1969 Mercury Cougar Eliminator: A Spring Running Change That Built 2,250 Cars

Mercury changed its performance Cougar in the middle of the model year. On April 1, 1969, Over-Drive records, the Eliminator replaced the GT-E as the performance-trim Cougar, introduced as a running change and as Mercury's showcase for the Boss 302 engine. The VIN decoder dates the Boss 302's arrival in the Cougar to April 17. By the end of the year the Cougar Club of America's production tables, credited to Marti Auto Works, counted 2,250 Eliminators, and Over-Drive's figure agrees. Out of 100,085 Cougars built for 1969, that was about 2.2 percent, roughly one car in 44.^1,2,3

The car it arrived in had already been reworked. Over-Drive describes a mid-cycle revision for 1969 that moved the body sides toward the popular Coke-bottle shape and deleted the vent windows, and its specifications show a longer, wider car: 193.8 inches long, 74.2 wide and 111.1 inches between the wheels, with curb weights from 3,403 to 3,547 pounds depending on model, on E78-14 tires as standard and E70, F70 or FR70-14 tires as options. A convertible joined the line for the first time, in standard and XR-7 trim. Over-Drive's factoids also mark the arrival of the 351 Windsor, which became the Cougar's standard V8 in two-barrel form.^1,2

The engine list ran from mild to serious. The 351 two-barrel was rated at 250 horsepower, gross, and the 351 four-barrel at 290. The 390 four-barrel, rated at 320 horsepower, was in its last year in the Cougar, according to the decoder. The Boss 302 carried a 290-horsepower rating at 5,800 rpm, and the 428 Cobra Jet, with or without Ram Air, was rated at 335. The sources do not agree on every detail: the decoder gives the 390's torque as 425 lb-ft at 2,800 rpm where Over-Drive gives 427 at 3,200, and it puts the Cobra Jet's peak at 5,200 rpm rather than 5,400. Behind them sat a three-speed manual as standard, a four-speed with its own close ratios of 2.78, 1.93, 1.36 and 1.00 for the Boss 302 and wider ratios for the big engines, or a Select-Shift automatic built as either the C-6 or the FMX.^2,1

The Eliminator itself started from the plainest body. The club's registry says it was built on the standard, non-XR-7 hardtop, and lists its content: high-back bucket seats, a camera-case dash with tachometer and warning lights, a front chin spoiler, a blacked-out grille, a performance axle and the 351 four-barrel with dual exhausts and a three-speed manual as the base drivetrain. The registry's package list also includes spoilers, stripes, a hood scoop, styled steel wheels and a rally clock. The 390, the 428 and the Boss 302 were all available, and the registry states that the Boss 302 came only with the Eliminator option.^4,1

It was meant to be seen. The 1969 Eliminator came in four colors only, the registry says: White, Bright Blue Metallic, Competition Orange and Bright Yellow, with interiors in black, blue, or white with black components. There is no published count by color, engine or transmission from the Marti-derived club pages. A secondary news article prints an engine split that adds to 2,250, but it names no record, and so the question of how many Eliminators left with the Boss 302 or the Cobra Jet stays open. Over-Drive adds that 101 Eliminators were built for Hertz, about 4.5 percent of the total, a single-lineage figure.^4,3,1

Mercury sold a far larger number of Cougars with a sporting look than with a sporting engine. The club's registry counts 16,142 Sports Special packages for 1969 in four versions: 10,409 of package A at $95.90, 5,413 of package B at $150.30, which added the interior decor group and a Rim-Blow steering wheel, 116 of package C at $123.10 with special handling, and 204 of package D at $177.60. That is about seven Sports Specials for every Eliminator. The same division that built a Boss 302 showcase found most of its enthusiasm in a $96 package.^5,3

The whole line was shrinking. The club counts 100,085 Cougars for 1969, against 113,741 in 1968 and 150,893 in the first year, a fall of about a third in two seasons. The five body codes add exactly to the total: 64,735 standard hardtops, 23,914 XR-7 hardtops, 1,616 bench-seat hardtops, 5,796 standard convertibles and 4,024 XR-7 convertibles. The new convertibles were 9,820 cars, just under one in ten. Wikipedia's table gives 100,069 in all, and Over-Drive gives 23,918 XR-7 hardtops and 66,331 standard hardtops; the club's rows lead because they sum to their own total.^3,6,1

Most buyers wanted comfort, and the option statistics show it. Over-Drive's compilation says 92.4 percent of 1969 Cougars had power steering, 89.4 percent an automatic transmission, 58.9 percent power brakes and 57 percent tinted glass. Power steering was a $99.80 option, power windows $104.90, an AM/FM stereo $185.30 and a sunroof with vinyl roof $459.80. On those figures about one Cougar in ten had a manual gearbox of any kind. The Eliminator, with a three-speed manual as its base transmission, started from the minority choice.^1,4

The racing connection that had named the 1967 Dan Gurney Special was gone. Bud Moore Engineering's own history says Mercury assigned Moore to NASCAR's Grand Touring championship for 1968, and that when he came back to Trans-Am in 1969 it was with Ford Mustangs; in 1970 his Mustangs won the championship with six victories. The Boss 302 that Mercury offered only in the Eliminator went into a Cougar with no Trans-Am team behind it; Moore's Trans-Am cars were now Mustangs. Over-Drive adds that two 1969 Cougars were built with the Boss 429, a single-source figure for an engine absent from the decoder's Cougar engine table.^7,4,1

The Eliminator survived one more year, and the numbers barely moved. The club counts 2,268 for 1970, 18 more than 1969, in a Cougar line that fell to 72,365. The registry records seven 1970 colors, five of them named Competition, a 351 Cleveland in place of the Windsor as the base engine, and only the 428 and the Boss 302 as options. Against the 1970 total the Eliminator's share rose to about 3.1 percent, not because more people bought one but because fewer people bought Cougars at all.^3,4