This Cougar sold yesterday on eBay. I’m not sure if someone here purchased it. The sellers description listed it as a test car. I’ve heard of Brass Tag Mustang’s but not Cougars so I thought it was worth mentioning. The T on the brass tag should stand for test as on Mustangs, L would be for lease, E for executives from what I’ve read. Can anyone shed anyone light on the subject? What would the test cars be used for?
VIN 8F93S500385
Door Plate Data 65B T 8D 21H 84 5 1
Model Year 1968
Assembly Plant Dearborn, Michigan (F)
Body Style XR7, Hardtop (93)
Engine Model 390-4V GT (S)
Sequential Number 385
Exterior Color Cardinal Red (T)
Interior Trim Dk. Red Crinkle Vinyl and Dk. Red Clarion Knitted Vinyl (8D)
Date Code 21 of August 1st Year (21H)
District Sales Office Home Office Reserve (84)
Axle Ratio/Type 3.00 non-locking (5)
Transmission Model 3-Speed Manual 3.03 (Heavy Duty if used w/ 390) (1)
T for ‘Totaled’ - it’s a salvage car.
Seriously, I think it might have been used for promotional things like Road & Track test drives and Reviews.
Or perhaps to try different options/combinations?
I didn’t see anything about a salvage title, I must have missed that. It sold for $14,000. That’s steep money for a salvage titled car. The few pictures listed with the auction looked pretty good. No under carriage photos, engine compartment, or trunk photos were in the listing. If I was a bidder I sure would have asked for more information. Overall it looked like a nice car from what was shown.
Steven
I think you would have to do some research to determine if the tag was put on it by Ford or another company. Generally companies accounting dept bass tag capital assets to track them and write off the deprecation until they are sold and no longer on the books. The Cougar could have been bought by a company like Hoover and a vacuum salesman used it and it was tracked with the brass tag until sold. It could have been an actual test car and the brass tag is from Ford to track its value. I wouldn’t spend the extra money on it until a Marti report showed the original intent for the Cougar.
I would lean towards Ford putting the tag on the Cougar as a way to track inventory. I’ve heard about it on Barrett Jackson in the past on a Mustang but they did not show the tag. I found this link on a Mustang forum and it talks about Brass tags from Ford.
I also found this picture of a Brass Tag Mustang Fastback.
I think it adds value to the Cougar Brass tag car. The seller of the Cougar had a Marti report but only showed the stat portion of the the Marti. I wonder what was listed on the main portion of the report in relation to the Brass tag if anything.
Steven
I spoke with the owner. He wouldn’t elaborate much on the condition, but that it is a Michigan caring needed rust repair. His reserve was $14k. In the last 10 seconds, it went from $9300 or so to the reserve.
I was thinking the reserve was much lower than that. I saw this link for the sale of this same Cougar for $8,000. It was listed on that site a week ago. Seeing a price jump of $4,700 in 10 seconds is great for the seller and I’m sure the buyer is happy as well.
Steven
I’m a little late seeing this thread but brass tags are placed on every single item that a Ford plant owns. Today they don’t use the brass tags any more but everything gets a “BT” number. I would suspect that this Cougar was placed in one of the plants inventories for road testing. For example, each of the transmission plants which are mainly Ford Livonia and Ford Sharonville have a fleet of cars that they use for various types of testing. We have a cople of Ford Livonia brass tags at my shop that were removed from some machines that we rebuilt. Just for kicks I will look at them Monday and see if they resemble the one on this car.
Splinehead are you in Livonia or near there? I will be there in about 3-4 weeks. Towing my 71 vert with me and will spend about 3-4 weeks there. My daughter lives there and my grandson is graduating high school. Maybe we could get together?
Actually I did. So I ask one of my employees where are the Ford Livonia brass tags? Oh, I put them in with the last non ferrous scrap pick up. I just about killed him. The only ones I have left are Chrysler brass tags form Chrysler New Process Gear in Syracuse, NY.
Even if you head half way, let me know. Lake Michigan is beautiful. If I get to Detroit I will let you know as well. I’m going Monday for the Red Wings game but it will be a quick trip.
My guess is a vehicle tagged for promotional test drives.
