Editors note: If anyone can contact Bill Leads it would be great to add his story to this write up.
Better Late Than Never
At the end of the model year, dealers are reluctant to order new vehicles for stock. This is particularly true when the model in question is due for a major styling change. Typically the assembly plants would run through the month of July and a few stragglers would roll out in early August. The plants would then shut down for the new model change over and restart production of the new model. Such was the case in July of 1968.
Ford still had to keep the lines busy so many of the vehicles were being built under a Basic order type. Orders placed for individual buyers are called Retail orders, but by late in the model run dealers were even some what skeptical about placing those. It was impossible to tell if some critical component might run out before the car was built. It was a safer bet to place an order for the upcoming model. Stock orders were for cars that the dealer wanted to have for display on the lot. This late in the year dealers were mostly interested in reducing stock as much as possible.
Those Basic order vehicles would sit in storage lots in anticipation that the factory sales team could strong arm a dealer into taking delivery. Many tactics were used to move the metal, and eventually every car would find a home. Bill Lead’s '68 XR-7 was one of those Basic order late build vehicles. It was originally scheduled for build on July 25th, but it was actually built earlier, on the 18th. It would then wait until August 8th before finding its way to Roy Butler Lincoln Mercury in Austin Texas.
Roy Butler was a hard charging Texan that made things happen. After serving in the United States Navy during WWII he attended the University of Texas at Austin earning a bachelors degree in economics. He went on to study law for three years before leaving to enter the automotive business. He built Butler Lincoln-Mercury into the largest Lincoln dealership in Texas and Oklahoma. In 1971 he would become the first mayor of Austin to be directly elected by the citizens of Austin. If that was not enough, when Coors became available ion Texas he beat out 2,200 other candidates to get the franchise. He also was the first cell phone provider in Austin when he co-founded the local branch of Cellular One.
But in August of 1968 he was mostly interested in selling new Mercurys from his location at 6th and Lamar near downtown Austin. On the 23rd he sold a Diamond Blue Cougar XR-7. It had a black vinyl top, and a dark blue leather interior. The car was very nicely optioned with plenty of creature comforts: Sports Console, Whisper-Aire air conditioning, AM radio, Tinted glass and Power Steering and Power Front Disc Brakes.
How the car came traveled through time to arrive at West Coast Classic Cougar is a mystery to us. What we do know is that WCCC spent some serious time bringing the beautiful light blue Cougar back to its original glory under the direction of the current owner, Bill Leads. Fortunately for us Andrew Chenovick put his photographic skills to work to give some great images of the this nearly last of the line '68 Cougar.
