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Common practice in 1967 within Ford's Mercury division was to share the basic underpinnings with a Ford counterpart. At the time of the 1967 Courgar's introduction, it was based upon the Ford Mustang. It was selected by Motortrend as it's car of teh year for 1967.

By 1963, Ford Division general manager Lee Iacocca was readying the sporty new Mustang (code name T-5). Lincoln-Mercury stylists did their own renderings of a fancier, deluxe version of the Mustang. The upscale version, code-named T-7, wasn’t yet a Lincoln-Mercury project — it was just a styling study. Lincoln-Mercury general manager Ben Mills originally wanted the T-7 to be ready at the same time as the T-5, but Ford management was still not certain there would be a market for the Mustang, much less a more upscale version.

The T-7 didn’t become a production project until a year later, as the Mustang made its public debut. By then, it was clear that the Mustang was going to be a huge commercial success, and Lincoln-Mercury (and its dealers) wanted a piece of the action. Lee Iacocca, who was now Vice President of Cars and Trucks (overseeing both Ford and Lincoln-Mercury) gave the go-ahead to develop the T-7 for production.

Until quite late in its development, the Mustang had been known as the Ford Cougar; in fact, Ford had already developed the emblems and badges for that name. Lincoln-Mercury’s sales organization initially considered naming the T-7 the Mercury Apollo, but an extensive marketing study (including two complete dummy advertising campaigns) found that the Cougar name was more evocative for the buying public. In due course, the T-7 became the Mercury Cougar.

TAKING THE MUSTANG UPTOWN The cheapest way to build the Cougar would have been to simply add a different front clip and plusher trim to the Mustang. Given the Mustang’s popularity, that might have worked, but Lincoln-Mercury general manager Paul Lorenz was evidently wary of that approach. Mercury’s compact Comet had been a commercial success because it was both bigger and fancier looking than the Ford Falcon on which it was based. The short-lived Mercury Meteor intermediate, however, had been a straightforward facelift of the Ford Fairlane and had sold poorly. Lincoln-Mercury advertising called the Cougar a car “for the man on his way to a Thunderbird,” but it was really an extension of the Comet concept: a bigger, plusher version of the Mustang with unique styling.


The first-generation 1967 Mercury Cougar shows off its concealed headlamps in the retracted position.

The Cougar’s unibody construction was very similar to the contemporary Mustang’s, although the two cars shared no exterior sheet metal. The Cougar’s wheelbase was 3 inches (76 mm) longer than the Mustang’s and it was 6.7 inches (170 mm) longer overall. Most of the extra length was ahead of the cowl, exaggerating the Mustang’s long-hood, short-deck proportions, but the Cougar did have a bit more rear-seat room. In addition to more upscale trim, the interior of the Cougar benefited from 124 lb (60 kg) of sound insulation, making it noticeably quieter than its Ford cousin. The suspension and brakes were very similar, although the Cougar’s standard suspension was tuned for a smoother ride, with soft rubber suspension bushings to absorb harshness. Powertrains were likewise similar, although the Cougar came standard with the 200 hp (149 kW) 289 cu. in. (4,728 cc) V8 that was optional on the Mustang and the Mustang’s 271 hp (202 kW) “K-code” engine wasn’t offered.
The Cougar’s main stylistic distinction was its ‘electric shaver’ front and rear treatment, a refinement of an idea Ford stylists had been playing with for years. Another gimmick, borrowed from the Thunderbird, was sequential taillights: when the turn signal was activated, the taillights would flash in sequence in the direction of the turn, like a flashing neon sign.
1970 Mercury Cougar XR-7 nose badge If the standard Cougar’s trim wasn’t quite posh enough, a few months after its introduction, Mercury introduced the XR-7, which dressed up the cabin with woodgrain dashboard trim, full instrumentation, and leather/vinyl upholstery. Mercury advertising proclaimed it “the car for the man who aspires to an Aston Martin, but doesn’t have James Bond’s pocketbook.” In 1970, an XR-7 hardtop like this one had a base price of $3,413, $299 more than a base Cougar hardtop and $692 more than a six-cylinder Mustang hardtop. With a full load of options, it was possible to spend over $5,000 on a Cougar, a lot of money at the time.
Thanks to its greater weight and softer underpinnings, the Cougar was inevitably less sporty than the Mustang, and its luxury orientation was sometimes compromised by its humble origins. Power windows, for example, were not available, because Ford had not developed a motor small enough for the Mustang’s slender doors. Nevertheless, the Cougar represented an admirable balance of sporting flair and gentility. Its differences from the Mustang were not cheap (the Cougar’s development cost was a not-inconsiderable $40 million), but they gave each car a distinct character and purpose. With a starting price of $2,851, the Cougar cost roughly $300 more than a V8 Mustang, but it offered enough for the money to make it a reasonable value.
SPORTY CARS ARE AS SPORTY CARS DO A little before the Cougar made its public debut in September 1966, Ford made some significant changes to Lincoln-Mercury’s executive staff. General manager Paul Lorenz was replaced by Ford general sales manager Gar Laux, while Ford racing manager Leo C. Beebe was moved to the same role at Lincoln-Mercury. Finally, Frank Zimmerman, Jr., who had been Ford’s special vehicles manager, became general sales manager. The last of these appointments gave away what Ford was planning. “Special vehicles” was Ford corporate-speak for motorsport, and Zimmerman and Beebe had orchestrated Ford’s recent all-out assault on the Indy 500 and Le Mans. Their arrival at Lincoln-Mercury meant only one thing: Mercury was going racing.
Mercury had had some success in stock car racing before, most recently in the 1963 and 1964 NASCAR seasons, but it had been a long time since the division had formally sponsored a team. (The ’63-’64 NASCAR team, run by Bill Stroppe, had nominally been a private effort, although Stroppe had received under-the-table backing from Lincoln-Mercury.) This time, however, the team would not be focused on NASCAR, but rather on the Sports Car Club of America’s recently introduced Group 2 sedan-racing circuit — more commonly known as Trans Am.
The Mustang had won the inaugural Trans Am season and now it was Cougar’s turn. This time, it was not to be an ersatz private venture, but a proper factory team. Lincoln-Mercury hired racing champion Dan Gurney to run it, for an impressive six-figure salary, with drivers Parnelli Jones, Dave Pearson, Ed Leslie, and Peter Revson. Beebe and Zimmerman made no secret of their intention to use Trans Am as a way to aggressively market the Cougar.
Dan Gurney 1965 © 1965 Lothar Spurzem CC BY-SA 2.0 Germany Racing legend Dan Gurney, seen here at the Nürburgring in 1965. Gurney’s involvement with Trans Am didn’t prevent him from competing in Formula 1 in 1967-68. He remains active in racing as a builder and the owner of All-American Racers. (Photo: “GurneyDan1965” © 1965 Lothar Spurzem; resized and used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Germany license)
The Cougar factory team did well in the ’67 Trans Am season, winning four races outright, but they ultimately were no match for Roger Penske’s (in)famous Sunoco Camaro. Still, in the final standings, Dan Gurney’s drivers managed a second-place finish on points, a most respectable effort.
Bolstered by this performance, the 1967 Cougar sold over 150,000 units, accounting for around 40% of Mercury’s total sales that year. The Cougar won the obligatory Motor Trend Car of the Year award and also found favor with the more jaundiced reviewers of Car and Driver and Car Life, which considered it the most pleasant of the pony cars for real-world driving. In July 1967, Car and Driver actually tested a big-engine Cougar against a Jaguar 420 sedan, a comparison in which the Mercury acquitted itself surprisingly well.
1968 Mercury Cougar 302-4V engine © 2006 Stephen Foskett CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported As with the contemporary Mustang, the Cougar’s performance depended heavily on what engine was ordered. The basic 289 (4,728 cc) engine had either 200 or 225 hp (149 or 168 kW). It was replaced in 1968 by the 302 (4,942 cc), shown here, with either 210 or 230 hp (157 or 172 kW), which provided adequate acceleration: 0-60 mph (0-97 km/h) in 10-11 seconds. The optional big blocks — initially the 390 (6,391 cc), with 320 hp (239 kW), later the 428 (6,990 cc) with 335 hp (250 kW), and the 429 (7,027 cc) in 1971 — offered much stronger straight-line performance, but the extra front-end weight spoiled the handling and made routine maintenance cumbersome. (Photo: “1968 Mercury Cougar convertible 302 4V Windsor” © 2006 Stephen Foskett; resized and used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license)