GTP Cool Wall: 1969-1970 Mercury Cougar Eliminator

[Wiegert]

JDM only.

Actually the Japanese do have one hell of a sense of humour when it comes to naming cars. Mysterious Utility Wizard, anyone? Luxury Joyful Canopy? Scrum Wagon? Geely Rural Nanny?

Homy Super Long? Great Wall Wingle?

How are they not the most virile car names ever?

 

[CarBastard]

JDM only.

Actually the Japanese do have one hell of a sense of humour when it comes to naming cars. Mysterious Utility Wizard, anyone? Luxury Joyful Canopy? Scrum Wagon? Geely Rural Nanny?

Let's face it, the USA doesn't fare much better. Ford actually made four different cars called "Probe" (and actually tried to sell two of them), while Ford Europe named all of their cars after top shelf magazines. And leaving that joke aside, the thoroughly mainstream Ford Escort is named after a prostitute.

And then there's the Studebaker Dictator...

Mazda did worse once, they didn't name a car after a prostitute but named it the prostitute.

Gentleman, all aboard the Mazda Laputa. La puta...

 

[Roger the Horse]

I think it was supposed to be a Jonathan Swift reference. Disney ran into the same problem when they got the DVD rights to Miyazaki's masterpiece, which had to be retitled Lapuntu in Spanish speaking countries.

In plain English, the Japanese love Gulliver's Travels, but aren't very good at Spanish, or spotting dirty puns being made in it.

 

[Cano]

Disney ran into the same problem when they got the DVD rights to Miyazaki's masterpiece, which had to be retitled Lapuntu in Spanish speaking countries.

It wasn't. It was simply called Castle in the Sky, without ever mentioning the Laputa name.

 

[Roger the Horse]

I meant (assuming all my sources are correct) they retitled the castle Lapuntu. Sorry if that was unclear.

 

[Cano]

I meant (assuming all my sources are correct) they retitled the castle Lapuntu. Sorry if that was unclear.

Ah. Dang I don't remember. The Blue Ray I have was no longer under Disney's management but Zima, a mexican company that released most, if not all of Ghibli's work, and I don't remember what the castle was called.

 

[LivingWithGames]

Sub-Zero. It's still a fabolous Mercury Cougar, a very good looking one. It's related to the Ford Mustang which is quite nice. The Mercury Cougar is rather underrated for the most part, it deserves more love.

Unlike that P.O.S 90's Cougar, that one is seriously uncool. No doubt.

 

[Crash]

Regular Cougar would have been cool, but that name, and it being put just right in the middle of the side, drops this to uncool.

 

[Mike_B_SVT]

Wow! I may be getting old, but I'm not there yet, and I have never thought of myself as a redneck. I figured I'd better sign up and chime in since I actually own a Cougar Eliminator (I even happened to have driven it to work today too).

Wall of text incoming!

Lets start with the name... The "ELIMINATOR" name has its heritage in the 1968 Mercury Cougar that was drag raced by Dyno Don Nicholson. "Eliminator" was (and still is) also a drag racing class / bracket. I know, marketing says that people today prefer letters and numbers in thier car names.

3 Cleveland engines? No. The Eliminator base engine was a 351-4V (4V = "four barrel" carburetor). Non-Eliminator Cougars' base engine was a 351 with a 2V carb. In '69 the 351 Cleveland was not yet available ~ they sported a 351 Windsor. '70 Eliminators received the 351 Cleveland 4V as the base engine. *On a side note, the base transmission was a 3-speed manual for both years. The Eliminator was also the only Cougar available with the Boss 302 engine (they are much more rare than a Boss 302 Mustang).

Fuel economy... well, mine has been getting 8-10 MPG. 351 cars get about 12-15 MPG. Luckily, my commute is short so I'm only burning about 1 gallon per day to drive it. How's your carbon footprint?

As for appearance... the front and rear spoilers were added to reflect the trend of functional versions of those spoilers appearing on road-racing track cars of the day (um, and continues to this day). The hood scoop was only functional on cars equipped with ram-air and a 428 cobra-jet engine (the exact same engine that came in the Cobra Jet mustangs). The Eliminator was SUPPOSED to look like a race car. If you didn't want a racey appearing car, you ordered a plain wrapper Cougar ~ which incidentally could be equipped exactly the same as an Eliminator, minus stripes, scoops and spoilers.

Some people want to be seen in thier car and some don't. The Eliminator wasn't for everyone, even back then. Only about 5000 were built between '69 and '70. Personally, I prefer the more "In Your Face!" appearance of the '70 Eliminator over the more subtle '69, but that's just me.


For more details about the '69 and '70 Eliminator, check out the Eliminator Registry page: http://eliminator.mercurycougarregistry.com/

Game On!

 

[Dennisch]

That's no wall of text. That is an informative post.

Also, that is a nice car you have. 👍

 

[Famine]

The "ELIMINATOR" name has its heritage in the 1968 Mercury Cougar that was drag raced by Dyno Don Nicholson. "Eliminator" was (and still is) also a drag racing class / bracket.

Yep - we have the Street Eliminator heads-up class, which requires the cars to do a 26 mile road cruise on road fuel to qualify for the racing. And these cars trap 200mph

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Wow! I may be getting old, but I'm not there yet, and I have never thought of myself as a redneck. I figured I'd better sign up and chime in since I actually own a Cougar Eliminator (I even happened to have driven it to work today too).

Wall of text incoming!

Lets start with the name... The "ELIMINATOR" name has its heritage in the 1968 Mercury Cougar that was drag raced by Dyno Don Nicholson. "Eliminator" was (and still is) also a drag racing class / bracket. I know, marketing says that people today prefer letters and numbers in thier car names.

3 Cleveland engines? No. The Eliminator base engine was a 351-4V (4V = "four barrel" carburetor). Non-Eliminator Cougars' base engine was a 351 with a 2V carb. In '69 the 351 Cleveland was not yet available ~ they sported a 351 Windsor. '70 Eliminators received the 351 Cleveland 4V as the base engine. *On a side note, the base transmission was a 3-speed manual for both years. The Eliminator was also the only Cougar available with the Boss 302 engine (they are much more rare than a Boss 302 Mustang).

Fuel economy... well, mine has been getting 8-10 MPG. 351 cars get about 12-15 MPG. Luckily, my commute is short so I'm only burning about 1 gallon per day to drive it. How's your carbon footprint?

As for appearance... the front and rear spoilers were added to reflect the trend of functional versions of those spoilers appearing on road-racing track cars of the day (um, and continues to this day). The hood scoop was only functional on cars equipped with ram-air and a 428 cobra-jet engine (the exact same engine that came in the Cobra Jet mustangs). The Eliminator was SUPPOSED to look like a race car. If you didn't want a racey appearing car, you ordered a plain wrapper Cougar ~ which incidentally could be equipped exactly the same as an Eliminator, minus stripes, scoops and spoilers.

Some people want to be seen in thier car and some don't. The Eliminator wasn't for everyone, even back then. Only about 5000 were built between '69 and '70. Personally, I prefer the more "In Your Face!" appearance of the '70 Eliminator over the more subtle '69, but that's just me.


For more details about the '69 and '70 Eliminator, check out the Eliminator Registry page: http://eliminator.mercurycougarregistry.com/

Game On!

Good post, already checked the registry some time ago with the one for the GT-Es.

 

[Panoz]

@Mike_B_SVT. Beautiful Cougar you have.

 

[homeforsummer]

Game On!

👍

You've not changed my vote, but it's very nice indeed to see people coming into the thread with things like actual information and experience - not often the case in these threads. And welcome to GTPlanet

 

[Cano]

I actually own a Cougar Eliminator (I even happened to have driven it to work today too).

If that's your car in your avatar, I want to lick it a bit. Awesome car 👍

Hope you stay around and actually make a thread about it, I'd have a new favorite GTP user car.

 

[Slash]

3 Cleveland engines? No. The Eliminator base engine was a 351-4V (4V = "four barrel" carburetor). Non-Eliminator Cougars' base engine was a 351 with a 2V carb. In '69 the 351 Cleveland was not yet available ~ they sported a 351 Windsor. '70 Eliminators received the 351 Cleveland 4V as the base engine. *On a side note, the base transmission was a 3-speed manual for both years. The Eliminator was also the only Cougar available with the Boss 302 engine (they are much more rare than a Boss 302 Mustang).

I can think of at least 4 variations of the Cleveland between 1969 and 1974 but since we are talking about 69/70 then yes you are correct.

Anyways, your car is 🤬 sexy and I hope you make a thread about it and the story behind the car. I live and die for muscle cars so yeah

 

[mustang fanatic]

Awesome car @Mike_B_SVT. 👍 I'm jealous.