page_title: Mercury Cougar
section_title: Cougar Eliminator (1969-1970)
hierarchical_section_title: Mercury Cougar / First generation (1967–1970) / Trims / Cougar Eliminator (1969-1970)
caption_attribution_description: 29th Annual New London to New Brighton Antique Car August 2015 &lt;a href="http://www.antiquecarrun.org/" rel="nofollow"&gt;www.antiquecarrun.org/&lt;/a&gt; Finish Line Stockyard Days Long Lake Regional Park New Brighton Minnesota Mile 118.5 &lt;a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/greggjerdingen/collections/72157631550277505/"&gt;Click here for more car pictures at my Flickr site.&lt;/a&gt;
context_page_description: Mercury Cougar is a nameplate applied to a diverse series of automobiles sold by the Mercury division of Ford from 1967 to 1997 and from 1999 to 2002. While the nameplate is most commonly associated with two-door coupes, at various times during its production, the Cougar was also marketed as a convertible, four-door sedan, station wagon, and hatchback.
  With 2,972,784 examples produced, the Cougar is the highest-selling vehicle ever produced by the Mercury brand; its 34-year production is second only to the Grand Marquis in the Mercury model line. During the 1970s and 1980s, the Cougar was closely tied to the marketing of the Mercury division; Mercury advertised its dealers as "The Sign of the Cat" with big cats atop Lincoln-Mercury dealer signs. In line with the Cougar, several animal-related nameplates were adopted by the division, including the Bobcat, Lynx, and Sable.
  During its production, the Cougar was assembled at the Dearborn Assembly Plant in Dearborn, Michigan from 1967 to 1973, San Jose Assembly from 1968 into early 1969, Lorain Assembly from 1974 to 1997, and at Flat Rock Assembly from 1999 to 2002.
context_section_description: Largely a counterpart of the Ford Mustang Mach 1, the Cougar Eliminator replaced the Cougar GT as the performance-trim Cougar.  Technically a $200 combination of two option packages, the Eliminator received performance-tuned suspension, upgraded wheels and tires, a front air dam and a rear spoiler.  To distinguish the Eliminator from other Cougars, Mercury added blacked-out exterior trim, a Cougar rear badge (replacing the Mercury crest emblem), racing-style side mirrors, and model-specific body stripes.  Four exterior colors were available: white, bright blue metallic, competition orange, and bright yellow.
  Offered solely as a hardtop, the Eliminator was offered with all available Cougar engines, with the 351 Cleveland as the standard engine.  As a running change during 1969, the Boss 302 engine (shared with the namesake Mustang) was added as an option; the engine was offered exclusively with the Eliminator.
caption: 1970 Mercury Cougar Eliminator
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