For 1967, Mercury took the Mustang uptown with the release of its Motor Trend Car of the Year winning Cougar.
From its quad headlights concealed behind a distinctive electric shaver grille to its triple taillights with sequential turn signals, the Cougar was aimed at the grown-up performance enthusiast who might have otherwise shopped for a European car.
Nowhere was Mercury’s emphasis on sophistication more evident than inside the sporting cat, particularly when outfitted with optional XR7 trim. If you’ve ever peeked inside a Jaguar sedan from this period, then you already know what Mercury’s designers were thinking about while planning the Cougar’s cockpit.
The XR7’s seats were skinned in a rich-looking combination of leather and vinyl, and its door panels were equipped with touring car-esque pull straps and map pockets. An overhead console further gentrified the XR7’s living quarters and served as a place to locate idiot lights that might have detracted from the elegantly simple instrument cluster. Along with the low-fuel warning light, seat belt reminder light, door ajar warning light and the parking brake light, a pair of round map lights were positioned neatly in the console above the driver and passenger.
The XR7’s instrument panel was especially European, trimmed full-width in a walnut-toned simulated woodgrain appliqué, with black-faced instruments. Front and center, flanking the steering column, sat the speedometer with trip odometer on the left and tachometer on the right. Positioned above the speedo and tach were the ammeter, fuel gauge and temperature gauge, while the oil pressure gauge was mounted far to the right on the passenger’s side of the panel.
Aligned in a tidy row at the center of the dash were a bank of toggle switches that controlled the left- and right-side map lights, rear quarter courtesy lights and the instrument panel courtesy lights.
If an optional sports console was ordered, it extended upward at the center of the instrument panel and provided a home for an electric clock and optional radio.
Mercury’s attempt to imbue the Cougar with British touring car touches wasn’t lost on reviewers of the day. In its March 1967 issue, Popular Mechanics even put two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Roger Ward behind the wheel of a 1967 Cougar XR7 390 GT and asked him to compare it against the 1967 Aston Martin DB6. The Cougar, loaded with every available option, carried a reasonable $4,450 price tag, while the DB6 checked in at $15,400.
When the smoke cleared, Ward seemed impressed with the Cougar’s 390 powerplant, but noted the car’s unsports-car-like tendency to understeer–probably in no small part due to the weight of its V-8 engine. The DB’s sophisticated all-aluminum 244-cu in DOHC six-cylinder, meanwhile, was at a slight disadvantage in a sprint, but it paid the driver back with a favorable power-to-weight ratio that made the Aston far more willing to hang out its tail in a high-speed turn.
“I’d say the Cougar is a car for the man who aspires to own an Aston Martin, but hasn’t got the pocketbook for it!” Ward said. The same could be said today of the XR7–an often underrated, overlooked but stylishly appointed American performance car.
This article originally appeared in the October, 2013 issue of Hemmings Motor News.
Source: hemmings.com
