Mercury Cougar XR-7

The Mercury Cougar XR-7 was a personal luxury coupe sold by Mercury, Ford's mid-priced division, as a model in its own right from the 1974 model year until 1982. Before 1974 the XR-7 name marked the most expensive equipment line of the Mustang-derived Cougar, and from 1983 it returned to being a top trim of the Cougar. For 1974 to 1976 the car sat on the Mercury Montego coupe, itself the Mercury version of the Ford Torino, with a separate box frame, eight-cylinder engines of 5.8 to 7.5 litres and a revised grille and richer interior as its main differences. It cost about 1,500 US dollars more than the Montego coupe and outsold it in each of its three years, with 299,050 built in all. Its parallel model at Ford was the Ford Elite.