How did you like my "big angry lion S" project? Full disclosure, the car is in the UK & I am not so sadly I had to do an Elsa & let it go. I miss it neowww. But it's a story I always wanted to share. 🏎️💨
Watch the oil carefully with Ford's Duratec engine. Early ones had oiling problems in the heads, and my buddy's newer one consumed oil, most likely from a bad pcv valve and got rod knock. It will eat it's bearings quick. I've got a 94 Ford Probe GT. 2.5l v6 5spd. The engine is swapped to the JDM Mazda KLZE. ECU is also swapped to OBDII from a 98-99 Mazda Millenia with a patch harness. So around 210-215 at the crank, and she rips. 5.5 or less to 60 with no turbo. I've kept the looks stock, and I'm painting it this year. Finally, after 11 years.
@@OrangeCyanMagenta The car is in the UK and I am not so sadly I had to let it go... I miss it neow. I mention most of the separate costs in the video. The total including the car was about £7000.
This reminds me of my Merkur XR4Ti that I had back in 1993. It was a silver 1985 car with 4 cylinder 2.3 liters ... and with turbo. Loved that whistling of the turbo. Of course it's very close related to European Ford Sierra, but with a US twist. Couple of my friends and I went on a 1 month long trip all over the US while in college. We did more than 13 thousand miles during that time. Started the trip by going 85-90 mph all the way from Vermont to Illinois. The strange thing was back then we haven't seen a single cop all this way to Chicago. Had to see the Sears Tower (hi Ferris), Mount Rushmore, Las Vegas and Yellowstone Park (Tatanka). Went all around US all the way to California (hello street hills of San Francisco and Alcatraz, LA and Hollywood (that was back then when Hollywood still meant Americana)) and we even walked over to Tijuana, Mexico. Spent the New Year in San Diego where I also went swimming for the first time in the Pacific Ocean. It was around 3 pm on the last day of the year brrr, but I had to do it lol. Had to see Arizona, Colorado and Texas (homage to old westerns). Mesa Verde and Pueblos, The Grand Canyon and The Alamo (too many places to list) ... all good memories and all thanks to that Merkur XR4Ti. Ford stopped making Merkurs in 1989, but the engines were used in ... Cougars (!), Thunderbirds and some other cars of the early 90s. ruclips.net/video/Xw6zjoJUop4/видео.html&ab_channel=MotorWeek ruclips.net/video/8_dCsgk2_KQ/видео.html&ab_channel=BSTFordChannel One more thing, the fastest I was able to go in this car (alone) was 122 mph. Not bad for an 8 year old car.
One thing about the driver in the last video. I used to watch his test drives a year or two ago. Here he "sissy turns" the steering wheel. I used to do all the turns in this car with a palm of my one hand. Much more fun that way and it was actually safe and never had a problem with it.
Well that was a complete surprise! I've owned four Cougars over the past 10 years and been part of the owners club which has led to a lot of friendships. Loved the cars and sold my last Cougar last year. Fantastic transformation - looks stunning.
A Ford dealer claimed back in the day that the engine in the Mondeo ST200 was meant for some "hot cougar" but it never came. If you still had this cool car I would suggest putting an ST200 engine in it. It would be a perfect fit.
Another fantastic episode! My two main interests on RUclips are retro computing and car restorations and this video crossed the streams (in a good way). Thank you :)
Cool. As a Ford shareholder, nicely done. Us dudes in our mid 40s who grew up playing on Commodores and gazing at Maria Whittaker on the Barbarian box cover, had cars too. Good memories all... C64, DDs, Fords.... yep.
So lovely to see you never lost passion for the car! Well done. Only few things i want to say is, pls make the grey trimming om the bumpers gloss black for a more subtle contrast, and drop the car at least 30mm for better stance. Maybe even get wider spacers. It would rlly transform the car and give it more aggression.
I would be a rare case. I had a black one with the V6 for 10 years and I loved it. It handled fantastically and I modded it some and it really stood out of the crowd. I dropped it a little, put chrome wheels and exhaust on it and It definitely made me a little cooler in highschool cuz I needed all the help I could get. Lol. It wasn't a perfect car but I have fond memories of it.
I remember seeing this being built at Twisted Vision! I lived round the corner at the time and was always in and out of the shop Jamie was a top bloke and did all sorts of stuff on my MR2 and a very rare little Micra I had, probably bumped into you and didn’t even realise it! 😎👌 My best friend Alex had a Cougar as well and he had the spoiler from the cougar S fitted by Jamie. Small world! He always wanted to do this to his Cougar!
@@izzieb Yeah this was a long time back now, probably about 2007ish :) I was usually haning out at the bodyshop as I knew the owner and he'd let me use some of the shop gear when needed. My best friend was also Cougar mad so I was kept well up to date on this project at the time :)
Nice to see another Cougar 2 (/facelift model), I had one for nearly 5 years (early - mid 00s) and never saw another facelift model on the road. One of my favourite cars I've owned, although Clarkson was being a over the top saying it absolutely flies. It was a bit on the heavy side for the 168bhp V6.
That engine looks like a Ford SVT 2.5 from the Contour. Sold here in Europe as the Mondeo ST200 (black extrusion honed inlet manifolds, individual inlets visible, as the name implies 200bhp), the 3.0 unit (sold in the Mondeo ST220) has 3 broad inlet ducts. Jaguar also developed this engine for the X-Type, and it delivers 240bhp or so in that form. Originally designed for Ford by Porsche, with Cosworth designed heads.
I still have my Mercury Cougar in the UK with st200 full conversion. I also have the official S spoiler, quad exhaust strait through, OZ super tourismo alloy with custom cougar wheel caps and official IBak lowering suspension. Boy, dose it rumble when it starts! The Club owners dubbed my car "The Black Pearl".
Nice Ford Mondeo you have here :) I really liked Ford"s "Kinetic Design" back then, and it seems it has aged well, actually. I still can see 2 small differences that bother me a bit : lights at the back are ruby red in the OG S. And front lights are darker. All in all, superb job here :)
I don't know about the US-spec Cougar driven by Dennis Hopper in the advert, but I can tell you that that the one that Clarkson drove still exists and is still doing daily duty right now.
Yes - the Cougar was utterly unremarkable, even with the _breathtaking_ V6 pushing a whopping (don't laugh) 170bhp. It was just a Ford cooking V6 from the Stateside.
What a transformation; beautiful job. I like the standard Cougar but yours is on another level. I love the late 90s style of the Puma and Vauxhall Tigra too. I had a silver Tigra for many years.
Wait, wait. Stop. Just...just stop goddamit. I'm...something's wrong. Okay, 'delver...deep breath. Peri, Peri, I follow Thunderhead298, Dylan McCool, and Junkyard Digs (as well as Junkyard Mook), and Ronald Finger who has an amazing Fiero restoration going on right now. I do, because one day, youtube metrics said HEY YOU LIKE SEEING STUFF RESTORED? WATCH THIS. and...well, there we go. They do car stuff, obviously. I follow you, Adrian Black, 8Bit Guy, LGR...because...y'know, computers. But now? Now you're starting to bleed over. If YOU'RE gonna do CAR RESTORATION am I going to flip over one day and see Dylan *not* talking about vintage Mopar but instead up to his wrists in a PCjr? Thunderhead 298 rebuilding a classic mac? JYD and JYM getting an Amiga 1000 up and running again? ("Field abandoned Amiga 1000 repair - Part 8!") If that happens where will it all end?! Will I start doing videos about 17th century cooking instead of vintage D&D?! Will Townshends start an pen and paper RPG channel? MINI PAINTING WITH BABISH??? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...!
Your Cougar is one of my favorite car designs of all time. I wish I could meet the designer so I could shake his/her hand. My rule of thumb for great design is walking around the car and looking at it from all angles. A car can look superb from one angle and wonky from another. The Cougar looked great from *all* angles. I never knew about the S. Looks like it's echoing Audi TT design cues, only better. Well done!
I have 3 main hobbies: Computing (incl Retro), Lego and Cars. You just completed the triforce. Just when one would think this channel can't get any better.....
@@RetroRecipes Maybe this would have been better if you`d strung it out over multiple episodes this seemed too big of a project and expensive to fit into 15 minutes, even if it ain`t retro computer related, But great video anyway.
@@jonathanadnitt7704 I agree. This looks like an ex UK car and it would have been interesting to know which side of the Atlantic the mods and renovation were done..given that I'm a bit of a retro car head as well as a retro computer head.
Jamie there you are! I tried to contact you before this but couldn't find a way. Thank you so much again for all your help with this project. Blips in the road aside, you made a work of art there and I really miss it. Is the kit still available somewhere? Cheers!
@@RetroRecipes Its all good. It was the most stressful period of my life but there are some things I look back on with pride. My hair never grew back :) The kit got moulds got sold. No idea if they are still getting made. I am back doing what I love now. facebook.com/dragon.armoury/
I loved these cars! Had a 2000 Cougar Special Edition a few years ago. The "Special Edition" just meant it had slightly wider tires and what looked like a big aftermarket spoiler (it was 100% stock, though). It was a great little car.. until the transmission died. Then it wasn't so great anymore. I will say this, though: Watch out for the sunroof. Ford used little plastic gears that would eventually strip and the roof would get stuck partially open. It's a real pain to fix. They switched to metal gears in 2001 which solved the problem.
@@RetroRecipes Identical taste in music to me. PSB and New Order are supposed to be touring the US together later this year, though it's anyone's guess what will happen now. Did you get to drive the car at all or did it end up in the UK forever?
@@PaulioBee good to taste my man. I actually have tickets to see them both in Hollywood later this year but I know some dates are getting rescheduled. Chris did a lovely live video recently if you missed it: facebook.com/petshopboys/videos/243049960195900/ As for the car, I drove it for a few years as this work was actually done in 2007 #artisticlicense 😉
Back when I was 18 I had an old Ford Escort Mark 4 convertible Ghia and I body styled it like an RS Turbo. Did the kit, steering, wheels and all. Well all except for the 1.4 litre engine.
I had a 99 Mercury cougar as well high speed put an engine short ram air intake on it exhaust put a system in it painted the tail light covers and that was it I love the car it was nice and it went pretty good too
Swapping from a 2.5L to a 3.0L Duratec is fairly easy in these cars and the bump from 170HP at the crank to 230HP at the crank is definitely noticeable. Owned 4 Cougars so far one of them being my 3L Swapped Cougar. :) Check out newcougar.org one day!
At first I was really confused as you guys are in the states and the car was here in the U.K. Love what you did to the car and made it better IMHO. My brother-in-law had one of these and I thought it was an alright cat but thought the front seats were a little close. Christian, did you do this whilst living in the UK or was it all done remotely via USA?
PeriFractic, READY? Deep breath... That model of the Cougar (the 8th Generation) chassis was shared with the Ford Contour and was made in Flat Rock, Michigan. From 1977-1997, the Fourth through the Seventh generation Cougars were made in Lorain, Ohio, (where my dad worked) and the plant was about 10 miles from my childhood home. The Cougar & the Thunderbird were VERY similar and were made on the same line during that time period. I remember T-Birds and Cougars filling the Ford lot as far as the eye coud see, waiting to get on trains to be shipped. The plant was literally a stone's throw from Lake Erie. The Lorain Assembly Plant also produced the Econoline Van (just the finishing department though as the body & paint department for the Econoline were in Avon Lake, Ohio, and then those painted bodies were shipped to Lorain for assembly). (I worked for the Avon Lake Plant for 8 years. Avon Lake, Ohio is about 15 miles from Lorain, right on the lake.) My first car right our of high school was a neighbor's gently used 1983, dark grey metallic Mercury Cougar V-8. It was glorious! I had it for 3 months until another driver ran a red light on my way to college one morning totaling both our cars. My dad was more devastated than I was about the car. Haha. (He was just happy I was alright, but his gift to me had been crushed.) It was replaced shortly after with a 1986, taupe Mercury Cougar V-6 that I owned for about four years. She was also quite stunning. My then girlfriend's mom owned a stunning dark red 1990 Cougar and about five years later, I bought the same model but it was dark blue and it FLEW! Such styling and that V-8 again. I later sold it to my aunt as I had just purchased a brand new Ford Explorer with my Ford employee discount. I wasn't into the 8th Generation Cougar myself as they were smaller than the previous cars and I am 6'5", so I didn't fit well in them. Anyway, what a great video and I hope you have your beautifully styled Cougar for many years to come. Cheers!
@@RetroRecipes Yes, I get it now. It's a shame. I imagine that transporting and importing it into the US would have cost a fortune. The Cougar was a desirable car.
Love these! They never get any love over here in the US which is a shame. They share a chassis with the same generation Mondeo so parts should be easy to come by over there!
Thanks for sharing this passion project with us! I closely eyed the Probe/Cougars back in the day - they shared platform with the Mazda MX-6... Great little euro cars (to me, living in the states). Now that you're in the US, do you miss UK cars, or are you in high heaven here?
Excelent work as usual Chris. Even if this is not my cup of tea, I realy enjoyed this video. I am so hapy that you can fulfill your dreams and that you can travel back in time and tak us with you. Hope that another car will be Delorean :D
Oh cool! Yes there was some artistic license in this video but it's a job I always wanted to share, and finally I had the medium to do so. I guess this was done around 2007!
@@RetroRecipes were you on the forums then? Crazy I've been following your channel for year and to know we'd interacted years ago!! Go check my channel out for my tribute to my cougar. See if you remember her! Two tone grey/silver one!
@@RetroRecipes I just spent 20 minutes going through the comments and Googling trying to figure out my confusion about the video sounding like this was a present day project, despite being in the UK, then early in the comments you saying you had to let it go!
@@sheponbass Yup, I used a little artistic license to keep the video timely and more enjoyable whilst never actually mentioning the date. It's a story I always wanted to share and now have a good medium to do so. People seem to have enjoyed it 👍🕹️
Wow, great transformation! I remember that generation Cougar very well. The only thing left for you to do is... spring for a performance suspension ;-)
When did you do this? the pictures either have a retro filter applied or it was sometime when digital photography was a bit basic! A friend of mine had one of these about 15 years ago, he crashed it 3 times and spent way more than it was worth several times over to get it back on the road only to continue to drive it badly. It pulled pretty well though for only being 168bhp! Good job on yours, I think there's a big crossover between computer and car enthusiasts that doesn't always get catered for. How does the Tesla compare?
Thanks, this was several years ago but I always wanted to tell the story. I do love the Tesla though. It's kind of like comparing the Cougar to a space ship.
Wow living the dream chap. I sadly had to let my cougar go last autumn. My favourite retro game channel does my favourite car, the love affair continues. I’d have added the rear lens covers or had the lenses painted. But great job.
Ha! Cougar always got my vote as it was a two door mondeo basically, which is a great place to start :) question tho, your car has its steering on the british side (the Right right side!) was it an import?
Is there allowed to buy and drive right hand steering wheel cars in the US? I know that in the Netherlands it is forbidden to do because of local restrictions.
Looks nice and you've done the same as people making a cosworth or M3 replica because they either can't find or afford an original one. Although I preferred the cougars predecessor, the capri, try finding one of those in the UK that isn't rotted out or silly money. Made a nice change from retro computers.
Looks fantastic ! Engine wise... A 3.0 Jaguar X-Type engine could well be a simple swap as it IS the Ford Duratec V6 engine but with Jaguar-designed heads and variable inlet and exhaust timing and variable inlet tract length, which gave it 231bhp.
The end result looks very sharp! Excellent work on this car. Too bad about that body shop going out of business. If I was to get a "just because I want it" car, it would be the Holden Commodore. Because, ya' know...Commodore. Unfortunately I can't afford that, and even if I could they're as rare to find in the US as an honest politician. Sure, I could get the US equivalent (the Chevy SS, I think) and do a body mod, but even that is beyond any affordability.
What a mighty car mod 😋 Looks great. And to paraphrase Steve Jobs: If you can't have the original, make a pretty looking knock-off. Wishing you many miles of fun and satisfying driving.
You must be reading my mind!! Now I'm in my mid 40s and I was thinking to buy one of the dream car of the late '90s, restoring it and use it on post covid19 sundays... The car I was thinking about was the Alfa Romeo GTV 3.0L V6 that you see next to the Cougar presented by Jeremy! Could we be related someways... :-)
How did you like my "big angry lion S" project? Full disclosure, the car is in the UK & I am not so sadly I had to do an Elsa & let it go. I miss it neowww. But it's a story I always wanted to share. 🏎️💨
hope the video does well! I think there's a pretty strong crossover between those that enjoy restorations of both kinds of retro gear 😄
Fantastic. My other passion is cars so I love this cross over. Well done :)
Watch the oil carefully with Ford's Duratec engine. Early ones had oiling problems in the heads, and my buddy's newer one consumed oil, most likely from a bad pcv valve and got rod knock. It will eat it's bearings quick. I've got a 94 Ford Probe GT. 2.5l v6 5spd. The engine is swapped to the JDM Mazda KLZE. ECU is also swapped to OBDII from a 98-99 Mazda Millenia with a patch harness. So around 210-215 at the crank, and she rips. 5.5 or less to 60 with no turbo. I've kept the looks stock, and I'm painting it this year. Finally, after 11 years.
You should make does random jumps out of the box more often 👍
@@OrangeCyanMagenta The car is in the UK and I am not so sadly I had to let it go... I miss it neow. I mention most of the separate costs in the video. The total including the car was about £7000.
This reminds me of my Merkur XR4Ti that I had back in 1993. It was a silver 1985 car with 4 cylinder 2.3 liters ... and with turbo. Loved that whistling of the turbo. Of course it's very close related to European Ford Sierra, but with a US twist. Couple of my friends and I went on a 1 month long trip all over the US while in college. We did more than 13 thousand miles during that time. Started the trip by going 85-90 mph all the way from Vermont to Illinois. The strange thing was back then we haven't seen a single cop all this way to Chicago. Had to see the Sears Tower (hi Ferris), Mount Rushmore, Las Vegas and Yellowstone Park (Tatanka). Went all around US all the way to California (hello street hills of San Francisco and Alcatraz, LA and Hollywood (that was back then when Hollywood still meant Americana)) and we even walked over to Tijuana, Mexico. Spent the New Year in San Diego where I also went swimming for the first time in the Pacific Ocean. It was around 3 pm on the last day of the year brrr, but I had to do it lol. Had to see Arizona, Colorado and Texas (homage to old westerns). Mesa Verde and Pueblos, The Grand Canyon and The Alamo (too many places to list) ... all good memories and all thanks to that Merkur XR4Ti.
Ford stopped making Merkurs in 1989, but the engines were used in ... Cougars (!), Thunderbirds and some other cars of the early 90s.
ruclips.net/video/Xw6zjoJUop4/видео.html&ab_channel=MotorWeek
ruclips.net/video/8_dCsgk2_KQ/видео.html&ab_channel=BSTFordChannel
One more thing, the fastest I was able to go in this car (alone) was 122 mph. Not bad for an 8 year old car.
One thing about the driver in the last video. I used to watch his test drives a year or two ago. Here he "sissy turns" the steering wheel. I used to do all the turns in this car with a palm of my one hand. Much more fun that way and it was actually safe and never had a problem with it.
Q: Can we make a $1Million Supercar from a $1K Lemon?
A: Yes, with $999,000 worth of spare parts!
Well that was a complete surprise! I've owned four Cougars over the past 10 years and been part of the owners club which has led to a lot of friendships. Loved the cars and sold my last Cougar last year. Fantastic transformation - looks stunning.
Thank you for your kind words! Means a lot 👍🕹️
Perifractic doing a restomod on a car? What next? Car Throttle restoring a Commodore 64?
"This week on The Grand Tour, Richard looks at a BBC B Micro, James takes apart a Vic-20 and I take a hammer to a Atari ST"
@@PHDarren Clarkson!!!! This is an Electron you blithering imbicile. :D
I couldnt stop laughing at "I've fallen in love with an old cougar...." hilarious!
🤭
A Ford dealer claimed back in the day that the engine in the Mondeo ST200 was meant for some "hot cougar" but it never came. If you still had this cool car I would suggest putting an ST200 engine in it. It would be a perfect fit.
Any updates on this or even a test drive etc?
I don't know why it wouldn't be a 3.0l in the Cougar S. They put that in the Mondeo ST220, and the Cougar was basically a Mondeo coupe.
Another fantastic episode! My two main interests on RUclips are retro computing and car restorations and this video crossed the streams (in a good way). Thank you :)
Perifractic: ...*talks about a Ford Cougar*
Me: 1:06 ALFA ROMEO GTV !!!! YEAH!!!
Cool. As a Ford shareholder, nicely done. Us dudes in our mid 40s who grew up playing on Commodores and gazing at Maria Whittaker on the Barbarian box cover, had cars too. Good memories all... C64, DDs, Fords.... yep.
So lovely to see you never lost passion for the car! Well done. Only few things i want to say is, pls make the grey trimming om the bumpers gloss black for a more subtle contrast, and drop the car at least 30mm for better stance. Maybe even get wider spacers. It would rlly transform the car and give it more aggression.
I liked the back cougar logo over the Mercury one, but that's just me...
Agreed, the FORD-esque Cougar oval in the back was more attractive than the huge mercury logo, alas it was photoshopped, me thinks.
Im glad the cougar still lives on and people work this hard on them! Ive been workin on mine. Shes a grand ol daily
Wow, this was really interesting. I've literally never heard of or met someone that was nostalgic for the Mercury Cougar.
Nice to meet you
I would be a rare case. I had a black one with the V6 for 10 years and I loved it. It handled fantastically and I modded it some and it really stood out of the crowd. I dropped it a little, put chrome wheels and exhaust on it and It definitely made me a little cooler in highschool cuz I needed all the help I could get. Lol. It wasn't a perfect car but I have fond memories of it.
I remember seeing this being built at Twisted Vision! I lived round the corner at the time and was always in and out of the shop Jamie was a top bloke and did all sorts of stuff on my MR2 and a very rare little Micra I had, probably bumped into you and didn’t even realise it! 😎👌 My best friend Alex had a Cougar as well and he had the spoiler from the cougar S fitted by Jamie. Small world! He always wanted to do this to his Cougar!
Was a bit confused as to why he had a UK registered car when he lives in the US. Makes sense now I realise it was done quite a while ago!
@@izzieb Yeah this was a long time back now, probably about 2007ish :) I was usually haning out at the bodyshop as I knew the owner and he'd let me use some of the shop gear when needed. My best friend was also Cougar mad so I was kept well up to date on this project at the time :)
Small world! The car is in the UK and I am not so sadly I had to let it go. I miss it neowww.
@@RetroRecipes Sure is! Never did get it see it finished! But look like it turned out great!
The '67 Cougar XR7 is one of my favorite dream rides
Nice to see another Cougar 2 (/facelift model), I had one for nearly 5 years (early - mid 00s) and never saw another facelift model on the road. One of my favourite cars I've owned, although Clarkson was being a over the top saying it absolutely flies. It was a bit on the heavy side for the 168bhp V6.
What a difference to an old (retro) car. The colour came out insanely good looking 🤩
I had a black Ford Cougar for almost 10 years - and I loved it all the way ! - actually i miss it after seeing this ! ....I want it back ! :-D
Wasn't expecting to see this. Nice project and the results turned out pretty spot on. :)
That engine looks like a Ford SVT 2.5 from the Contour. Sold here in Europe as the Mondeo ST200 (black extrusion honed inlet manifolds, individual inlets visible, as the name implies 200bhp), the 3.0 unit (sold in the Mondeo ST220) has 3 broad inlet ducts. Jaguar also developed this engine for the X-Type, and it delivers 240bhp or so in that form. Originally designed for Ford by Porsche, with Cosworth designed heads.
I loved my '00 silver Cougar V6 5-speed! Awesome build!
Right on!
I liked this car retrofitting episode.
from a quick search they go for 4-5k now in the us right now
the 350z-ish look is pretty nice
You should do more of these! Amazing!
I still have my Mercury Cougar in the UK with st200 full conversion. I also have the official S spoiler, quad exhaust strait through, OZ super tourismo alloy with custom cougar wheel caps and official IBak lowering suspension. Boy, dose it rumble when it starts! The Club owners dubbed my car "The Black Pearl".
Oh, my... a car episode from a retro computing channel. This is what dreams are made of.
"On this episode of MightyCarMods, we turbocharge our old Amiga for MAAAAD 16-bit skids."
@@neilomac Chooo chooo noises, shabababaaaa...
I was wondering if you had even more talents, but I'm glad my manliness was not more challenged when you had a garage do the job. ;) Nice cougar.
Great video perifractic! I really enjoyed it.
This video made my day. Omg I found this while driving my cougar.
Don't text and drive though 👍🕹️
Nice Ford Mondeo you have here :) I really liked Ford"s "Kinetic Design" back then, and it seems it has aged well, actually. I still can see 2 small differences that bother me a bit : lights at the back are ruby red in the OG S. And front lights are darker. All in all, superb job here :)
I don't know about the US-spec Cougar driven by Dennis Hopper in the advert, but I can tell you that that the one that Clarkson drove still exists and is still doing daily duty right now.
Jeremy CLarkson was and still is the best car salesman. And Ford always paid him the most ;)
Yes - the Cougar was utterly unremarkable, even with the _breathtaking_ V6 pushing a whopping (don't laugh) 170bhp.
It was just a Ford cooking V6 from the Stateside.
@@musmodtos I find all ford unremarkable. Clarkson was the reason they sold well. However I think the latest generation of Focus is a good car.
What a transformation; beautiful job. I like the standard Cougar but yours is on another level. I love the late 90s style of the Puma and Vauxhall Tigra too. I had a silver Tigra for many years.
Thanks! Yeah the Puma was cool too. The Ford Kuga however, not so much...
Wait, wait. Stop. Just...just stop goddamit. I'm...something's wrong. Okay, 'delver...deep breath. Peri, Peri, I follow Thunderhead298, Dylan McCool, and Junkyard Digs (as well as Junkyard Mook), and Ronald Finger who has an amazing Fiero restoration going on right now. I do, because one day, youtube metrics said HEY YOU LIKE SEEING STUFF RESTORED? WATCH THIS. and...well, there we go. They do car stuff, obviously. I follow you, Adrian Black, 8Bit Guy, LGR...because...y'know, computers.
But now?
Now you're starting to bleed over. If YOU'RE gonna do CAR RESTORATION am I going to flip over one day and see Dylan *not* talking about vintage Mopar but instead up to his wrists in a PCjr? Thunderhead 298 rebuilding a classic mac? JYD and JYM getting an Amiga 1000 up and running again? ("Field abandoned Amiga 1000 repair - Part 8!") If that happens where will it all end?! Will I start doing videos about 17th century cooking instead of vintage D&D?! Will Townshends start an pen and paper RPG channel? MINI PAINTING WITH BABISH???
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...!
😅
Wow. This is a nice change.
That - was - simply - frickin' - AWESOME!
Thank you for your kind words! Means a lot 👍🕹️
Wow, nice job. Looks Sharp!
Your Cougar is one of my favorite car designs of all time. I wish I could meet the designer so I could shake his/her hand. My rule of thumb for great design is walking around the car and looking at it from all angles. A car can look superb from one angle and wonky from another. The Cougar looked great from *all* angles. I never knew about the S. Looks like it's echoing Audi TT design cues, only better. Well done!
You have good taste sir
I have 3 main hobbies: Computing (incl Retro), Lego and Cars. You just completed the triforce. Just when one would think this channel can't get any better.....
Haha thank you!
Nice video. Fair play to you Peri
From one petrol head and Amiga fan to another
Keep up the good work
This was great fun to watch, hope the car is extremely fun and reliable for you both.
Neat to see something a little different...
Thanks! Glad you liked it. 👍🕹️
@@RetroRecipes Maybe this would have been better if you`d strung it out over multiple episodes this seemed too big of a project and expensive to fit into 15 minutes, even if it ain`t retro computer related, But great video anyway.
@@jonathanadnitt7704 I agree. This looks like an ex UK car and it would have been interesting to know which side of the Atlantic the mods and renovation were done..given that I'm a bit of a retro car head as well as a retro computer head.
Wow its been a while. I don`t miss Twisted Vision but I was very proud that I built that car. I wish I had made myself one :) Nice video.
Jamie there you are! I tried to contact you before this but couldn't find a way. Thank you so much again for all your help with this project. Blips in the road aside, you made a work of art there and I really miss it. Is the kit still available somewhere? Cheers!
@@RetroRecipes Its all good. It was the most stressful period of my life but there are some things I look back on with pride. My hair never grew back :) The kit got moulds got sold. No idea if they are still getting made. I am back doing what I love now. facebook.com/dragon.armoury/
Might be your best video ever!!!!
You did a great job with this interesting video and this beautiful cougar refit.
Thank you for your kind words! Means a lot 👍🕹️
I loved these cars! Had a 2000 Cougar Special Edition a few years ago. The "Special Edition" just meant it had slightly wider tires and what looked like a big aftermarket spoiler (it was 100% stock, though). It was a great little car.. until the transmission died. Then it wasn't so great anymore. I will say this, though: Watch out for the sunroof. Ford used little plastic gears that would eventually strip and the roof would get stuck partially open. It's a real pain to fix. They switched to metal gears in 2001 which solved the problem.
Great video Chris! That cougar looks surprisingly modern when you compare with the new merc cla and e class coupe etc. Very well done mate!
Cheers! I know, I thought it was just me but it doesn't look dated to my eyes at all...
Bloodybrilliant
When I listen to some of your original songs on these videos, I can't help but think you must have been an 808 State fan back in the day.
I was a bit! Also Pet Shop Boys, New Order...
@@RetroRecipes Identical taste in music to me. PSB and New Order are supposed to be touring the US together later this year, though it's anyone's guess what will happen now. Did you get to drive the car at all or did it end up in the UK forever?
@@PaulioBee good to taste my man. I actually have tickets to see them both in Hollywood later this year but I know some dates are getting rescheduled. Chris did a lovely live video recently if you missed it: facebook.com/petshopboys/videos/243049960195900/
As for the car, I drove it for a few years as this work was actually done in 2007 #artisticlicense 😉
@@RetroRecipes I'll check out that page. I was going to ask where Ashley had got to, but I've just spotted the latest video!
I enjoyed this, nice to see something a little different. Thank you very much.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Wicked project. Stunning.
My 02 cougar drooling in the driveway rn🤤🤤
Haha no, beautiful car either way
@@RetroRecipes just got me an 02 this week but can’t find original parts like headlights. Know where I can find part for this car.
@@bryanramirez2626 The shops I used aren't around any more but Google "Ford OEM spare parts" and work your way down the list of companies. Good luck!
@@RetroRecipes Tysm 🙏
Back when I was 18 I had an old Ford Escort Mark 4 convertible Ghia and I body styled it like an RS Turbo. Did the kit, steering, wheels and all. Well all except for the 1.4 litre engine.
Don't worry to fulfil your childhood dreams. I happen to have a Ford Granada Mk1 (like the ones featured in "The Sweeney").
"Shut it!"
(Sweeney quote 😁)
Did you get it shipped to the US, or does it live in the UK?
Nah, the car is in the UK and I'm not so I had to let it go sadly...
I had a 99 Mercury cougar as well high speed put an engine short ram air intake on it exhaust put a system in it painted the tail light covers and that was it I love the car it was nice and it went pretty good too
Looks nice! Now I want one... thanks!
Wonderful job man!
the best thing you could do with this is put a noble twin turbo engine in it. people have been dreaming about doing that since it came out
You guys are awesome!!! Love the car. been thinking about doing my own first car VW Rabbit GTI gen 1.
Swapping from a 2.5L to a 3.0L Duratec is fairly easy in these cars and the bump from 170HP at the crank to 230HP at the crank is definitely noticeable. Owned 4 Cougars so far one of them being my 3L Swapped Cougar. :) Check out newcougar.org one day!
Thanks! I used to post there as CJSnet, including about this car which was actually done in 2007 #artisticlicense 😊
At first I was really confused as you guys are in the states and the car was here in the U.K.
Love what you did to the car and made it better IMHO. My brother-in-law had one of these and I thought it was an alright cat but thought the front seats were a little close.
Christian, did you do this whilst living in the UK or was it all done remotely via USA?
Thanks! Yes this was when I was in the UK.
Car looks good, I’ve liked those body style of Cougars
looks amazing!
PeriFractic, READY? Deep breath...
That model of the Cougar (the 8th Generation) chassis was shared with the Ford Contour and was made in Flat Rock, Michigan. From 1977-1997, the Fourth through the Seventh generation Cougars were made in Lorain, Ohio, (where my dad worked) and the plant was about 10 miles from my childhood home. The Cougar & the Thunderbird were VERY similar and were made on the same line during that time period. I remember T-Birds and Cougars filling the Ford lot as far as the eye coud see, waiting to get on trains to be shipped. The plant was literally a stone's throw from Lake Erie. The Lorain Assembly Plant also produced the Econoline Van (just the finishing department though as the body & paint department for the Econoline were in Avon Lake, Ohio, and then those painted bodies were shipped to Lorain for assembly). (I worked for the Avon Lake Plant for 8 years. Avon Lake, Ohio is about 15 miles from Lorain, right on the lake.)
My first car right our of high school was a neighbor's gently used 1983, dark grey metallic Mercury Cougar V-8. It was glorious! I had it for 3 months until another driver ran a red light on my way to college one morning totaling both our cars. My dad was more devastated than I was about the car. Haha. (He was just happy I was alright, but his gift to me had been crushed.) It was replaced shortly after with a 1986, taupe Mercury Cougar V-6 that I owned for about four years. She was also quite stunning. My then girlfriend's mom owned a stunning dark red 1990 Cougar and about five years later, I bought the same model but it was dark blue and it FLEW! Such styling and that V-8 again. I later sold it to my aunt as I had just purchased a brand new Ford Explorer with my Ford employee discount. I wasn't into the 8th Generation Cougar myself as they were smaller than the previous cars and I am 6'5", so I didn't fit well in them.
Anyway, what a great video and I hope you have your beautifully styled Cougar for many years to come. Cheers!
You bought this car in the UK? Was the conversion done in the UK or the US?
See pinned comment :-)
@@RetroRecipes Yes, I get it now. It's a shame. I imagine that transporting and importing it into the US would have cost a fortune. The Cougar was a desirable car.
Great video. I really liked the departure from the norm. Keep up the good work and scratch behind puppy fractic's ears for me.
🐶
Love these! They never get any love over here in the US which is a shame. They share a chassis with the same generation Mondeo so parts should be easy to come by over there!
Thanks for sharing this passion project with us! I closely eyed the Probe/Cougars back in the day - they shared platform with the Mazda MX-6... Great little euro cars (to me, living in the states). Now that you're in the US, do you miss UK cars, or are you in high heaven here?
I do miss a few things, but life isn't bad in the USA. The main benefit is free refills! Amazing!
Hell yeah, I'd love to see more mundane cars turned into far superior concept cars.
Excelent work as usual Chris. Even if this is not my cup of tea, I realy enjoyed this video. I am so hapy that you can fulfill your dreams and that you can travel back in time and tak us with you. Hope that another car will be Delorean :D
Thank you! I do have a friend with DeLorean story so you never know!
@@RetroRecipes So, when you get there, we will meet yesterday :)
14:16 good looking bird there!
Are you going to Stork her?
I had NO idea Mercury Cougar was Ford over seas. This will be the oddest thing i've learned all week
This looks incredible! thanks for sharing the process of making this beauty
This is great video!
Nice! What tires are those on the front (early on)?
That I'm afraid I don't have info on
How long ago did you build that? I remember seeing your photos on the old cougar forums I think. I'm still friends with Jamie at twisted vision!
Oh cool! Yes there was some artistic license in this video but it's a job I always wanted to share, and finally I had the medium to do so. I guess this was done around 2007!
@@RetroRecipes were you on the forums then? Crazy I've been following your channel for year and to know we'd interacted years ago!! Go check my channel out for my tribute to my cougar. See if you remember her! Two tone grey/silver one!
@@RetroRecipes I just spent 20 minutes going through the comments and Googling trying to figure out my confusion about the video sounding like this was a present day project, despite being in the UK, then early in the comments you saying you had to let it go!
@@sheponbass Yup, I used a little artistic license to keep the video timely and more enjoyable whilst never actually mentioning the date. It's a story I always wanted to share and now have a good medium to do so. People seem to have enjoyed it 👍🕹️
@@azervas Your car rings a bell for sure. Small world! It's nice to see I'm not the only one who misses their Cougar 😉
A lot of fun! Really enjoyed this episode!! (I am a vintage car and computer guy!)
Wow, great transformation! I remember that generation Cougar very well. The only thing left for you to do is... spring for a performance suspension ;-)
When did you do this? the pictures either have a retro filter applied or it was sometime when digital photography was a bit basic!
A friend of mine had one of these about 15 years ago, he crashed it 3 times and spent way more than it was worth several times over to get it back on the road only to continue to drive it badly. It pulled pretty well though for only being 168bhp!
Good job on yours, I think there's a big crossover between computer and car enthusiasts that doesn't always get catered for. How does the Tesla compare?
Thanks, this was several years ago but I always wanted to tell the story. I do love the Tesla though. It's kind of like comparing the Cougar to a space ship.
Wow living the dream chap. I sadly had to let my cougar go last autumn. My favourite retro game channel does my favourite car, the love affair continues. I’d have added the rear lens covers or had the lenses painted. But great job.
I approve of the color name!
Always liked Cougar and other late 90's Fords, like the Focus and Puma. Cougar was at least in Playstation's Gran Turismo 2 game :)
Ha! Cougar always got my vote as it was a two door mondeo basically, which is a great place to start :) question tho, your car has its steering on the british side (the Right right side!) was it an import?
The car is in the UK and I am not so sadly I had to let it go. I miss it neowww.
Is there allowed to buy and drive right hand steering wheel cars in the US? I know that in the Netherlands it is forbidden to do because of local restrictions.
I believe it's allowed 😉
Looks nice and you've done the same as people making a cosworth or M3 replica because they either can't find or afford an original one.
Although I preferred the cougars predecessor, the capri, try finding one of those in the UK that isn't rotted out or silly money.
Made a nice change from retro computers.
Looks fantastic !
Engine wise...
A 3.0 Jaguar X-Type engine could well be a simple swap as it IS the Ford Duratec V6 engine but with Jaguar-designed heads and variable inlet and exhaust timing and variable inlet tract length, which gave it 231bhp.
Great point!
Jaguar 3.0 wouldn't fit without modification. But the ford escape or mondeo st220 could without issues.😊
@@pandalegends2738
Isn't th package space the same ?
Granted, the heads may take up more space.
Apologies if you mentioned this in the video, but was this a recent project, or something you undertook a few years ago?
Yes this was done a while ago and as I'm in the USA I had to sell it, but it's a story I always wanted to tell here
Interesting departure, I'll wait for you to turn back around and drive on more familiar roads.... :)
When, neowww? 🏎️💨
The end result looks very sharp! Excellent work on this car. Too bad about that body shop going out of business. If I was to get a "just because I want it" car, it would be the Holden Commodore. Because, ya' know...Commodore. Unfortunately I can't afford that, and even if I could they're as rare to find in the US as an honest politician. Sure, I could get the US equivalent (the Chevy SS, I think) and do a body mod, but even that is beyond any affordability.
Ha yeah I've wondered about the Commodore too! Glad you liked this one. 👍🕹️
What a mighty car mod 😋
Looks great. And to paraphrase Steve Jobs: If you can't have the original, make a pretty looking knock-off.
Wishing you many miles of fun and satisfying driving.
Pen holder seems great idea. You always know where then pen is, when you need it. Which happens surprisingly often 😄
You must be reading my mind!!
Now I'm in my mid 40s and I was thinking to buy one of the dream car of the late '90s, restoring it and use it on post covid19 sundays...
The car I was thinking about was the Alfa Romeo GTV 3.0L V6 that you see next to the Cougar presented by Jeremy!
Could we be related someways... :-)
That's quite a markup, I think that was money well spent!
All kidding aside, great video! Love car restoration stuff.
Would anyone recommend this buy for under 2k USD? I saw a few but they are only automatic gear box.
Did you check the SID chip??!!!
Yes purrs nicely!
@@RetroRecipes Good to hear!