Your opinion on the xr7?

Just curious, seeing that there are only 23 xr7s but over 400 tbirds in the garage. I know production numbers were so much higher for the bird but how do you feel about the cougar? A lot of people Ive talked to don't care for the body style. I love my two though. What about you?

The cougar looks like a car that would have been a good candidate to make a convertible. I like the 89-90 hood and the look of the car but find the SC to look better.

Front half good back half not good...agree with Scott...looks like Lebaron

I may be partial but I certainly like the cougar.

My thoughts are right out of the box the tbird was sportier looking. Fast back, ground effects, bumpers, etc... This doesn't mean I think they're better looking.

The cougar was more subtle ( blue-hair even) but the xr7 package stepped up the sportiness significantly. Monochrome looks great on cougars and the xr7 wheels, in my opinion, are far nicer looking than the bird wheels. The seven spokes just have a very aggressive look to them.

I do like the lines of the 91-95 cougar hood and grille better but again, the monochrome on the 89-90 ties the grille into the hood nicely.

Then there's the unique factor. Both are very rare now a days and most people raise their eyebrows when you tell them what you own. The cougar is obviously rarer than the bird so I think that's cool.

Now my perception is thirds are more likely to be modified mechanically and aesthetically. My feeling is that the cougar just looks best stock and the tbird looks better modified. I think other peoples actions support that feeling but I'm sure plenty would disagree with me.

Anyhow, these are all just my opinions. It's a great platform and I'm happy the sc guys let us xr7s in the club because otherwise they'd probably all be in the boneyard ls by now.

I didn't like the Cougar when they were new, but seeing one or two nice ones changed my mind. The Dalkes' care with the Budniks on it sat right and looked right. Rod's car and Mike Tuck's car are both awesome looking. However, I never liked the early interior style, so if I had one, I'd have to upgrade to the 94+ interior, and I hear that's quite a bit of work.

Is mike still around? I saw a white xr7 with badass valve covers looked like one of a kind. Says it was made by mike. I'd like to spruce the engine up a bit. I feel like I have a bit of a rarity in my possession, feels good too.

The XR7's are nice, too. I guess it depends on one's preference.....the notchback styling versus the sloping/ fastback look of the SC, and for some, Ford versus Mercury branding in what they prefer to own. Personally, I think that they should have had some sort of engine that had separated the XR7 from the SC.....maybe a more hopped up 5.0 engine, or a different high performance engine that would have fit in the engine bay better than the 5.0 (modifications had to be made to the 5.0 to get it to fit in the SC engine bay.....not sure about the XR7, but one would assume that the same problems had existed in fitting a 5.0 into it).

I always loved em,dated a girl with a xr7 supercharged and she took me for a ride in it and i was thinking to myself this is a cool pretty fast car.Really i liked the car more than her.

Hah! Nice. That's how I feel

my 2 cents? ive always liked cougars over the birds...its just soooo much harder to find a nice cat around here.ive owned a few but i had to build them up my self..last one i had ran high 12's on stock tires , trans and gears....

FrankenBird said:

my 2 cents? ive always liked cougars over the birds...its just soooo much harder to find a nice cat around here.ive owned a few but i had to build them up my self..last one i had ran high 12's on stock tires , trans and gears....

Click to expand...

I could imagine how difficult it would be to find a Cougar XR7 (or even just a base Cougar) to get parts for.

When thinking about the life arc of the Cougar, I wish that Mercury had restored it to its original intention, at some point: as the executive's, high end Mustang, with a ton of high performance engine options. Perhaps they just didn't sell enough of them in the late 60's with that original viewpoint, but it would be an interesting idea to consider if they wanted to restore the Cougar name at some point. I suppose they didn't want it competing with the Mustang, but then again, they made the Cougar compete with the Thunderbird, so one really kind of wonders what sort of sales were divided between the Cougar and Thunderbird since the early 70's when they were based on the same platform.