Thanks Royce. So all involvement was equal when it comes to the 1968 XR7G and Shelby Mustangs. Nice. I think we still have the nicer car in the Cougar XR7G in my humble opinion.
Steven
It’s not my information. I was simply pointing to what Don Coleman supposedly said. Am I missing something?
Shelby “American” Inc. was directly involved with building Shelby Mustangs 1965-67.
Ford and A.O. Smith built them 1968-70. The 1970 Shelby Mustangs were basically left over 1969’s. 1970 Shelby Mustangs still had the ignition key in the dash, not on the steering column.
There was a Cougar fitted by Bill Stroppe with the Gurney Weslake modified 302 engine. It was flogged by Gurney and a few magazine writers at a Southern California drag strip in late 1967. It was not an XR7-G prototype. It was not an XR7-G. Perhaps this is the car that Coleman is reminiscing about.
Coleman is correct that the heads were successfully used on the 1969 Gulf GT-40’s that won LeMans after Ferrari made the 427 GT-40 illegal.
You CCOA old-timers will probably remember this, but for those who may not have seen it, the 1992, Volume 13, No. 2 issue of At The Sign Of The Cat printed a very interesting exchange with Dan Gurney. in June of '89 CCOA member Kirk Montgomery sent Dan a letter containing a list of questions. Apparently it took ‘ol Dan about 3 years to respond - but to his credit he did.
I won’t rehash the entire exchange, but in a nutshell Dan made it clear that he had very little to do with the Dan Gurney Specials and the XR7-G.
Towards the end of the questionnaire, when Kirk asks “ Is there anything that you would like to tell owners of the Dan Gurney Special Cougars, or fans of Cougars in general?”
Dan responds “ There was a time where we went through the exercise of actually trying to install our Gurney- Eagle Weslake cylinder heads on a production line somewhere (Texas) but there were political forces involved which made sure that didn’t happen. But I would guess that – that makes a tremendous package. They were used at the Gulf Mirage Manufacturers Championship and won and have won the 24 hours of Le Mans twice (1968 & 1970 I think.)
- Phillip
What’s that on the far pedestal in front of the AO Smith plant where Shelby Automotive was building cars in '68?
An XR7-G.
You would think there would be a nice picture from the other side, showing the Cougar but as far as I know, nothing has shown up so far.
I even tracked down and purchased A.O. Smiths Annual Reports from 1968 and 1969 hoping for some pics, but no such luck and just barely a mention that they were doing the Shelby Mustangs at Smith Plastics.
Note that nice virgin Shelby with hubcaps and no Le Mans stripes - just like they were delivered from the factory originally.
- Phillip
Figured this is a good pic to add to the record here - this is from an article published in the April 1968 edition of the Ionia Sentinel-Standard newspaper. Note the headline tho the reporter misidentified the model as an “XK7-G”. 
Probably another example of an exec at Ford sabotaging the Cougar 
- Phillip
Phillip
Keep them coming! I think we all have a new ‘awakening’ about the G history and conversion.
Jim
Thanks Jim -
I do love the history of our Cougars, both design and racing.
The copy of that article I posted above is curtesy our own Mr. Peterson.
I tracked down the fellow (a SAAC member) who has the original newspaper that Royce’s copy is made from. He was interviewing a retired A.O. Smith worker about the Shelbys when the guy produced the newspaper. He gave it to this guy and he has been nice enough to make copies available but I wasn’t successful in buying the original from him. I would like to make better scans and copies but he showed it to me at a SAAC convention and he wasn’t comfortable with me borrowing the old newspaper to scan.
Tho what really needs to be done is track down the photographer to see if any of the original photos or negs exist.
The newsprint muddies them up but I bet the original photos are amazing.
Phillip
Neat thread.
Funny you mention Vinnie Liska. Vinnie and I were in a Mustang club together way back in the 80’s. He was driving a Torino & I had the R Code. At one point in the 90’s, he took my VIN with him when he went to Lois Eminger’s house to look over Dearborn production records (the ones that eventually went to Kevin Marti). It was through his research that I found there were 127 R code Cougar verts produced (31 4 speeds & 96 automatics), and that mine was 1 of 4 in W code yellow. If it was not for that info, I would have painted the car black.
Funny point too Phil about the Shelby with wheelcovers and no stripes. That’s how my buddy’s '68 GT350 was (still is).
I was at a junk yard a few years ago and found this hubcap. It was dirt cheap so I figured a buy me a piece of a '68 Shelby Mustang.
I posted it over at the SAAC forum and learned that for one thing, the hubcaps didn’t come with the Cobra Jet center, that is actually a gas cap emblem off of a GT500 KR. I also learned that my hubcap is in too poor a shape to restore.
Back in the early '80s I saw a gorgeous Acapulco Blue KR fastback, parallel parked on the street in the heart of downtown Richmond. It had the ten spokes of course. I wonder if that car and this hubcap are connected at all?
- Phillip
DOesn’t matter the center is wrong and it is not restartable, It is cool wall art. I’d hang it in my shop.
^^^ oh yeah - I love it and it is hanging in my garage.
I paid less than $20 for it.
- Phillip
That is cool. Following my pal in his GT350 down from NH to NJ, he lost one of those wheelcovers. I saw it come off, and just followed it across the middle, right and into the breakdown lane. I retrieved it from down the embankment just as he was backing up the shoulder (he saw me dive off the highway and thought I had an issue). Good times.
Phil, I have the scanned newspaper copies as well I got from Royce. See if you can pick some names from the article and photos and contact the paper. They may have the photos archived or put you in touch with the people. The paper is still in business which is rare these days for a smaller town.
http://www.sentinel-standard.com/
If you get some leads let me know. I’m about 45 minutes south of Ionia.
Those hubcaps are heavy Chris! That puppy could have done some serious damage. I think Shelby officially called them “wheel covers”?
Brian, that has been something I’ve wanted to do for sometime 
I will get my rear end in gear and do it soon. I’ll let you know what I find out.
- Phillip
Hi Fellahs, I have a question on the subject of the sunroof installations…
So were the XR7-G sunroofs installed by the same company as the '69 & '70 Hertz Elminator sunroofs?
I understand the Hertz Eliminators were done by American Sunroof Company (of Southgate, MI), and I thought that they also did the sunroof’s for all the other Cougars. But everyone keeps mentioning A.O. Smith as doing the sunroof work… so I’m a bit mixed up.
They are the same sunroofs. You’ll also see them in Mopars, BMWs, VWs, Mercedes, etc. American Sunroof Company was just about the only game in town at the time.
I know that they did instal the equipment at Smith so that the roofs could be put in on the line there, but I have heard that for quality reasons they went back to installing them at ASC but I’m not exactly sure on that.
Royce, Bill or Pinkerton would probably know.
Phillip,
Have you tried to get a hold of the newspaper to see if they might have the originals in their archives?