Todd, just to add to your great overview, the really great XR4Ti's were the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth & RS 500 Cosworth's that Ford used to win Championships with all over Europe in Road Racing and WRC. Not to mention the killer Sierra XR8Ti's - made in(?)/for the South African market. They had the Mustang 5.0L in them. I visited John Colletti (current head of Ford SVT) back in 1987 when he was an upper/mid-level guy with SVO, the precursor to SVT. John took me out to the SVO parking lot to show me a 5.0L XR4Ti that they were testing for the North American market.
All North American Merkurs (German for Mercury) 1985-1989 were 1985 Ford Seirra Mark 1 bodies. In Europe in 1986 they got the Mark II body which was a minor but nice improvement.
The you could get the Sierra in 3 door (hatchback) all North American ones, 4 door, 5 door, stationwagon, and I've even seen a picture of a pickup (Ranchero style) but I don't think it was actually production (styling exercise IIRC). I drove in a diesel powered Sierra taxi in Europe (my wife rented a diesel Focus there last year). They came in RWD or AWD with Quaife LSD.
The RS Cosworths ran a DOHC 2.0L Cosworth turbo with ABS, quaife, etc. They started at 205 HP but could easily be tweaked to 400+. I had the good fortune to drive an RS Cosworth in the Austrian Alps for about 30 minutes and they are amoung the most memorable 30 minutes driving I've done.
In North America Jack Roush won two IMSA titles with the XR4Ti's IIFC. One was a turbo-4 while the other was a V8. I've got pictures of a couple along with some RS Cosworth picutres is someone wants to host them for me or email me instructions on how to do it.
Regarding XR4Ti's at Carlisle, I took the top prize in 1998 at the All Ford Nationals with one of my XR4Ti's (I've had 6) out of 1800 cars entered that year. The top prize isn't for the best car though, it's for the person who contributes the most to the show or goes through the most to get there. To make a very long story short, I hit a moose at 70 mph, wrote the car off (still looked great) about 500 miles outside Carlisle, kept going and got there 15 minutes before registration closed. I'm looking at the trophy and plaque in my office at this very moment.
Regards, Alan
