1985 Merkur XR4Ti

For the 1985 model year, a new nameplate showed up on the lots of Lincoln-Mercury dealerships: Merkur. This wasn't entirely without precedent. As a global automaker, FoMoCo had previously used Mercury dealerships to move Americanized versions of their overseas models. From the '70 through '78 model years, the sporty Capri and Capri II coupes from Ford of Europe were sold, without any divisional branding at all, on Lincoln-Mercury lots.

The Merkur XR4Ti was a federalized variant of the German-built Sierra XR4i. The addition of the "T" to the moniker was due to the fact that the German car's V-6 was replaced with a turbocharged version of the 2.3L SOHC "Lima" inline four.

The result was a sub-3000 pound RWD sedan with 170hp that delivered fairly sprightly performance, at least for the era. Car and Driver clocked a zero-to-sixty time of seven seconds flat and a 15.5 second quarter mile at 90mhp on the way to a top end of a buck twenty nine.

The Diamond White example in the photo, a 1985 model, was photographed using a Nikon Coolpix P7000 in Hooksett, New Hampshire back in April of 2015.