When it came to the 70 Cougar, this was one of the most extraordinary models Mercury had put up on the American muscle car market. This magnificent line was launched back in ’67 as a reply to the upscale mission of Lincoln Mercury and it featured a Mustang chassis which would also have its size increased and going up to 111 inches now on the wheelbase. In order to have a more luxurious feel there were improvements made on the material this car was made of so that the noise inside the car would be lowered to even greater levels.
The 1970 Cougar was again in my opinion a really good model, but again it seemed it was always in an uphill battle in the marketplace, never quite receiving the acclaim of the more popular muscle cars. Thus the manufacturer considered that this was the time for them to make a move and try to really improve the power and performance of this years model. Thus they had a very nice engine put into the Cougar XR7 and the Cougar GT and it would be a 289 CID 2 and 4 barrel V8s, whilst being a high performance engine stacking up to 390 HP. One thing to mention about this is that the 289 HP V8 engine would never be available as an option.
The second go around proved to be one of the best for Cougar and they joined the market with some of their new models and those include the XR7G (the Dan Gurney Special), which would feature some very nice and amazing gold interior detailing. But even more than this, they had the GTE GT Eliminator which proved to be one of their most exotic cars ever. Under its hood you could find a 427 CID V8 engine. After little time there was another engine available this time named the 428 Cobra Jet engine, and thus the GTE would be rendered as the prelude of 1970s Cougar production.
Changes in styling included that the headlamps and the grille would be painted in a matte black and this decision was taken in order to have a greater and bolder look which would deliberately signify a performance car’s profile. Also the Ram Air hood scoop would be rendered functional still and the styled wheels would also not be gone, but this would prove to be available only with the 428 CJR.