Except you’re sufficiently old to recollect the muscle automobiles of the Nineteen Sixties, Mercury’s identify rarely comes up when speaking about efficiency. Positive 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 completely different had engineers acquired their method 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 capable of piece collectively some extra info, however given that is a couple of 30-plus-year-old automobile from an car division that doesn’t exist anymore, info 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 out there 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 regarded underneath the pores and skin.
In line with a person named Robert DeLaMare, a Mercury professional, the fiftieth anniversary Sables had been step one in a bigger plan to make a efficiency model of the automobile. Apparently Mercury needed a touring sedan that might go up in opposition to 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 is able to’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 light-weight 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 fanatics the world over. Not desirous to cannibalize gross sales of the efficiency sedan, the Sable LTS was killed and its growth 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 regarded a bit completely 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.
