My first car was a second hand ’68 XR7 cougar. Madras blue with aqua interior, 302-2v engine, and I just recently noticed on an old picture that it even had a passenger mirror.
Your first car should be memorable, and I am one of the lucky ones. It even came with Hi-Jackers! Cool, eh? Especially if you forget about the plastic hoses that kept melting near the exhaust, and letting the body grind into the tires that were sticking out by a good 2 inches…
I went in training for the armed forces, and while gone, my kid brother asked to start working on the cougar, to “make it better”. He proceeded to put in a 351 Cleveland, C6 transmission, double points, headers, traction bars, and decorative striping. Wow! Just going around the block got you nowhere “mighty fast”. I have a lot of good memories of that car, and I have often dreamed of getting a similar one.
In spring 2010, as I was browsing, the idea of “googling” 68 cougar just came to me. Quite a few came forth, but most madras blue XR7’s had a white vinyl top where mine had a black one. One day, on a page in the twenties, I saw a picture so close to mine, I got goose bumps. It was advertised in Saanich, British Columbia. I live 2650 miles from there…
I inquired about it, and the seller told me he already had someone coming to check it over on the following weekend. He promised me he would hold it for me if the visit did not pan out. This is how I got a crack at it. The man had it all prepped and tuned, put the original 14” wheels and some decent tires on it for the trip back, and boxed some original parts plus 4 very decent tires on Cragar S/S unilug 8x15 rims. The engine is a 302-4v with an Edelbrock 640cfm carburetor. It also has headers.
On May 1st 2010, I took a plane to Victoria BC with my wife. The seller picked us up on the 2nd of May, the morning of my 55th birthday. Just seeing the cougar in his driveway brought a tear to my eyes. It had a minor closed in smell, and a few small booboos, less of them that my first cougar had.
He gave me the keys, and told me to take off, for a good spin. Afraid to get lost, I came back within 5 minutes. He was surprised, and thought I had changed my mind. I just confirmed he had his buyer. He put the extra things, the heavy box and 4 wheels, in his van, and escorted us to a local Insurance broker that could register the transfer, and issue a 4 day temporary registration. Then: on to a nearby big box hardware store. I work for the same national outfit, and dropped the excess stuff for a trans-Canadian transport under our store account (much cheaper for me to pay back my employer). The people at the store were GREAT, and took care of business. We left the store, and the previous owner led us to a gas station, filled it up, saying the cougar ran best on high octane. We parted ways, and the trip home was started. No worries, the engine had 3000 miles since a rebuild.
We did the trip in 4 days, averaging a bit over 650 miles per day, not counting the day of the purchase, since we started off in late afternoon… I had promised the man this cougar was never going to see rain or snow again. Well, that did not go as planned…
As soon as we reached the mainland, it started raining and snowing. Sheesh! It started to get very cold under the dash on my side. It was May, and we had not planned on winter conditions. I figured I must have missed something, like a hole or crack in the firewall. The floors were all right. At the first stopover, in Chilliwack, BC, I plugged in the notebook, and emailed the man, asking him if there was a draft issue in the front driver’s side. He said no, and asked if I checked the vent. The vent! Forgot about those. Temperature-wise, the rest of the trip was quite comfortable in the cougar. We hit the Rocky Mountains in blizzard conditions. Police were stopping transports, in order to chain up if they wanted to continue on. We finished the day in Banff. It sure was cold and windy with snow flurries. We made it to Indian Head the next day, with incredible winds. I remember gassing up at a 45 degree stance.
On the third day, I let my wife drive it for a while: her first ride in a classic muscle car. You should have seen that smile, Priceless! When bypassing Winnipeg, The cougar burped and stalled at a light. It would not start again. We called CAA for help, and after over 2 hours of waiting, and seeing a few towing trucks pretending to not see us, my wife checked the GPS and found a Ford/Mercury dealer 3 miles from there. I tried again, and it started, but very roughly, and I had to keep at 2500 rpm minimum for it not to stall. We took off, and I had to switch from Drive to neutral to keep the engine alive.
Once at the dealer, everybody came out to look at the cougar, commenting on its great shape. We were sent to the service areas where the clerk asked me to bring it out back. I told him it was staying exactly where it stopped. An experienced mechanic came out front with me, and asked about the symptoms. I was already planning to find the airport, and to purchase tickets back home, and coming back there at a later date to finish the trip home. After all, it was ½ hour till quitting time.
The mechanic just smiled and asked me to wait a minute. He opened the distributor cap and fiddled a bit with his screwdriver. When he asked me to try it again, it started up like a champ. He told me that he just quick-fixed it, and would take it in the garage to do the job properly. He sure had a big grin when he got in behind the wheel!
I went to the service area, and asked for the invoice. The manager called me over, and told me that for such a great vehicle, there would be no charge. We got back in and drove off, all the way to Dryden, Ontario, for our last night on the road. The Winnipeg-Dryden stretch was snow-less, but still cloudy.
The last day was the longest. We got the same ugly coughing around midday and managed to stop at an isolated gas station . I inquired about a mechanic, and it turned out there was a small community, Geraldton, a couple of miles down the side road, with 2 mechanics. The furthest one, MacIver’s, was well known for his enjoyment of older cars. One gentleman at the station offered me to lead the way to that mechanic. We got there, and I went in and asked for some help. A couple was watching a teenager working at something with a grinder. The lady told me her son would be with me in a minute. She told the man to go get his lunch. I asked her if her son was good with older cars. The man asked what kind of older car, and I answered. He simply said: “show me”.
I explained our previous problem in Winnipeg, and he got right to the point (pun intended). He actually showed me how to set and gap the points in an emergency. He also showed me that the rotor had a bit of play that should not be there. He then liberally greased it, and told me I should have no more problems getting home. When I asked how much I owed him, he just smiled and thanked me for making his day with the opportunity to play with such a great car.
Apart from the 2 distributor events, which were a tad hard on the nerves, the ride itself was as sweet as ever. This is why I wanted it:
When you accelerate, and feel the blood leaving your feet,
When you are taking a long curve, and giving some extra gas only to see the inside front corner dropping to better handle it,
When you gas up, and people come to you with admiration for the cougar, mixed in with a bit of envy,
When you see how low and wide your view of the road is
And all the other little things…
We finally made it home, and of course, it was snowing.
Jean Dulude
Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec
