The 200mph Merkur

[cliffxr]

I bought the wing but traded it with David Godfrey for an RS style wing already mounted to a hatch. Plus, David has done a TON of favors for me.

Wow, you've made awesome progress! Can't wait to see the finished product. Where are you in the U.S.?

Cliff

[4-barrel Mike]

Cliff:

Thanks for the update on the wing.

I'm in Portland, Oregon. The Merk had a long, windy (and wet) trip from North Carolina.

There's been a lot more progress than those pics. I just posted them to illustrate what Grib did to the car. There were months when I cursed him every day, at least hourly while working on the Merk. Actually, the cursing continues, just not so frequently.

When I get all of my stuff in one sock, I'll post all of the progress updates here and elsewhere.

Mike

[cliffxr]

Oregon is a long way from GA. Guess I'll have to keep up on the progress via pics.

I can imagine you cussed Grib more than few times. It was a shame what was done to that car.

What are you doing for a power plant?

Cliff

[whitelx]

There is a blue RS wing on ebay right now. Looks nearly the same color as Rick's XR. Wonder if it is just coincidence.

[xr4man]

if this is the wing you are talking about, then yeah it is just coincidence. this one was imported from europe to trade to nick for the original moonstone blue wing from my cossie.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-Ford-Si ... 2c6847d455

[4-barrel Mike]

What are you doing for a power plant?

Cliff

Boport is building me an ARCA head that will be good for "900+ hp". Esslinger is putting together a tall deck block with a one-off fully-counterbalanced crank and a girdle, both of which will look a lot like what Roush was racing in the late '80s. The girdle is being redesigned somewhat to facilitate easier manufacture and to use the existing cast Midget dry-sump pan. At Rick's suggestion, I'll be using a 6-stage drysump (Esslinger sells 4-stage only). When I talked with Dan about that, he said that it was a really good idea, and that it would be easy for him to modify the Midget pan for it.

Right now, I'm waiting patiently. (And hoping that I don't run out of money. )

BTW, 900hp should be good for around 235mph.

Mike

[Firefox]

Wow. Wow oh wow. Okay, now that you've got the head and the block, how the heck do you plan on laying down 900hp? I've not driven many XRs, but they seem like they'd be a handful at half that power. Still, proper homage to the old with the new, eh?

[4-barrel Mike]

Wow. Wow oh wow. Okay, now that you've got the head and the block, how the heck do you plan on laying down 900hp? I've not driven many XRs, but they seem like they'd be a handful at half that power. Still, proper homage to the old with the new, eh?

Huh???

It's a racecar. More specifically, it's a purpose-built racecar, built for high-speed, high-horsepower landspeed racing. It's not your typical worn-out, rusted, beat up XR. It's never been licensed (probably the lowest mileage XR in the world, besides being the fastest!).

Did you read the history of the car at the beginning of this thread? If not, please do, along with the two links in that entry.

Looking forward to your questions.

Mike

[DPDISXR4Ti]

"It had a big V-8 shoved in it and the work was terrible."

Ouch, that was criminal. I was afraid something like this might happen to the car when it was sold to someone outside the Merkur Community. Glad to see that you're taking the time to put this back together right.

[Firefox]

Wow. Wow oh wow. Okay, now that you've got the head and the block, how the heck do you plan on laying down 900hp? I've not driven many XRs, but they seem like they'd be a handful at half that power. Still, proper homage to the old with the new, eh?

Huh???

It's a racecar. More specifically, it's a purpose-built racecar, built for high-speed, high-horsepower landspeed racing. It's not your typical worn-out, rusted, beat up XR. It's never been licensed (probably the lowest mileage XR in the world, besides being the fastest!).

Did you read the history of the car at the beginning of this thread? If not, please do, along with the two links in that entry.

Looking forward to your questions.

Mike

I get that it's a racecar, yes, but I was more curious what has been/will be done to give it a racecar suspension. I've read the history of the Bonneville racer a few times, but from your pictures of the butchered tunnel, I figured you'd be doing or redoing quite a bit of work to get the suspension built and tuned the way you like it. Excuse my roundabout way of asking for suspension details. My point was more that this would be unlike anything... well, anything!

[4-barrel Mike]

Ah, I see that the second link is gone (hopefully, temporarily). It was the original "For Sale" for the car and had a detailed listing of the Merk's tech details.

The Merk was built from the beginning with an Alston back-half, 4-link with coilovers, and a new 9" SVO (the organization, not the Mustang) rearend with Strange 31-spline axles. Further, the stock (stamped sheetmetal) subframe running forward from the Alston to the very front of the car was substantially beefed with .120 (or thicker?) rectangular tubing.

Mike

[DPDISXR4Ti]

I'd forgotten about this car a bit until it was mentioned today on Facebook. Any updates Mike?

[reddy2300]

Is there a link for the TurboFord story? I want to follow that.