I almost forgot to mention that I was out at the Shelby museum yesterday, and they have “a” group II car. I took a bunch of pictures of the car, and really enjoyed seeing one in person. But, does any one know, or have some solid info on how many of the cars were actually built by Bud Moore? Was it 3, or was it 4? I had it in my mind that there were 6, but I think I was thinking of the Daytona Cobra coupes…
This article may have been where I got the idea from-
“The way it really happened, as explained to me by Team Cougar driver, Ed Leslie, five or six stock plain Jane standards were pulled off the assembly line and shipped to Bud Moore’s shop down in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Then the cars were rebuilt from the ground up, receiving the “factory” equipment described in the Form of Recognition.”
https://fordmercurycougarxr7.com/homologating_the_transam
Here is another thread where some of that stuff was discussed.
At one point I hand drew out a flow chart trying to trace the history of each BME Cougar. I need to dig that out, spruce it up and post it.
- Phillip
David Tom’s book on the Trans-Am series cars is fantastic. Lot of Cougar specific information. I highly recommend it for details on this classic race series.
https://www.amazon.com/Cars-Trans-Am-Racing-1966-1972/dp/1613252692
It is, and I have it- he did a really nice write up on the Cougar, especially as it had such a short racing history.
I wouldn’t say the Cougars had a short racing history. That initial group of BME Cougars were campaigned in Trans-Am and NASCAR from 1967 into the early to mid '70s.
A pretty long run for what was basically a 1967 chassis in the ever evolving and constant development that race cars go through.
If anything their often successful racing history has been buried somewhat - partially due to Ford’s efforts to push them aside in order to concentrate on the Mustang.
- Phillip
Another good book is Dave Friedman’s “Trans-Am, the Pony Car Wars 1966-1972”. It is mostly incredible vintage photographs (Friedman was a professional photographer and in fact was Shelby American’s official photographer for a while) but it is pricey now as it has been out of print for awhile.
If you can find them, Vintage Motorsport magazine did a terrific series of issues on the classic years of the Trans-Am. Those came out in the mid '90s.
But the absolute best way to get the real story is to pick up the magazines and newspapers and racing programs that were being published and reporting on the races at the time.
Besides the well-known mags like Motor Trend and Road & Track, magazines like Sports Car Graphic and Stock Car Racing had great coverage. Original racing programs have become VERY expensive but are about as cool as it gets - at least to me.
- Phillip
I appreciate your input Phillip, you always have something new to share when this topic comes up! I had never heard of these magazines, and now am on the hunt…
I’m always excited when a see a thread on here discussing the BME Cougars!
I got interested in them in the early '80s when info was hard to come by. On the other hand, old magazines and racing programs were cheap back then and now I have boxes and boxes of them.
I’m slowly making nice scans of the photos and articles. Some great stuff that I’m happy to share.
- Phillip
Hey Phillip- as I understand things, Bud Moore either built 3, or 4 cars to go racing for Mercury. There is the one at the Museum in Boulder right now, but what about the others? Is there a confirmed crashed and crushed? I hear there is another car back east, in Connecticut at 3 dog racing. Do you have any insight into any of the other cars?
The short answer (that’s a joke) and going from memory (plus keep in mind this is also supposition):
Bud Built at least 4 Cougar race cars - and quite possibly 5. 3 for the '67 Trans-Am season (maybe a 4th) and at least 1 NASCAR GT (Grand Touring, later Grand American) Cougar for the '68 season. There are period pictures of 4 Cougars at BME. I’ve attached one below.
There are currently 2 Cougars that have been built from the remains of BME TA Cougars.
3 Dog Garage is in Boyertown PA. The Cougar they have was purchased from “Tiger” Tom Pistone. Pistone bought the Cougar from Moore that won the '68 GT championship and was an ex-TA Cougar. The blue Cougar with the '70 sheetmetal is how it looked when Pistone sold it. 3 Dog Garage also has another VERY cool Cougar race car in its collection, a late '80s Roush Cougar.
The other Cougar is one built by David Tom. It is known as the “mule” car - the first Cougar that Mercury had modified as a Group II race car. It’s VIN is known and was/is 7F91A503668, the 3,668th Cougar built. It is believed this is also the Cougar that made the rounds of the car magazines of the day as a proposed performance/Group II Cougar for the street. When David was building that car he contracted with me to recreate many of the original sponsor and Team Cougar livery decals.
After the '67 Trans-Am season, Moore sold the mule Cougar to a group of racers that included driver Charlie Rainville. This Cougar was to remain and race in the 1968 Trans-Am season (Bud took the other 2 TA Cougars into NASCAR and built at least one more solely for NASCAR). Unfortunately, Rainville had a horrible crash at the first race of the '68 TA season, the 12 hour Sebring race. The pictures of the wreck on the trailer is of that car.
So that leaves Bud with at least 3 Cougars in his garage competing in the then new NASCAR GT series. 2 ex-TA cars and one new one.
After the '68 NASCAR GT season Bud sold one to Pistone (ex-TA car) and 2 to Reid Shaw (the other ex-TA car and the NASCAR Cougar).
Shaw was still alive when I first started poking around regarding the BME Cougar histories and he said that one of those was changed to '70 sheetmetal, wrecked bad (I’ll post a pic of it that I got from Wayne Andrews son. Andrews drove for Shaw), then sold on to be further modified/cannibilazed/butchered into a late model circle track car and eventually ended up being bought by what Shaw described as a “bootlegger”. Based on photographic evidence I think this Cougar was the dedicated NASCAR Cougar.
The other Cougar Shaw bought (ex-TA car?) appears to have kept it’s '67 sheetmetal. He sold it around 1971 and there are photos of Randy Bannister racing it at the '71 Citrus 250 at Daytona.
What happened to that car is the million dollar question. I’ve heard rumors that it is still around.
But there were other TA and NASCAR Cougars floating around - the Estes Cougar, a Cougar “Little” Bud Moore (no relation) was driving in NASCAR. That car might have been an ex-BME Cougar.
As I said and as a disclaimer - I’m no expert, just an enthusiast and the info I have rambled on about is stuff I have gathered from talking to people and from period racing programs and magazines. If anyone can correct any errors or add any new information I am all about learning.
- Phillip
The famous “Race Stoppers” pic showing 3 Cougars at BME during the '68 Grand Touring season.
- Phillip
And again, wow- I’ve seen some of these pictures but not all!!!
Thanks woodsnake! I’ve got a slew of other vintage pics that I have sworn to the photographers that I would not share.
And it pains me at times like this!
For instance - many years ago I was at a local hobby shop just outside of Richmond VA where I live.
I was looking at a very expensive large scale die cast model of a '67 or '68 Penske TA Camaro and the owner of the shop saw me and we started chatting. I said what I was thinking of doing was getting a '67 Cougar model and transferring the race parts that would work (this was before any sort of TA Cougar collector stuff was available).
The owner (an older gentleman) said that he was a photographer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch in the '60s and had covered the '67 Trans-Am race in Marlboro MD and the NASCAR Grand Touring race at Richmond International Raceway in '68. He said he loved the Cougars and had a some photos of them from both events - he also said he would be glad to make me prints of all of them but that he owned the rights and I could not share.
He also had other stuff like stubs and race programs and even the ID of one of the Yarbroughs (Lee Roy and Cale drove Cougars for Bud at the Marlboro 300 race) when he ripped it off and threw it in a garbage can in frustration from not winning the race.
I tried to buy all of this stuff including the negs of the pics but the hobby shop owner wasn’t willing.
I’ve got all of the prints he made for me from his original negatives but won’t post them out of respect for him.
- Phillip
I certainly appreciate the desire to follow the owners wishes- but- have you talked to him recently? Is he still alive?
It’s been a few years. And when I say a few years, it’s seems they go by so quick that it was probably 10 years ago.
I hadn’t spoken to him for probably that long - he and his partner sold the hobby store.
I reached back out to see if he was willing to part with his racing Cougar stuff but he still wasn’t. His plan was to donate his negatives to one of the museum/libraries that collect period racing photos so they will probably turn up at some point.
He did allow me to publish one in a program for a Cougar Nationals my club, the Delmarva Cougar Club put together back in '05.
I’ll see if I can find that and post it here.
- Phillip
I know some people at the Boulder museum- they have a nice library and I’m sure they would love to have the Cougar stuff-