The September 2018 Ride of the Month is Sir Ed’s 1967 Standard Hardtop Cougar!
When we talk about very rare big-engine high-performance Cougars, what we are really talking about are cars that were not very popular at the time. They cost too much, used too much gas, weren’t very good on snow and ice and generally did not fill the bill for most buyers. If the success of the Cougar had to depend on sales of XR-7 GTs the model would have gone the way of the Edsel only even faster. What is important to automakers isn’t the most exotic model they offer, it is the most popular model. In 1967 one Cougar clearly won the popularity contest.
The Most Popular Cougar of All!
In 1967 if you wanted an XR-7 GT you could just walk in to the local dealership, drive one off the lot, or place your order and expect to pick it up in just a few short weeks. Over 500 new Cougars were being purchased every day. But very few of those top of the line cats were sold. We frequently talk about how a car might be a one-of-one or at least very rare. As it turns out rare really means is not very popular. If you want to really understand what made the Cougar a hit you need to look not at the rarest examples, but to the most popular ones. The September Ride of the Month is an excellent example of what Cougar buyers really liked when the cars were new.
There were two basic versions of the Cougar by mid year 1967; the Standard Hardtop, and the XR-7. By far, the most popular Cougar was the Standard Hardtop. The XR-7 did offer additional European flair, but most American car buyers had probably never even sat in a European car. Listening to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones was as close to England as most Americans ever got. So by a wide margin, they chose the Standard Cougar. And it was an active choice. Add a few options and the price of a Standard Hardtop could easily exceed that of an XR7. For 1967 the XR-7 was a mid year introduction, and that did put a damper on sales, but even in 1968 when he XR-7 was available for the entire year, it only accounted for about 28% of sales. The standard hardtop was the most popular Cougar in 1967 accounting for 123,684 sales out of 150,893.
The Cougar was available in a virtual rainbow of colors. Nineteen different colors were available. If one of those didn’t suit you, then you could do what 238 people did and pay a little more for a special order color. You would expect that on average, a particular color would appear on about 6 out of 100 Cougars. In the early sixties the most common color had always been white, peaking in 1963 when 25 out of 100 new cars were wearing white. The basic colors, white, black and red were predictable favorites. But the Cougar was an all new car and it stood out from the crowd in a new color, Lime Frost Metallic. Almost one in five Cougars would be wearing the latest color hit. If it seems to you that all Cougars were wearing Lime Frost paint, you weren’t too far off. By the end of the year, 26,071 Cougars were painted color Code I, Lime Frost. So the most popular Cougar was a Standard Hardtop painted in Lime Frost Metallic. (Our September ROTM was originally painted Lime Frost)
Ford and Mercury used different names for the same color: Ford = Lime Gold Mercury = Lime Frost. This is an original can of touch up paint.
For 1967 the Standard Cougar came with what would become known as the Decor interior package in 1968. It gave the new cat a definite luxury feel that other pony cars struggled to match. Your first interior choice would be bench seats or buckets. Since all Cougars were equipped with floor mounted shifters the bucket seat option was by far the most common choice. Only 7395 would come with a bench seat. Buckets as so common that many don’t even realize that there were bench seat equipped Cougars.
The choice of exterior color was supposed to limit the interior color to those that would be complimentary choices. However, in 1967 you could have it your way. All of those Lime Frost Cougars came in an incredible array of 19 different interior combinations. Yes, there were red and blue interiors in Lime Frost Cougars from the factory. Black interiors have always been popular, but new Standard Hardtop Cougars were actually more likely to come in a more complimentary color, Ivy Gold. If you peeked in the window of a Lime Frost 67 standard chances were all most 50/ 50 that you would find Ivy Gold bucket seats.
Unlike the Mustang, all Cougars came with a V8 under the hood. A handful were built with a low compression version of the 289 for export to countries with questionable gasoline supplies. With that exception there were three engine choices: the mighty 320 HP Marauder GT 390 4V, the 225 HP Super 289 4V, and the 200 HP 288 2V. Finding anything other than the 289 2V under the hood is surprising 70% of all 67 Cougars produced had the 289 2V under the hood. Behind the 289 2V was almost certainly going to be the C4 Merc-O-Matic three speed automatic. The second choice was the standard three seed manual. Only 1582 Standard Cougars came with a 4-speed. The most popular drive line was by far the 289 2V with C4 automatic. In total, 71,981 standard Cougars left the assembly line with this combination.
Where most Cougars distinguish themselves as one-of-one cars, is where individual options are taken into consideration. Even then some options were so popular that many might not have even recognized that they were not standard equipment. For example the AM radio and antenna was installed in more than 85% of all Standard Cougars. Power steering was almost as common going in nearly 75% of standard Cougars. More than half even came equipped with the sports console. The least popular option was Speed Control, finding its way into only 246 Standard Cougars.
So to sum things up, the Cougar that set the automotive world on fire, creating the sports luxury segment of the market looked like this: 1967 Standard Hardtop, Lime Frost Metallic Paint, Ivy gold bucket seat interior, powered by a 289 2V with a Merc-O-Matic transmission, and equipped with AM radio, Power Steering, and the Sports console. Or exactly the specifications of our September 2018 Ride of the Month!
Sr. Ed, Ed Lind, lives in Reno Nevada with his wife an two teen age boys. When he isn’t keeping the badge readers and security cameras working at Apple, he gets to drive his very well preserved '67 Cougar.
While it seems like every Cougar owner had one “back in the day” Ed came into Cougar ownership in a very different way. You could almost call him an accidental Cougar owner. About two years ago he rented out a property he owned near Lake Tahoe. The new tenant had a Cougar that his father had bought, only now they were looking to sell it.
Up until that moment Ed really hadn’t been in the market. He tells us; “I never had any plans to buy a classic car. Not sure why they were selling but we made a deal. Thankfully, because I think their son would’ve beat it up. I discovered fresh metal and rust on 2 spots on the gas tank when looked underneath. The cougar was available and when I researched Cougars and saw frames with engine or no engine or no interiors etc for $1500 to $3000. Getting this one for $5000 was a no brainer. It just needs a lot of TLC.”
Ed does know his way around cars having done his own maintenance for years. His time is limited and with the car in the garage up in the Sierras he can only spend one weekend a month on the car. While the car didn’t need a lot of work he has been able to install new front brakes, replace the rubber fuel lines and to address some much needed maintenance. “The air filter was black as night!”
Ed tells us the Cougar has a few needs yet to be addressed; “It looks good from 20 - 30 feet! I think the hood and passenger fender and door may have been replaced after an accident, the tan paint job was done over the original lime frost green. Body work is needed on the passenger side, it’s not bad but fixing it is still a few years out. Except for the rips in the drivers seat the interior is really good shape. On the up side, it fires right up and is a driver.”
A minor radiator leak, and a shortage of time has kept Ed pretty close to home so far, so he hasn’t had the Cougar out to any shows. In the future the Cougar may become more of a family affair as his 15 year old son is showing interest and his 18 year old definitely wants to “get his hands dirty” while he looks for project of his own.
So the most popular Cougar of 1967 still seems to be pulling in new fans even 51 years later. When asked about what he likes best about his Cougar, Ed replied " Best thing is hopping in it to go for drive!" We could not agree more.
