This is actually incorrect… The Mercury Sable DID in fact have an available V8 for export models to the middle East. It was the SHO motor, however it was tuned to run exclusively on leaded gasoline. The only reason I know this is because a 98 Sable was donated to my high school in 1997 for the auto shop program- it was a middle East order that fell thru and couldn’t be sold here because of the leaded fuel requirement. Brand new, plastic still on the seats. I was a car nerd even back then and remember being astonished that the thing had the 32-valve SHO V8. We had an entire case of lead additive so the car could be used for auto shop purposes. These were front wheel drive just like the Taurus SHO, had no external indicators that there was a V8 under the hood except for the larger diameter exhaust from the SHO. It also sounded great- but just like the SHO’s of that era, any 3800 supercharged GM car could spank it. Oh but that sound… Oh yeah also, the FM RADIO couldn’t tune Us stations because over there The stations fall on even frequencies and the radio was middle East spec…