GRAFTERS: Merkur XR4Ti

Your projects: Pushed aside in the BTCC history books by the Cosworth and RS500, the 1985 championship-winning Merkur XR4Ti started the ball rolling for the Sierra’s success, and Alan Strachen is building a tribute to remind everyone why.

BTCC recreation for the 2020s.

Think Ford-badged British and European Touring Cars of the mid-to-late 1980s and it’s the all-conquering RS500s that spring to mind. But wind the clock back just a year or two, and any internet search will fire you down a new wormhole — one based around the Merkur XR4Ti. Yes, the Sierra-shaped and 2.3-litre turbocharged Lima-engined Ford US production car was used as the basis for Ford’s attack on the British and European Saloon Car Championships in 1985 and 1986 — while also sneakily providing parts and development for the impending Cosworth version introduced the in the latter half of the second season. A development tool it may have been, but the XR4Ti was incredibly successful — giving Andy Rouse his British Saloon Car Championship title win in 1985.

One person who’s determined to put the XR4Ti back on the map is Alan Strachen. A former Andy Rouse Engineering employee, Alan now runs AWS (www.aws-engineering. co.uk), a hugely-respected restoration and race car preparation business in the Midlands, responsible for sympathetically returning some iconic cars back to the race track — a huge number of them Fords. For the last five years though, in-between restoring original race cars and running his own Super Touring Mk1 Mondeo (see June 2019 issue), he’s also been toiling away on recreating a 1985-spec XR4Ti, which should be hitting the race tracks of the UK and mainland Europe next year. Turn the page to find out how and why.

Why build the car?

The idea came about five or six years ago. Duncan Wiltshire of Motor Racing Legends was setting up a championship for pre-1985 homologated Group A cars, though allowing 1986 cars to compete, and I thought the best car to use would be a Merkur XR4Ti. Rouse Engineering ran and won the British Saloon Car Championship with one in 1985, and it was basically a development car for the forthcoming Sierra Cosworths, anyway... This car should have been finished a while ago, but we’ve been busy with other projects. We’re back working on the car at the moment, though.

Why not start with a Merkur? There just aren’t that many of them about — there are a couple competing in Germany, plus we’ve got one of the Eggenberger shells here. It was easier for us to start with a bare Ford Motorsport 909 Sierra shell and backdate it to XR4i spec, as well adding the XR4i rear quarter panels which we carefully removed from a donor car. The shells that Rouse used in the BTCC were actually XR4i ones too, as the Merkur was never available in right-hand-drive. There aren’t that many differences between the two — the rear floorpan and chassis rails are slightly different, but that’s about it.

What about the livery? It’s based on one of the 1986 Tourist Trophy cars run by Ford Rennsport, that as far as I know, doesn’t exist anymore — at least wearing this R Billen/OAS livery, anyway. We chose it because it was striking and relatively simple to recreate. Why not run in the Rouse 1985 BTCC blue-andwhite ICS livery? I’m actually building another car that will wear that one...

Was finding information about the original race cars hard?

Not really — I know lots of people who worked at Rouse in the mid-80s and they were able to provide me with a lot of the detail, plus the homologation papers show a reasonable amount. The BTCC Cosworths, which we already know a lot about, didn’t really evolve that much further from the Merkur, to be honest. The engines though, were obviously a different matter.

Presumably there’s nothing available for these engines? Actually, they’re still pretty popular with drag racers over in the USA so internal parts aren’t too bad. We’ve been able to source good-quality pistons and rods, but more-modern, multi-layer head gaskets are currently proving a challenge, and we’re having to design our own camshaft profile. Our biggest problem though is wanting more power, but we’re limited by the size of the turbo and exhaust. The original engines would have had 360-375 bhp though it would be nice to think we could get a bit more — you’re allowed to use more-modern ECUs as hardly anyone has the software to make the old Zytec ECUs work, and with much better control we should be able to find another 15-or-so horsepower.

Have you had to remanufacture some parts? Yes, most of the suspension — but then we make most of it already anyway, as it’s basically the same as the Cosworth, which obviously makes the build a lot easier. The rear beams and arms are modified factory items, which is the same as the Rouse parts, but we make our own aluminium front uprights and rear hubs — centre-lock mount to run the BBS wheels, naturally.

“THE LIMA ENGINES ARE STILL POPULAR IN US DRAG RACING SO FINDING THE PARTS HASN’T BEEN TOO DIFFICULT”

Name: Alan Strachen Age: 52 Job: boss of AWS Location: Warwickshire, UK

Car: 1984 ‘Merkur XR4Ti’ Start condition: bare 909 shell Condition now: final fit up and engine build stage Estimated date of completion: February 2020

The 2.3 Lima engine build is progressing well, though Alan;s struggling to source decent head gaskets.

Having the facilities to manufacture parts means Alan’s been able to recreate some of the XR4Ti’s homologated suspension components.

Seat, roll cage material and ECU-aside, the interior of the XR4Ti will follow that of the original Rouse-built cars. What’s been the hardest part of the build so far? Probably finding the correct information about the engine spec — there’s not all that much detail out there. The shell build was straightforward in comparison. When do you hope to have the car finished? We plan to race it next year, so a big push over the winter months should see it ready for testing in early 2020 to make sure it behaves itself. Will the car be for sale? Yes probably, but we’d like to run it at a couple of events first! The Lima shares the same head layout as the Pinto engine, but very little’s interchangeable. The Merkur will use air jacks for faster pit stops — just like the originals.

Rouse converted XR4i shells to run in the BSCC, but Alan’s based his build on the 909 Sierra motorsport shell, adding the XR4i’s rear three-quarter panels.

Alan’s no stranger to Touring Cars — that’s his Super Touring Mondeo next to the Merkur project.