Cruising in the Cougar

Growing up I always wanted to own an old muscle car. I had pictures of Mustangs all over my wall. After college and settling back in Marshfield, I decided to look for an old muscle car. The Craigslist ads didn’t really return anything. Lucky, there is a muscle car dealership called Kuyoth’s about 10 miles away from Marshfield in Stratford, Wisconsin. I decided to look there since he mainly specialized in mid-60’s to early 70’s Mustangs. I looked at a few Mustangs, but all seemed decked out for drag racing and not cruising. I kept coming back to see what new inventory came in. One day there was a Cougar sitting there. Now this Cougar was a 1969, and it had a 351 with an automatic. I was really looking for a big block or, at least, a manual. One thing that stuck out was Eliminator was painted on the side. My dad had told me Eliminators were rare and I should look up and authenticate this car because it might the gem I was looking for. I did indeed find out that the car was rare. They introduced the Eliminator package in April of 1969 and only 2250 were made. Since anyone can slap a sticker on the side of a vehicle, I got the VIN and called the registry for the Eliminators. The guy told me it had been in the registry since 2002 and it was indeed authentic. He told me there were only 425 known left in existence. I now had to jump on the car! I brought my uncle, who is a body man, along to look at the car. It checked out with him as solid. I learned the car was a Western car and it was previously titled in Montana. I put an offer down and I soon was able to fill out the paperwork to get my car. Fast forward 3 years later, I still have the car despite living in Austin, Texas. I decided to keep the car in Wisconsin as people in Austin drive completely nuts. I definitely don’t want to smash this rare car. Every time I come up to Wisconsin during the summer, this is my treat to drive. Well my last road trip took me to Wisconsin for my cousin’s wedding.  Of course I had to take the car out and drive it. I had my dad trickle charge the battery before I arrived. I then grabbed the battery and put it in the car. It only took a few cranks and the engine was fired up. I put it away for the night to get some sleep for the wedding. The car wasn’t going to rest long since I was going to take it to the wedding.



Luckily when I pulled in there was a parking spot ahead of a family friend who has a Torino (he is the original owner). It definitely made a good picture.



After the wedding, I decided to cruise a bit more. I went to the Upper Pond and took a few more pictures.






The car is all original. The only thing I had done with it is I had the engine freshened up when the frost plugs started to leak.



Later that night I parked the car to attend the reception. I had a few beers and drinking and driving isn’t a good idea. The next day Jake and I cruise around a bit more and went out to Stratford to look and see what other cars Kuyoth had.



It was definitely a good weekend and I can’t wait to get back up to Wisconsin to drive the Cougar again!