1974-1976 Mercury Cougar

The third of nine lives.

The genesis of the new meaning of the word "Cougar"?

There she is again. Same white dress.
Same lack of self preserving awareness that a dangerous animal is standing next to her.

When Ford decided to produce a more compact Mustang for the swingin' 70s, that meant that the Cougar would be downsized along with it. The decision was made to keep the large barge theme going instead, so it was switched over to the Montego/Torino/Ranchero platform. Quick; name another car that went up in size during this period in history. Yeah...not many. Turns out Ford was right; folks apparently wanted a two-door personal luxury cruiser and sales increased.

Engines ranged from the leftover Windsor 351 up to the newly offered 460 Lima that sported a garbage can dimension challenging, random pedestrian/vacuum disappearing act, seven and a half liters. Logically, the manual transmission was dropped completely, with a 4-speed slushbox being your only choice.

Unsurprisingly, weight went up about a half ton and the dimensions now resembled an aircraft carrier. The convertible top was dropped (no pun intended).

Silver tarnishes easily.

This is the point when opera windows showed up on the Cougar and when many enthusiasts lose interest in the model in general. And who can blame them; that gigantic Lima only produced around 220 lazy horsepower (up to 240 with factory options) and the suspension was set up to induce vomiting on the curves. These are not enthusiast cars and it's a little difficult to envision them as highly sought-after collectibles. Still, somebody somewhere must want a vehicle like this.

My pick would be the rare Cobra Jet version of the 351 that was offered in 1974, preferably with a plush velour interior. This engine produced even more than the mighty 7.4; 264 hp. NADA lists current average retail around $10K. How that's possible is beyond me, but who am I to judge. Looking online, Hemmings has one for sale for under $7K but there are no details on which model it is and eBay didn't have a single 1974-1976 listed.

*Farrah Fawcett not included.