During its last several years as an automotive manufacture, Mercury had a rep for producing old man sedans. However, in 1967 Mercury’s image was a far cry from its retirement home mobiles. While the hippies were enjoying the Summer of Love, the Big Three were engulfed in an all out speed war. Each year Ford, Chrysler, and GM were one-upping each other with faster cars.

No brand was neutral in this conflict, including Mercury who Ford drafted into this war. Mercury was commissioned to produce a new class of musclecar, a class that promoted not only speed – but style and luxury as well. A perfect example is this 1967 Mercury Cougar XR-7. Its body styling is muscular and aggressive but this is offset by a luxury grill, chrome bumper and a wood grain interior.

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We love the STP keychain.

Hitting the streets in 1967, Ford sculpted the Cougar as an up scale Pony car above the Mustang. It’s muscular body was topped with new retro high tech features such as pop out head lights and sequential turn signals.

The interior of the XR-7 was designed with a woodgrain dash and toggle switches and T-style shifter for the C6 automatic to make the driver feel as if he is piloting a yacht. Don’t be fooled by all of these luxury features, the Cougar does more than provide style and comfort; she boosts plenty of power as well. Under her hood is a rumblin’ 390 FE V-8 engine that outputs with 335 horses of serious power.

We found this blue beauty for sale while fooling around eBay. For only $8,000 this Cougar is a steal and could made into an excellent street and strip car. Would you take this Cougar on a date to the local cruise night and raise some hell?

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