Five Best Mercury Models of All Time
Aug 8, 2013
- 1970 Mercury Cougar Eliminator
- You're about to see a pattern develop. As near as we can tell, Mercury hit an early apogee in the late 1960s and early 1970s... and sadly it was all downhill from there. In any case, the car you see here is a 1970 Mercury Cougar Eliminator, which was the high point of Mercury's contribution to the muscle car wars and is highly sought after today. As you might expect, engine options were all V8s with displacements ranging from 302 to 428 cubic inches. More Power!
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- 1970 Mercury Cougar Eliminator
- You're about to see a pattern develop. As near as we can tell, Mercury hit an early apogee in the late 1960s and early 1970s... and sadly it was all downhill from there. In any case, the car you see here is a 1970 Mercury Cougar Eliminator, which was the high point of Mercury's contribution to the muscle car wars and is highly sought after today. As you might expect, engine options were all V8s with displacements ranging from 302 to 428 cubic inches. More Power!
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- Speaking of muscle cars, here we have what could have been one of the coolest Mercury vehicles ever produced. Sadly, it never saw the light of day outside a few samples built for testing purposes. Back in the late '60s, stock car racing was practically a national pastime, and winning races meant a lot to American manufacturers. In those days, sleek aerodynamic designs were just starting to invade the oval tracks, as personified by the iconic Plymouth Superbird and Dodge Daytona. Mercury was working on the 1970 Cyclone Spoiler II around the same time. Sadly, NASCAR changed its rules to stifle any sort of aerodynamic innovation, and the car was never commercialized.
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- And now we hit a dry spell. Between the early 1970s and the brand's death knell in 2010, there really isn't anything from Mercury that is all that exceptional. Sure, there have been competent cars here and there, along with some decent forays into markets outside its typical stomping ground... but the best we could come up with to highlight is the 2003 Marauder. While the Marauder wasn't in any way a "bad" car, it also wasn't the fire-breathing performance monster that most fans of the genre were looking for... something along the lines of the last rear-wheel drive Chevrolet Impala SS sold in the States. As it was, the Marauder was comfortable, handled better than it ought to and sounded pretty good at wide open throttle. Moving along...
