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We have a special place in our heart for the ’69 Mercury Cougar, the “gentleman’s muscle car” as it was called. Like its close cousin the Ford Mustang, the Cougar had a variety of performance and appearance packages available to it. Unlike the Mustang though, the comparatively small fanbase has left more than a few holes in the history of these cars, making identifying really rare cars a pain in the butt more often than not.
But a little research can go a long way, and we’ve discovered a low-production (if not exactly “rare”) ’69 Cougar with the “GT Performance Group” package up on eBay. Only there’s no such thing as the GT Performance Group. What do we mean? Read on.
1969 was a transitional year for the Cougar, as new engines were made available, and others were discontinued. One of the new engine options was the 351W, and Ford wasted no time giving the 351W a performance package all its own. Called the “351 Performance Group.” It included appearance upgrades, including a 351 4-V engine, “power dome” dual hood stripes in black or silver, and the competition handling package. The competition handling package added front and rear sway bars, heavy duty springs, and “high performance” tires.
But on the oft-cited Kevin Marti reports, the 351 Performance Package shows up as the GT Equipment Group. Check an original invoice, and you’ll not see such words. As this has been going on for many years now, the 351 Performance Package has sort of morphed into the GT Performance Group myth.
This is still a pretty uncommon car, and this Cougar also has the distinction of being a mostly un-restored survivor. A few things have been done, like rebuilding the carburetor, and a limited slip differential was installed at some point, but the paint, glass, body panels, and more are thought to be all original. There’s a little bit of rust, but nothing major, and with a little elbow grease this Cougar could easily be a special show piece with a little bit of extra performance to go along with it.
