Welcome to the Hooniverse Obscure Muscle Car Garage, a feature in which we try and introduce you to muscle cars you may never have known about, as well as re-define what a muscle car can be. As we all have discovered during this series, fire-breathing V-8 Muscle Cars are not the exclusive property of the States. Some great examples include the Chevy Firenza Can Am, as well as the Ford Capri Perena, both built in South Africa during the early 70′s. However, Ford of South Africa built a series of V8 powered Muscle Cars that were available to the South African Enthusiast, like this one. Introducing the Ford Sierra XR-8. Ford of South Africa has a history of producing home grown Performance Cars and Track specials including the Ford Capri Perana (equipped with a North American Ford 302 CID V-8), The Ford Cortina Perana (equipped with a Ford Zephyr 3 litre V6 (Essex) engine, Lotus Cortina gearbox and Salisbury differential), The Fairmont GT (CKD version of the Australian XW and XY Falcon GT with a 351 CID V-8), Ford Granada Perana V-8 (Built by Basil Green Motors, and using the 302 CID V-8 for power), and the Ford Cortina XR6 Interceptor. This was one of the latest entries, a European Ford Sierra 4-Door, modified with a Mustang 5.0L V-8 and a 4-BBL Carburetor, backed up by a 5-speed manual. Only 250 of these car were produced. There were quite a few modifications made to accept the American V-8 including the front crossmember, half shafts, rear driveshaft, a newly designed grill, as well as 96 other newly engineered components, with 150 more that were highly modified stock units. Spring rates were changed, with 50% stiffer units up front, and 40% harder at the rear. The Struts were moved to make room for larger wheels, and the anti-roll bar was re-engineered to fit in the available space. The rear springs were replaced with constant rate units, gas filled dampers, stronger propshaft, and the half shafts are re-engineered Granada Units. Brakes are uprated with larger ventilated discs, along with attractive “Starfish” Ronal Wheels that were specifically chosen for this application and fitted with 195/60 VR 15 tires (developed by General Tyre), road manners were greatly enhanced. The engine output is a modest 150kW at 4,800 RPM (which roughly translates to 201 Horsepower) which isn’t all too shabby for this time period. Top speed was listed as 220 km/h (which is roughly 139 MPH), again, not too shabby… All XR-8’s were produced in one color scheme, White, with Ford Motorsport Trim in three shades of Blue. The lower rocker and valance panels are finished in a grey-blue molded PVC, with only the XR-8 badging that appears on the rear hatch. The front grill is the only major change from the standard Sierra, and together with the Bi-Plane spoiler, provide a very aggressive visual appearance that is unmistakable. The only interior choice was perforated grey velour upholstery. The list price for the car at introduction was R25 000. Looking at historical exchange rates, the US Dollar commanded R1.48 in 1984, so this car would have set you back $17,000 during this time period. It’s not cheap, but remember there was only 250 of these Full Fledged Muscle Cars produced, and with each passing year, they are only getting scarce. So there you have it, our third South African Muscle Car, but is it really all that obscure? Does the ides of stuffing an american V8 into what is generally thought of as a European Sedan make it into a Muscle Car, or is it just a 1/2 breed, neither fish nor foul as it were. I look forward to your comments. [poll id=”218″] Please Note: All Images are screen grabs from around the web. If you want credit for any image, please let me know in the comments section. Thank You!