I have enjoyed my Motor Trend Car of The Year issue (February 1967) for a while now. I thought I would post one segment of the magazine called The 9 Lives of Cougar. It has pictures of the design concepts and how teams worked to come to the design that we love as our classic Cougars.
The pictures are not the best but I tried my best to make them so all that have not seen this Motor Trend issue could look and enjoy. 
Steven
The 9 Lives of Cougar
1.The original T-7 was a designersā exercise, not directly sponsored by L-M. However, the wrap-over grille with a strong vertical motif won immediate favor and remained a feature or subsequent proposals.
2.The go-ahead for the Cougar came in April, 1964 and this was the first clay of the formal program. Lines were straight forward enough, but their full length sameness lacked the desired masculinity.
3.This clay was a challenger from another design group but carried the grille that was ultimately adopted. As for the rest, management felt it was too close to the ā67 T-Bird. The appendages on the cowl were to house turn indicator lights.
4.The Cougar as we know it begins to take shape in this proposal, one of the two final contenders. It has the bold but tailored hop up treatment of the rear panel and less of a sweepback at the rear.
5.The other finalist was this model, submitted by FoMoCoās Special Development Studio. Again, some executives felt it looked too much like the T-bird, and the mandate for the Cougar was unmistakenly unique design, even in the family.
6.A marriage between the body side in photo 4 and the grille theme in photo 3 gained quick approval as the design for the Cougar. Only the grille was modified slightly.
7.A clay model is worth about $100,000 in time and materials, so one is often made to do the work of two. Designers were still evaluating tail lights long after the date of so-called āfinalā approval.
- Throughout the program there was a strong management preference for the vertical wrap-over motif both front and rear. This is close to the final design except for the plate location and square back up lights.
9.It was all over when the plate was married to the rear grille. Now the area with its floating banks of vertical bars harmonized perfectly with the striking front end design. Date was Feb. 18, 1965
John