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
