I haven’t been on this site for a while. Had a heart attack last Thanksgiving but am doing well now. I just contacted the Marti Company to see if I could get a deluxe Marti Report for my 1968 Mercury Cougar XR-7 GTE 428 Cobra Jet, auto, red with red leather. I bought this car new from a Lincoln/Mercury dealer in Bristol, VA. The guy at Marti told me my facts didn’t add up but I was in contact with Jim Pickerton (sp?) about 12 years ago and he knew of my car from these details and put me in contact with the 2nd owner who had photos. I’m trying to get the VIN number from Jim and that should do the trick. Again, here is the only photo I had from the 2 years I owned it.
68GTE428CJ1stOwner, glad you are doing good!!! Keep us up to date with the info you find out please.
Great picture! The car probably still has the faint outline of the lettering, probably still can be seen if it bears its original paint.
Interesting. Earlier this fall I had a short conversation with someone on another website that said he purchased a red R code GTE back in the late 1980s at an auction. This person was located in VA. He said he resold the car to a young guy in MD who wrecked it shortly after the purchase. Unfortunately he had no record of the VIN and what he did remember about the car did not match anything that Jim Pinkerton had in the registry. He said that the car was red with a tan interior and vinyl top, Jim said that no GTE was built in that combination. There is no way of knowing but it would be possible that this was your old car and someone swapped out the interior. Or it could be a totally different car.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
If he had it registered in his name in the late 80,s the VA DOT might be able to track the VIN by his name.
I went back and relooked at our conversation. I had some of the facts a bit backwards. The seller was in MD and the buyer in VA. Since the seller had only bought the car to resell he never put it into his name. He did not remember the name of the buyer in VA so even if VA did still have the records we do not know who to look for. The trail for this car went cold. The only car that came close to matching was an R code XR-7 that someone added the GTE trim to years ago. There was not enough evidence to say that they are the same car. I almost forgot, the seller said this happened in about 1980, not the late 1980s. Sorry for my confusion.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
Yes, this is the car I currently own, that is in Greg Taylor’s shop for refurbishment (not a restoration). That picture of the wedding decorations is in the binder for this car kept by registrar Pinkerton.
BTW, since I haven’t posted in a while, I see I need to edit my “signature” to delete the Nordic blue X code and add the GTE.
HarstenePointe, It’s great to hear that you have my old Cougar. I would love to see some photos of it when you complete the refurbishment. The last I hear a guy in Florida owned this car. The Serial number for my old GTE is 8F93R56xxxx, build on 5/31/68. How I came to buy this car is a great story. I was driving a 1966 GTO Convertible which I ordered new. However, I had a really bad accident and my GTO was badly damaged. My insurance company would not replace it they had it rebuilt. It was never the same after that. I lived in my home town of Kingsport, TN and was going to college in Johnson City, TN (East Tennessee State University). I stopped by a Ford dealer in Johnson City and they had a 1968 Shelby GT500KR, blue with white stripes, white top and white interior. Auto and it had the 428 Cobra Jet engine and it had about 2,500 miles on it. A guy had bought it for his wife and she didn’t like it because it was too powerful and traded it for a another Mustang. They were asking $4,000 for the car. I loved it except for the white interior so I went home to think about it. When I came back the next day of course it was sold. So, I went looking for another Mustang with the 428 CJ engine. What I found in Bristol, TN was a 1968 Mercury Cougar XR-7 GTE 428CJ, red and with dark red leather, auto. I traded my GTO and loved the Cougar. This was in mid-June 1968. I drove it in the Tri Cities area of East Tennessee until May 1969 when I moved to Atlanta. I meet and married my wife, Anna (photo you have in your files) and drove it for another year. However, the Cougar was not air conditioned and driving in Atlanta in the Summer without air is not fun. So, I drove it back to my home town and traded it for the local Chevrolet dealer for a 1970 Chevy Monte Carlo. The 2nd owner bought it from that dealer and he sent me some photos of the car. He didn’t like the matt black on the hood and hood scope and painted them silver to match the bottom of the car. He also put ram air decals on the air scoop. I had put Dunlop radial tires on it because at that time I was the manager of a Dunlop Tire shop in Buckhead (Atlanta, GA). Twenty years ago I worked for a travel company based in Seattle so it’s funny the car ended up in the State of Washington.
What were the facts that you had that didn’t match the Marti?
And BTW, my family is from Emory Virginia near Bristol. Been there many many times throughout my life.
- Phillip
I’m not sure what they were talking about. The Marti reports shows all the same info that I had. The only thing that was different is that I had read an article about another Cougar just like the one I had and it stated there were 37 like it build in 1968. The Marti report shows there were only 23. Either way it was a rare car.
I know you say you purchased it in June, even though the Marti report shows a October sales date. Any chance you leased it from the dealer or something before the title was transferred into your name?
No, I traded my 1966 GTO Convertible on the car the same day I first saw it. After losing the 1968 Shelby GT500KR I wasn’t going to take a chance in someone else buying it. These were (and still are) same cities in East Tennessee so there wasn’t a lot of Mustangs with the 428CJ. I bought it in mid-June 1966. Maybe the dealer didn’t report the sale until Oct 1966??
What I was trying to say in my post above that the area I lived in East Tennessee were small cities so there wasn’t a lot of Mustangs with the 428CJ engine and of course this was the only Cougar with the 428CJ. When I saw it, I drove it and then I bought it all within a couple of hours. I really fell in love with the Mercury Cougar in red with red leather seats and that big engine and shaker type hood scope. It was a hardtop which is what I wanted and just had it all. I drove the heck out of my 1966 GTO convertible and wrecked it badly. I was a couple of years older and had been through basic training with the US Army at Fort Bragg and advance Combat Engineer training at Fort Lenard Wood, MO so I was a different person when I bought the Cougar and I took really good care of it. Yea I did a little street racing with it but not that much.
The sold date was entered by hand after the fact. No one really checked up on the key punch operators so they could and did make mistakes and occasionally fudge a number or two. There are several documented examples where original sale contracts do not match the sold date recorded by Ford and included in the data base.
there were 37 like it build in 1968. The Marti report shows there were only 23. Either way it was a rare car.
37 428 GT-E’s
23 of them were XR-7s
So glad you’re well again, and that the car has survived and is being cared for!
Me too on both counts. I had a triple bypass on Nov 27, 2017 and I’m feeling pretty good now. Lucky to have found my problem before I had a bad heart attack.
So, my old car was one of 23. I wonder now many are still around today?
Jim Pinkerton could answer that question, or if you go on the CCOA website, under registries, then the GTE registry, there is a link to the GTE registry website (it’s blocked by my work, so I don’t know what info is housed there).
Thanks for sharing your story w/us. Glad you are feeling better.
Not to pick nits, but it wasn’t a “shaker” scoop from the factory (not sure if you are saying yours was modified). 427’s got a fake scoop & the CJ428s got a functional ram air w/a fixed scoop. “Shaker” scoop implies the scoop is mounted on the engine & pokes through a hole in the hood. Like certain Mustangs.
Your right it was a fixed scoop on top of the hood and the air cleaner had a rubber seal on top of it that sealed the air intake from the scoop and the bottom of the hood. As I remember the air intake opened under acceleration. It was not the “shaker” type found mostly on MOPARS. My mistake. When I owned this car nothing was modified or changed from stock. I have been in contact with Jim Pinkerton a couple of times but never asked him how many Cougar XR-7 GTE with the 428 CJ where still around. I also have been in contact with the current owner of my old Cougar and am very excited with what he is doing with this car.
I was 23 to 25 when I owned this Cougar and I turn 74 next February. Fifty years has past as quickly as my old Cougar used to past other muscle cars back in the day.
Great story thanks for sharing it.
Steven