The Database Project is the Mother Lode of Cougar history. The following article from the Cougar Club of America website explains in detail just what the registry is and what the objectives are. The purpose of this site is to provide users with a place to share your finds with Phil.
The Cougar Club of America (CCOA) is attempting to register any and all possible 1967-2002 Cougars, living or dead, into a Cougar database. This database includes all Cougars…from concourse restorations to project cars and those in junkyards and even those that have been parted out. THIS IS NOT A SHOWCAR REGISTRY! We hope to use the information to help restorers, identify production trends and learn other helpful details about Cougar history.
We maintain 2 seperate databases, based on the VIN style. The first is for 1967-1980 Cougars because of the 11-character VIN. The second database is for the 1981-2002 Cougars, due to the 17-character VIN.
The purpose of the database is as follows:
It will enable us to answer questions regarding the rarity of our cars, the option mix, colors etc. The possibilities here are endless as to how the data can be sorted, sliced and diced. It is limited only by our imaginations.
It will document how many of these cars are still in existence. For example, in 1967, there were 165,000 cars built. The database has records on 1,136 1967’s, of which 343 are in junkyards or parted out, leaving 793 which is less than 1% survival rate! That makes any 1967 Cougar a rare car!
The Database can serve as a source of information when you are trying to research the history of your Cougar. You may be able to find out some previous owner’s info, modifications reported, or condition. Similarly, if you are buying a car, you could check to see if it was previously registered, history, or if it was ever been reported stolen.
If your car is ever stolen and it has been documented in the database, and it turns up for sale somewhere else, there is a chance you could get it back. Or if in the worst case, it is parted out, and a part with a VIN # (such as a shock tower) is seen at a swap meet for sale, that could be a clue as to what happened to the car, and ultimately who did it.
The database can put owners of similar vehicles or similar localities in touch with each other–such as the small group of Sunroof Eliminator owners, or the small group of early production cars (date code 04G), or the owners of Calypso Coral paint, or Pink paint cars, or 3-speed cars, etc.
For this project to be a success, we need as much data as possible. It can be data from your pride and joy, or from your parts car out back under the tarp, or from that old owner’s manual in your desk drawer. NOTE: This information will be used for statistical purposes only. Ownership information will be held in strict confidence. You can register anonymously if you are concerned about privacy.
To register, we need the car’s VIN, the door plate codes if the plate is still present, the original interior and exterior color, transmission type and engine type, and the options on the car.
Please use our On-Line Registration Form.
Also, you can e-mail the data to: > registry@cougarclub.org
If all else fails, you can send your data to me via snail-mail at:
Phil Parcells
7227 Heath Markham Road
Lima, NY 14485
The short answer is not publicly. IF you have a question post it here and either Jim Pinkerton or Phil Parcells will try to answer it. Many of the entries were submitted with the expectation of privacy.
First I must apologize, due to some on going medical issues I am operating at a slightly diminished capacity.I’m not sure if this is the correct spot for this but seems like the best place to find the info on this XXX Cougar. In Anycase, I had built a 1970 Mustang for a guy who became one of my dearest friends. Sadly he passed away before the car was finished. I didn’t take the car. It took awhile but I found his family and let them pay the bill at a much lessor rate.I had them take it home so they can save up and we will finish it in the future. I now have a chance now to buy the car and engine. Here is the twist. The engine is a 428 Super Cobra Jet from a Cougar that is still in Detroit. The engine has experimental stickers on it and the car is a Proving Grounds Development Cougar. I haven’t yet seen the car or vin# but I have handled the Engine, the stickers and heard the story of how it came to him. He is not a deceitful guy, actually he was quite an amazing guy and a true friend, I truly miss him.What I am asking here is , does anyone have any information what so ever on these cars, engines, stickers, etc. ? I have to sell my 1970 428CJ Ram Air Cougar for medical reasons as it is but being completely laid up the last few months the wheels in my head keep turning. Maybe I sell my car and give away most of the money to the doc and bills but buy this other Mustang with the engine and Cougar… Then I still have a Beautiful (hulking project) car to whiddle away at instead of an empty feeling in my gut, and a 70 Mach 1 to sell off for parts and materials or probably have to give that cash up too. Yes I have some serious stuff going on and it sux but I will be damned if I don’t have anything to work on even if I can’t really do much right now.
On another note: I saved parts instead of money (I guess it was my excuse for spending every cent on old parts). and in the past few years had two major family emergencies. Thank God for me saving those parts (all the way back to junior high). But what a horrible feeling to have to sell your collection, it’s like putting your dog down. I lugged that stuff around and pieced the cars together for almost 30 years, happily. I guess what I am saying is yes you can put your kid through college, you can pay for a doctor, or whatever. but it’s a hell of a lot more pain full to have to give up part of your life I.E. my D0ZZ This and my C90E That) then to just hit the bank account. If your like me, my advise is Yes collect parts and cars, but always put some cash away too and save money anyway you can so you don’t end up in my position. I love cars and parts like other people love to fish or hunt. BUT I wish I had saved some cash too… Any info about Proving Ground Cougars would be greatly appreciated and if it doesn’t work out I will just post the info to the site or something and one of you cats can take a shot if you want. I will try and find my pictures or go take some more of those stickers as well. If this post is in the wrong place or in appropriate I apologize, I like to talk and their isn’t anyone standing around the open hood with me lately…
Hi there. My name is Kolbjorn from Norway. Hava a 1969 Cougar XR7 Convertible VIN: 9F94H507620. Is this registry only for USA? (Those links on top doesn’t work ( http://www.cougarclub.org/vindecoder/ AND http://www.cougarclub.org/registry/regi … nform.aspx ). If only for USA, is there a reg for worldwide ? Could be interesting to know how many there are left of my type of car !
Kolbjorn – Don’t know what might be wrong with the links. Suggest you contact Phil Parcells directly … cougardb@frontiernet.net and tell him about your car and the problems accessing the links.
It always amazes me when I get a reply back from Phil or Jim about a VIN I submitted that it is a new one to the Data base. In the last 6 months I have submitted 2 1970 XR-7 Convertibles that were not recorded before.
Keep up hte great work guys.
And congrats to Scott on his mile stone with this. I should bring you my box of Door tags and Buck tags. I have about 100 I think.
Hei Kolbjørn, her er link til hovedsiden, du finner vin dekoderen og registeret der, http://www.cougarclub.org/
Det er en world wide club, not us only.
So where in Norway are you from ?
I´m from the north west coast, Aalesund area, there are a few cats around here, and also in the rest of the country
I was just reading the numbers on the CCOA Database. I never realized how few Cougars are registered. I was taken back by the fact that there are more XR7G’s accounted for or registered than the 1967 6.5L DGS (3 total).
Steven
There are a variety of reasons why such anomalies as Gs are prevalent on the database, but the most important of those reasons is the dedication of the Registrar(s) whose efforts to ferret-out information, as well as obtain the production information from Kevin Marti, allow research to produce results. Also, some search documents regarding registrations from certain states (e.g. Texas in the 80s) have surfaced, greatly aiding the database in terms of numbers. The patterns of reporting of cars to the database, while interesting, can cause such questions to be raised; suffice it to say however, that the database project relies heavily on you and me (us) to provide information not only on our own cars, but any others that we come across. It never ceases to amaze me how many people, looking for/at potential purchases, don’t even know the vin number – it’s no wonder they can’t/don’t research the database for information. They must just like surprises.
I think that one of the problems with the National Database is that many people believe that you have to be a Cougar Club of America member to make inquiries (you don’t).
The amount of time it takes to be a registrar is not insubstantial, and particularly in the case of the Master Data Base. For this reason I think that Phil the keeper of the list, may be somewhat reluctant to be on a board like this that would provide greater access to people wanting the information, but probably also consume a ton of time. I continue to hope that at some point we might be able to develop a way to answer questions in an automated way while still preserving the confidentiality of the information.
Perhaps there could be a meeting of the minds among the registrars to see if there is a way to quantify the information that can be published, (see the GT-E registry for example) and maybe offer a way for people to find out if there is more information available about a particular car (Is VIN number 8F93R50000 in the database?).
My latest wild hair idea is that maybe we could reproduce the window sticker for every GT-E using the Cougar Dream Project window sticker generator (of course this would be minus the VIN and DSO codes). Of course we would need to have the list of original options to do this… Dream on… LOL!