In 1985, I was employed as a Media Group Supervisor at Young & Rubicam - Detroit...Lincoln-Mercury's advertising agency. We entered two cars in Brock Yate's 1985 One Lap of America - a new Merkur XR4ti and a FWD 1984 Mercury Topaz 5 speed manual, 4 cylinder coupe (which was Y&R's mailroom car, hastily equipped with rally equipment by Gene Henderson - well-known POR rally driver). I was one of the three driver team in the Topaz - we drove 8,800 miles in 8 days, mostly at 80 mph whenever possible, through snow & ice across the northern U.S., rain coming down through WA and OR, desert heat in NV and more heat across the southern part of the U.S. Going up the east coast and back toward a Detroit RenCen finish line, we encountered fog, then more ice & snow. That was one tough little car - never put a foot wrong and no problems - we finished in 4th place, behind two Audi 5000 Quattros (overall winner driven by John Buffum & Walter Boyce), and an AWD Blazer - our Topaz was the highest ranked two wheel drive finisher. That Topaz might not have been flashy, and was somewhat underpowered, but it sure did the work in an impressive and unassuming way - tough & solid car!!
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