Merkur is an American car manufacturer featured in Forza Motorsport 7 and Forza Motorsport (2023).
Synopsis[]
Merkur was a short-lived automobile brand marketed by the Lincoln-Mercury division of the Ford Motor Company; the brand was introduced on 12 December 1985 in light of current market trends of most car buyers preferring to buy European luxury automobiles than American ones, in addition to Japanese marques starting marques targeted at American markets. The brand's name took its name from the German word for "mercury".
Merkur's product lineup consisted of only two models, both of which were adapted from vehicles manufactured by Ford of Europe: the XR4Ti and the Scorpio, which were slightly rebodied versions of the Ford Sierra and Scorpio respectively as American laws dictated that the cars needed to have a number of modifications before it would become road-legal in the United States. At launch, about 800 Lincoln-Mercury dealers took on the Merkur brand.
Sales were slow, with most Lincoln-Mercury dealers only managing to sell one or two Merkur vehicles; Merkur's sales targets expected them to sell 15 to 20,000 cars per year, whereas only 26,000 XR4Tis were sold until 1986, with sales half that in 1987. With future passive restraint requirements looming (cars would require airbags and/or automatic seatbelts), Ford decided to discontinue the Merkur line on 16 September 1989 with the slow sales of the Merkur models not being enough to justify a redesign for them to have either automatic seatbelts or airbags. The Scorpio was discontinued at the end of the 1989 model year, bringing an end to the Merkur line. Today, the line is often considered a failure.
Vehicles[]
| Image | Year | Name | Drive | Engine | Power | Torque | Weight | Front/Rear |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1986 | Merkur #11 MAC Tools XR4Ti | RWD | 6.0L V8 | 600 hp
(447 kW) |
560 ft⋅lb
(759 Nm) |
2582 lb
(1171 kg) |
54 % / 46 % |
References[]
| Merkur | |
|---|---|
| 1980s | #11 XR4Ti '86 |