Please make an effort to let the nominees know they have been nominated and make sure they are interested in participating. If they are not interested PLEASE DO NOT NOMINATE THEM.
Thanks!
This thread is where you will put nominations for the August 2018 Ride of the Month!
All you need to do is to identify the car and the owner. A picture of the car would be helpful if you can locate one.
As a reminder, here is how it works:
You can nominate any Cougar, even your own. All nominations must be seconded.
We will nominate cars until the 25th of the month, then vote from the 26th to the 1st of the following month, and announce the winner.
A new thread honoring the winner will go up just as quickly afterwards as possible. Then we start all over again.
The winning car will be pictured at the top of the Forums header for the month.
Neal the owner does not have to be a member to be nominated. They just have to be notified and willing to participate. I notified Robert so he could contact the owner.
Yeah, don’t make the mistake of nominating somebody that doesn’t even bother to do a write-up on their own winning car. Even with a month’s advance notice to boot. Hmmm. Why does the month of July leave such a bad taste in my mouth? Yuck.
Thank you and I accept the nomination badcatt. I am the owner of the Red GT-E Cougar that was at the show in Tacoma on Sunday. My name is Bart Lovely and I am pleased with the results from the research that was done. I believe it has been proved that the car is a real GT-E Cougar and am a very proud owner. Thanks to Rob Campbell and Jim Pickerton for all your information and support these last few weeks.
The below is from Bart. He is on vacation, but provided it.
Hello,
I have a small collection of cars and most are Ford products. At one time I owned a 1970 Cougar Eliminator with the Boss 302 engine. I also owned a 1970 Mustang 428 Cobra Jet, a 1967 Mustang GTA Vert, a Superbird, and a 1969 RS/SS 396 Camaro. I currently have a black 1966 Shelby GT-350 H and a matching 2006 Hertz Rental car. To end the collection is a GT 500 Super Snake.
I follow the car auctions and the red 1968 Cougar GTE at Mecum last spring caught my eye. I placed a bid on-line without any knowledge of the red flags on this car on the GTE registry. It was after the sale was complete that Mecum came forward with the car being a tribute of re-bodied car. As one might imagine this put quite a knot in my stomach and tarnished the excitement of receiving this car. I received the Cougar by truck on June 28th. The car did not run very well, so I entrusted it to a local Mustang and Ford restorer in my area. It had exhaust leaks, carb issues, rattling lifters, and the dip stick fell out. The entire Cougar needed a thorough looking over before it could be trusted.
I also requested the restorer to provide a thorough overview of the authenticity of this car. Was it a tribute or was it the real deal. It has an XR7 dash with tach and XR7 door panels. A Dan Gurney front valance had been installed. The original motor was gone, but it has a 1965 427 Top Oiler with a very aggressive cam. Adjustable valve train and an aluminum single 4 barrel intake. The heads are C8OE 6090-N 428 CJ with CJ exhaust manifolds. The rear end has a 3.90 nine inch posi Nodular iron center section with 31 spline axles. Fuel via a new 770 Holley Street Avenger carb. This Cougar came with power steering and power disc brakes. As you may imagine this Cougar is very fast! It was raced in its early days and is why the 3.90 posi gears and 31 spline axels. Not a freeway cruiser at this point, but the wow factor when you stomp the loud pedal is awesome!
The verification of this car is posted on the GTE Registry. We went the extra mile to provide complete and total verification of this car as best as can be done without sandblasting it to bare metal. Key structural areas of the car were verified and photographed with their date codes. All date codes on the Sheetmetal proceed the build date of 15 March 1968 as verified by the Marti report.
I am proud to own this car and may have a line on the original VIN stamped motor. My hope is to collect key pieces to this car and bring it further back to original condition. I am not sure how far I will go to make it factory correct. It will lead a very pampered life from now on.
Robert thanks for getting the ROTM message to Bart. I’m so glad that you came to the Classic Cougar Community. Bart provided some great information in his letter. Best of luck when the voting begins.
Steven
