Except you’re sufficiently old to recollect the muscle automobiles of the Sixties, Mercury’s identify infrequently comes up when speaking about efficiency. Certain there have been fashions just like the Cougar XR-7, Tracer LTS and Marauder, however past these, Mercury by no means obtained something that was actually particular. Issues may need been totally different had engineers acquired their means within the late Nineteen Eighties, although. Mercury had plans for a efficiency model of its Sable sedan, and it even launched a particular version to check out among the concepts.
I used to be alerted to this random bit of data in a YouTube video by Inexperienced Hawk Drive, who was doing a spherical up of the strangest particular editions provided by Ford. Doing a bit extra digging I used to be in a position to piece collectively some extra data, however given that is a couple of 30-plus-year-old automotive from an vehicle division that doesn’t exist anymore, data is sparse.
In 1989, Mercury was celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. To commemorate that anniversary, the model rolled out a particular version of its Sable sedan that was obtainable in both base LS or top-of-the-line GS grades. Except for “fiftieth Anniversary” badges on the decrease entrance fenders and trunk, there wasn’t something particular about these Sables. That’s, till you seemed underneath the pores and skin.
In line with a person named Robert DeLaMare, a Mercury skilled, the fiftieth anniversary Sables had been step one in a bigger plan to make a efficiency model of the automotive. Apparently Mercury wished a touring sedan that would go up towards different American touring sedans on the time, just like the Buick Electra/Park Avenue Extremely and the Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Touring Sedan. The sedan was to be referred to as the Sable LTS, a moniker that was additionally used on the Tracer LTS compact “efficiency” sedan.
The Sable LTS was to make use of all of the efficiency elements from the profitable Ford Taurus SHO, together with the chassis, suspension and inside bits. As for the powertrain, the Yamaha V6 was to remain SHO-specific. The Sable LTS would have used a high-output model of the three.8-liter Essex V6 that was within the Ford Taurus Police Bundle. Inexperienced Hawk Drive says this could’ve given the Sable LTS an influence output of round 160 horsepower. Right here’s the place the distinctive a part of the fiftieth Anniversary Sable is available in: They had been a lightweight testbed for the Sable LTS, so every of the 50 that had been constructed had the suspension setup from the Taurus SHO.
Sadly, the efficiency Sable was not meant for this world. The Ford Taurus SHO launched and acquired the eye of lovers the world over. Not eager to cannibalize gross sales of the efficiency sedan, the Sable LTS was killed and its improvement prices had been put in direction of the SHO, which lasted three generations within the Nineteen Nineties earlier than it appeared once more within the early 2010s. Mercury by no means made a efficiency model of the Sable, and the LTS badge ultimately grew to become nothing greater than the highest trim stage for the Sable in 1994.
Had Mercury gone and made the Sable LTS, the model may need seemed a bit totally different. I doubt the Sable LTS would have been sufficient to save lots of the model from getting the axe; the marketplace for badge engineered Fords was solely so large. Nonetheless, the Sable LTS would have a minimum of made the model a bit extra attention-grabbing.
