Photo: Instagram | Jlord8
Ford killed the Mercury brand a little over 12 years ago. The final Mercury-branded car was a Grand Marquis, made at St. Thomas in Ontario, Canada, in early January 2011. Nevertheless, despite pulling the plug on the division to concentrate on Ford and Lincoln, several Mercury vehicles remain sought-after collectibles that do not break the bank.
One such model is the Cougar, whose history started in 1967 with the original one, which was a re-bodied Mustang. The second generation came out for the 1971 model year and was also related to Ford's pony car. Three years later, they rolled out the third-gen, sharing its underpinnings with the Montego, Ford Torino, and Elite, and in 1976, the fourth-gen arrived, and it had many things in common with the era's Thunderbird.
The Mercury nameplate survived until the eighth generation, whose assembly kicked off at the Flat Rock plant in Michigan in 1998. The three-door liftback coupe used the same platform as the Mondeo. As a result, it came with a 2.0-liter straight-four gasoline unit, joined by a 2.5-liter V6. One of the most popular body styles of the Mercury Cougar was the two-door coupe, aka the muscle car, but over the years, it was also offered as a convertible. Four-door sedans were part of the lineup at one point, and so were the family-friendly station wagons.
As we already told you, several versions of the Mercury Cougar have reached their collectible status, proving that to certain enthusiasts, nothing beats the classic looks backed up by a proper V8 engine under the hood, wrapped in a pony car package. We're convinced many of you have been wondering what a modern-day revival of the iconic nameplate would look like, and there have been several unofficial takes on it. One of the latest came from jlord8 on Instagram, and it uses several different models from the brand's past as inspiration, borrowing stuff such as the nose, three-quarter windows, wheels, and the iconic hidden headlamps.
That's right, instead of slightly modifying the body of the new-gen Ford Mustang and calling it a day, the rendering artist took his time to come up with a completely new machine. Imagined in the Cougar XR7 configuration, it deserves a serious engine, and one of the best choices is the Coyote. The 5.0-liter V8 develops 480 hp in the new Mustang GT or six horses more when ordered with the performance exhaust system. The Dark Horse specification boasts 500 hp, making it the punchiest non-Shelby 'Stang, and the transmission choices include a six-speed manual and a ten-speed auto. It's evident that Ford won't resurrect the Mercury brand and that the Cougar won't return from the dead, not as a V8-powered pony car anyway, but if it looked like this, would you have placed a deposit for one?
The Mercury nameplate survived until the eighth generation, whose assembly kicked off at the Flat Rock plant in Michigan in 1998. The three-door liftback coupe used the same platform as the Mondeo. As a result, it came with a 2.0-liter straight-four gasoline unit, joined by a 2.5-liter V6. One of the most popular body styles of the Mercury Cougar was the two-door coupe, aka the muscle car, but over the years, it was also offered as a convertible. Four-door sedans were part of the lineup at one point, and so were the family-friendly station wagons.
As we already told you, several versions of the Mercury Cougar have reached their collectible status, proving that to certain enthusiasts, nothing beats the classic looks backed up by a proper V8 engine under the hood, wrapped in a pony car package. We're convinced many of you have been wondering what a modern-day revival of the iconic nameplate would look like, and there have been several unofficial takes on it. One of the latest came from jlord8 on Instagram, and it uses several different models from the brand's past as inspiration, borrowing stuff such as the nose, three-quarter windows, wheels, and the iconic hidden headlamps.
That's right, instead of slightly modifying the body of the new-gen Ford Mustang and calling it a day, the rendering artist took his time to come up with a completely new machine. Imagined in the Cougar XR7 configuration, it deserves a serious engine, and one of the best choices is the Coyote. The 5.0-liter V8 develops 480 hp in the new Mustang GT or six horses more when ordered with the performance exhaust system. The Dark Horse specification boasts 500 hp, making it the punchiest non-Shelby 'Stang, and the transmission choices include a six-speed manual and a ten-speed auto. It's evident that Ford won't resurrect the Mercury brand and that the Cougar won't return from the dead, not as a V8-powered pony car anyway, but if it looked like this, would you have placed a deposit for one?
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