[SaveFerris]

A few friends in high school had some nice machines.

One friend had a 67 Cougar - 428 4-speed

Another had a 67 or 68 Fastback (can’t remember the year) - 428 4-speed

One had a perfect 67 289 Cougar 4bbl (like my 67 Fastback Mustang)

Another had a beautiful Challenger with a 440 Magnum / auto.

And one guy had a Roadrunner with 440 that would like the wheels through the first 2 or 3 gears. I would swear I saw that car on the freeway next to me about 12-14 years ago. Very distinct color and hood scoop. I got on the freeway and it motored past me abut 5 or 10 mph more than I was going. I was on my way to work but wanted to follow the car. Off to work.....

If anybody invents a time machine, I’d like to pop back to the 70’s, LOL....

[RegulatorCountry]

The older I get, the more I appreciate the lines and detailing of a nice, 1st generation Cougar over a Mustang or really any of the other so-called "Pony Cars." Exceedingly well-done, just the right amount of curve but overall very crisp and linear. The styling details on the front and rear fascia are very reminiscent of the period custom cars, with the straked hidden headlights and those matching straked sequential taillights that were so fascinating at the time. They really knew their stuff as far as judicious application of chrome and brushed stainless.

The interior was definitely a cut above a comparable Mustang, Camaro or Firebird, this was back when FoMoCo actually understood what Mercury was supposed to represent. A top of the line XR7-G (that's the later Dan Gurney Special that was way more than just cosmetic) with 428, factory sunroof and leather interior has been on my bucket list for a long time. I'm not sure whether it looks better in black over black or in the very popular Lime Frost of the period, either way it's a beautiful car and underappreciated from a design standpoint.

This one in the photo is very nice but the wheels are buffed out and not sure I like it better than factory with dark matte coves, and those white letter tires haven't aged well to my eyes, honestly I'd probably prefer some Silvertown redlines on there. If I could get my hands on the Rader aluminum rims originally intended for the car, that would really rock, but they're hard to come by. Sort of resemble Fikse FM10's in a way, they're especially fetching on a black car.

Here's a nice little link on the history of the XR7-G, you'll have to cut and paste into the browser address field, it's late, I'm lazy so the hyperlink isn't active:

http://www.fordmercurycougarxr7.com/pages/History/CougarXR7-G.html

[Gargantua]

I graduated high school in '73. Funny how part of the English curriculum at the time was reading this book about life in the far-distant future called... 1984.

LOL. Those are some nice cars you listed. There was actually a kid in my school who had a Plymouth Superbird (with that ridiculous NASCAR wing). What a sphincter. At a time when VW Bugs were $1,800 new, and a Ford Mustang GT cost $2,600, this tool spends $4,500 on a Superbird! Nobody liked that kid.