution Winter 175/70R14, 12/32 tread depth, 17 lbs.  Very "MT" looking tread pattern, slightly more depth, maybe better for slush/gravel/mud?

Uniroyal Tiger Paw Ice & Snow 3 185/65R14.  11/32 tread depth, 19 lbs.  Tread pattern similar to the Altimax but 2 lbs heavier, maybe indicates tougher carcass?  

And another option, if I want some serious mud tires, would be to heavily groove a pair of the 175 DMacks I have for front tires, and get a pair of these 205/65R15 Mud retreads from Tire Recappers for the rear:  

What has been your best finish to date?

In reply to 759NRNG :

2nd at Waste Management Winter Rally in the RX7, although I consider our 4th at Black River Stages in this car to be a "higher" finish given the field we were competing with.  Car is hopefully far better than it was when we got 4th!

Those Cooper look the best for a "slush" tire without having to spend a lot fo time with the groover.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

I don’t know if the current ones are comparable, and I obviously never did any stage rally with them, but the Michelin X-Ice were great on gravel & snow on my Accent, though not as good in slush. I had them on 14” BMW bottlecaps, so the were available in that size about 4-years ago. 

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

You would only want that mud tire for a rallyX on a field, its not gonna do you much good on a rally. Grassy field or demolition derby however, probably a cheater tire, too good to be true but still legal. SEND IT!

In reply to fidelity101 :

I've been eyeing those MTs ever since the HyperFest RallySprint where it rained the entire night before- had I had them (or anything for mud really) I would have won 2wd, since none of the cars even made it through the course without getting stuck.  At the time, the contingency money would have more than paid for them 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

The non-smooth surface seemed like a good candidate for a paint scheme I've wanted to try for a while, so I made splatter painted wheels- when the finish chips we'll call it performance art:  

WOW, Those are some good lookin' wheels

In reply to Indy-Guy :

What the hell happened to those things before I got them?  One had its' original clearcoat in decent shape, one was single layer painted black, one was painted tan and then black, and one was tan then red then black.

Left field idea for your snow tires: get a run flat version of a snow tire.  This should definitely yield the stronger carcass you're looking for and may actually allow you to press on regardless, even with a flat.  They look to be significantly more expensive than the options you posted (add $100 per tire), but might be worth it.

Here's the narrowest, smallest wheel diameter option I've found with only a bit of searching. 175/60/16 Dunlop

In reply to FooBag :

I've considered it, but I'd need to get 16" wheels on top of the pricier tires- that money buys a bunch of spares.  Maybe I should make a dual spare tire holder instead...

That reminds me, we need to do some tire change practice to get our time down.  It will be filmed, of course 

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Not a clue on their history.

Those wheels were included with the purchase of the subframes I bought.  I did nothing but store them before sending them on to you.

I just picked up a set of the Uniroyals. Mine are 195/65R15's. I will let you know how they are once I get them mounted. They will be replacing a set of Winterforce's.

I’m no help on the tire choice, but I fully support the paint job on the wheels!

I put a set of nexxen winspikes on my Audi.  Very highly raited, and worked very well in last year's snows here in PA.  Mine are 195/55/15, and we're quite cheap.

Got an early Christmas present in the mail today.  Thanks Josh, this is a stupidly large book...

No, that is not an extra small copy of The Odyssey.  This is possibly the largest book, and easily far and away the largest service manual, I have ever seen.  If anyone is wondering how hard it is to keep one of these German Ford dumpsterfires running consistently, allow me to refer you to the 20-lb book.  

I probably just missed it but when and where is your next rally?

In reply to Robbie :

Hopefully Waste Management Winter Rally in Wellsboro PA, in February- depends if the car behaves itself over the winter.  I've been putting at least 100 test miles on it every week so far.

I'll also be at Sno*Drift, but without the car.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Got an early Christmas present in the mail today.  Thanks Josh, this is a stupidly large book...

No, that is not an extra small copy of The Odyssey.  This is possibly the largest book, and easily far and away the largest service manual, I have ever seen.  If anyone is wondering how hard it is to keep one of these German Ford dumpsterfires running consistently, allow me to refer you to the 20-lb book.  

I would have held onto it until I saw you personally, but it was taking up my entire workbench ;)

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

In reply to Robbie :

Hopefully Waste Management Winter Rally in Wellsboro PA, in February-

yesssssssssss