K-2 Ski
As rare as the "K-2 Ski " Merkur I've mentioned before ? It was white, w/red & blue accents on the body panels. I test drove one at a dealership near Wilkes-Barre, Pa back in 87. It was part of a national K-2 promotion and I believe I saw one in print somewhere at the time in K-2 ads. The car was for sale as new through the dealership, and I believe K-2 was also giving one away, along with other ski stuff through their promotion.
Roush
Jack Roush built the "Exposure Merkur" in 1987 for
Jackie Stewart to show off with which featured a T-Bird IC mounted
on top of the turbo and using a flattened duct on top of and sealed
to the IC fed with cooling air by a flex hose of about 4 or 5
inches diameter which crossed the front of the engine to a bilge
blower type electric fan drawing air from the drivers side fender.
This blew air down through the IC and then onto the turbo. All
this fit under the stock hood. Apparently it worked pretty well.
Automobile Magazine in June 1987 reported they got 0-60 in 6.5
seconds with two people on board.
Other interesting specs on that car were 225/50 tires on 15x7
wheels, 3 degrees camber, Konis, 700 lb-in springs at rear (stock
was 450-500) and 320 lb-in at front (stock was 280), 31.7mm front
bar and 22.2mm rear (vs. 26 and 10 stock), South African Mustang
front discs and Scorpio rear discs and a T5.
Roush would build replicas for $4,500 and suggested in 1987 that
this car would be the production model for 1988
Bondurant Driving School
I drove one of the Bondurant XRs when I did a driving school there (can't even remember what year, but it must have been in the late 80s or very early 90s as I had just started at Ford) . There was 1 left and I asked the mechanic about it. He indicated that they had a number of them at one time, but some had been sold off to racers.
This car was prepped very mildly with Koni struts/shocks, V8 T5, SVO intercooler and EEC, and I think that was about it. It had a roll cage and fire system as you would expect.
The car kept up with the similarly mildly prepped Mustangs they had (not accounting for driver skill level!).
The cars were of course orange.
