'85 Merkur XR4Ti Rally Car

MrChaos said:

ok so hear me out. Keeping in the 4cyl turbo realm. Turbo or NA K swap in front of a getrag or cd09? should drop a decent amount of weight. could rev to 9k NA

I have actually considered a K swap- as well as the BEAMs 3sge, or some SR20 variant, or a VQ, or a 13B, or some other such thing.  For now I'm trying to be happy that it runs and will worry about repowering it when the time comes, although I would love to see a K series VS BEAMs cost/power/weight/complexity comparison since those seem to be the two hot setups for cheap NA 4 cylinder power right now.

My vote is to try to find an s2000 that has been rear-ended and grab the engine/trans from that. Plenty of naturally aspirated power in a light weight engine with Honda reliability. 

For 2020, all cars are required to have an a-pillar support bar in the cage.  So I got a tubing notcher (because no way am I patient enough to do a good job with just a grinder) and the door bars from the mr2's cage (because they are the right size with the right bend and didn't fit very well in the mr2) and got to work:

Problem number one- notcher needs a 1/2" chuck.  So I bought a $20 big drill at Harbor Freight and... promptly let the smoke out:

Returned that and got a big gnarly Porter Cable one instead, which did the rest of the notching without issue.  Progress:

Some grinding was needed, but mostly because I'm not great at lining up the notcher.  More:

Zap zap:

Note the piece of ductwork protecting the wiring from spatter.  My welder is ok for this but I think I should go with something that runs on 220v next time, I have to crank it all the way up to weld cage tubing.

Next, gussets:

I should really get a bandsaw at some point too.  More zaps:

Painted the pillars and tubes all flat black so they don't have any annoying reflections while driving:

I'm pretty happy with where everything ended up, there's enough room around the steering wheel (a straight tube would have gone through it) and just enough space to use the door handles:

The other safety update it needs this winter will be harnesses, so I'm hoping I can score some FIA certified ones on sale.

Have you and Koda practiced emergency bail outs????

In reply to 759NRNG :

These cars have giant door openings so it's still pretty easy to get in and out.

K, worry about y'alls safety...........   Hey have you turtled a vehicle while in the 'heat ' of battle.....just wonderin'????

In reply to 759NRNG :

Not yet, although we've been up on two wheels a number of times- including a very memorable "nose dive" in the rx7 

And you didn't even scratch the bumper cover .............wink

No additional bending required?  That sounds like a winner to me!

Nice job. You should have seen the 1970s cage in a vintage volvo at Tall Pines last weekend....single door bar, no roof bars, lol....I'm thinking it woudl have been far from legal for ARA lol. 

Finally ordered parts and did a suspension modification I've been wanting to try for a while now.  On the xr4ti, the swaybar is a structural part of the front suspension, and when you add more travel it starts becoming a real binding, friction filled mess.  So:

Removing the front bar is extremely annoying and usually involves multiple sets of hands.  Or a ratchet strap, like this:

Here's a good image of the compression struts which replace it:

They add adjustability, but more importantly they aren't going to bind when the suspension moves more than a couple inches.  Installing them was fun because of course there's a slight difference between the Sierra these are technically designed for and its' American counterpart:

Drilled out the holes slightly and we're in business:

Had to clearance the skid plate a bit:

Nice:

I'm not totally sold on the beefiness of the hardware that came with these, I'll replace it with better stuff if it loosens or wears at all.  Put the snows on so I can go play if we get a storm:

After adjusting the castor, the initial results are promising- seems to have better turn-in on gravel, which is honestly all I want out of this modification.  More testing required.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Awesome!! Did you add a sway bar to the front or just leave it on the springs?

In reply to TXratti :

Just springs- honestly I've never felt a need for a sway bar at either end of a RWD car on loose surfaces, they just make tuning the rest of the suspension more complicated.  If the front end needs to be stiffer I'll run stiffer springs.

I know a few guys who switched to that set up and they just upped their front springs to compensate for the lack of the anti sway bar.

Don't be sure that those brackets were drilled correctly for a home market Sierra. I have had more incorrect aftermarket parts from English suppliers than ones that fit as intended. Sometimes I think they save the QC rejects aside to send to the colonies

Thats cool. I remember laughing at the factory setup when i first saw one. 

theyseemebrolin said:

Thats cool. I remember laughing at the factory setup when i first saw one. 

same setup as an e21 3-series!

irish44j said:

theyseemebrolin said:

Thats cool. I remember laughing at the factory setup when i first saw one. 

same setup as an e21 3-series!

Well glad they changed it for e30

Have been working on the new tow rig- hopefully we'll get some snow soon so the car can go out and play.

suitable for framing.....for those of us that wish we were standing there snapping this shot ........way envious 

Our harnesses expired so we swapped them out- bye bye awesome green harnesses, would have kept you but Racequip doesn't do recertification any more;

And hello new actual HANS harnesses:

Took the car for a drive, I'm still really happy with the handling now that the front swaybar is gone, hopefully the compression struts hold up.

2.3t still giving you issues?

In reply to MrChaos :

Not at this exact moment, so I'm leaving it alone and not looking too closely at anything- I'm hoping to get away with running it as-is for a while.

how much would a 302 hurt the balance compared to the 2.3t? iirc there isnt much of a difference in weight especially with alum heads

I have this year left on my harnesses, then will be looking as well.

So, what's the schedule this year? We're definitely doing SOFR, and if I can scrape up enough cash STPR as well.  Also some ice racing this winter, perhaps?