Hi everyone, I looking for opinions on what my 1968 all original Cougar XR7 is worth. I have included photos and engine shots, Please note the the engine was detailed BUT nothing else was messed with. The paint, interior and engine bay are all original. I will add another topic with more photos and documents.
This car was special ordered new by the original owner in April of 1968 from Fiore Lincoln Mercury in Altoona, PA. He specified Augusta green exterior color with saddle leather interior. The only options that he requested were an AM radio, console, and four speed manual transmission. According to Kevin Marti, only 2% of Mercury Cougars were built with the 4 speed option.
The car was always garage kept, driven only sparingly, and upon his passing was put into storage and not driven from 1988 until 2007, when the second owner, also from Altoona, purchased the car from his family. At that time, the car was still wearing its PA license plates with an expiration date of March 1988. When resurrecting the car from its nearly 20 years of storage, the second owner saved all of the original maintenance items that he replaced, including the original tires, belts, air filter, thermostat, tune up parts, brake parts, etc.
We were able to purchase the car from the second owner in August of 2016 when he lost his indoor storage for the car. Up until that point the car had never left the Altoona, PA area.
The car to date has less than 20,000 original miles, and retains its original paint and interior, chrome, all of its original numbers matching engine and driveline components ( including the thermactor pump) and even its original exhaust system and FOMOCO script headlight bulbs. We did detail the engine but not the engine compartment or anything else on the car. It truly is a real time capsule. This car appealed to me so much that I actually sold a restored 1968 ½ Mustang Cobra Jet car to make room for it in my garage.
