Cougars at AO Smith

[Coralsnake]

Additional comments or additional photos, please email me directly and I will add them to the conversation.

Coralsnake68@hotmail.com

[Coralsnake]

More information from Royce:

AO Smith wanted the punch so they could install sun roofs - they thought. It turned out to be such a problem they ended up removing that fixture after a few hundred cars and sending the cars to American Sunroof for conversion later.

So the pictures showing the roof punch are rare - they represent a brief period of time where AO Smith was trying to do all of the job in house.

[Coralsnake]

Scott adds this:

...the sunroof was an option for the XR7-G. There are a few without a sunroof.
However, all of the Hertz-G cars did have sunroofs, they were all S code. They also had the following options: automatics, A/C, P/S, P/B, sunroof, and had tilt-swing columns.

[Coralsnake]

https://xr7g.mercurycougarregistry.com/history/

[Coralsnake]

A great thread! Thank you all that have contributed

[Coralsnake]

Some "G" ads

[Coralsnake]

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[Coralsnake]

Schanzmeyer also sold Shelbys at the Ford dealership!

[Coralsnake]

"thoroughly enjoy the Cougar article too- good stuff!"

-Dave

[Coralsnake]

This is a moderated thread, please send comments and contributions to Coralsnake68@hotmail.com

[Coralsnake]

From Jeff H

"Super interesting thread. Esp installing the sunroofs. Thanks for putting together a great thread."

[Coralsnake]

From Lowell O

Nice post on the Cougar.  I have the original full page newspaper article from the Ionia Sentinel Standard that includes all of those photos.  Its cool stuff that a former Ionia Shelby Automotive Employee had saved it all of these years and then gave it to me back in the year 2000.

The photo of the black cougar is in fact a 1967 cougar that was donated to the Michigan Training Unit prison in Ionia.  This specific photo was taken by Bill VanEss of West Michigan when he and some other SAAC members briefly toured the prison in 1987.  Bill and I actually returned on another tour together in 2018. 

I suspect that the cougar was donated the same time as my car was.  There is a news article that said two cars were donated - not two cougars - and both cars were Shelby Engineering Inventory vehicles. 
The other cool thing about this Cougar is that the build date was 04G - which is a fourth of July Ford preproduction car flag date.  This is a 1967 car with the last six of the VIN being 500030.  Think about that - one of the first cougars ever made.  At some point the spoiler deck lid and end caps got switched out because they were no longer on the car when I saw it in 2000 or 2001.
Another detail I noticed is that the Shelby engineering inventory document states this cougar was a 289-4v car.

[Coralsnake]

I have gotten a lot of positive emails about this thread. many are from people who don't regularly post here.

I have decided to make this a Coralsnake webpage in an upcoming update. Thank you all and please continue to contribute if you have something on the "AO Smith" Cougars