I checked readers' rides. I need to see some more pictures of his car. It may be time for a Merkur article.
I checked readers' rides. I need to see some more pictures of his car. It may be time for a Merkur article.
I have seen that car before, actually i think I was at the first autocross he brought it to (then a couple others a year or so later). It looks cool, and he did a nice job building it, it didnt seem to handle very well though. The story I heard was he built it to replace the capri he had run for years becasue he had driven the capri as fast as he thought it was able to go, and it was still slower than a 325is, so the merkur was meant to fix that problem.
I thought I would try again now that the holiday is over. I Googled it and found very little.
It handled well enough to win the DSP national championship.
I looked for pictures of it after I posted that, and I saw that he had won. Having seen him drive that car and others, the fact that he won doesnt supprise me at all, but the fact that it was with that car does. It was probably 3 years ago when i saw it last, so thats time for alot of sorting though.
The Merkur has no major problems that a huge set of tires and a lot of horsepower can't fix ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuM6_EIG_Z0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOAKzp4llNE
There are a couple of videos of it. The frint tires look wider than when i last saw it. I forgot how smoky it was until i watched those videos. lol
Amazing that he won despite the spin, the cone and the off-course in those two videos.
Ben is an amazing driver. I think he can make anything go fast. Since he competes in my region, I have a chance to see the development of the Mercur. My impression is that he sold the Capri and bought the Mercur when the rules limiting boost in turbo cars were eliminated in the SCCA SP classes. I have no idea how much power he getting out of the Ford turbo 2.3. I know its more than it was delivered with.
I'm putting an '85 XR4Ti together for the $2010 challenge, and Ben was nice enough give me about an hours worth of advice over the phone. Really nice guy. He even sent me a bunch of photos of the rear spoiler. I believe the videos are from 2008, not the 2009 DSP win. It's nice to see a Merkur in a magazine.
John Brown wrote: The _______________ has no major problems that a huge set of tires and a lot of horsepower can't fix ;)
fixed that for you
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