This Fleet-Footed 1969 Cougar Eliminator Lives Up To Its Namesake

Mercury, in ancient Roman mythology, was much more than just the wing-sandaled messenger of the god squad. Speed was surely the image that Ford had in mind for its upscale marque, which initially saw a more powerful flathead V-8 in a mildly facelifted Ford sedan, but the mythical Roman deity had quite a bit more going on. Mercury was also the patron saint of merchants and their goods, along with travelers and written communication. He held a caduceus (a magic problem-solving wand) and a purse (symbolic of his importance to commerce). Ol’ Mercury was also known to pull the odd prank here and there, that naughty cad (hence the word mercurial).

So, imagine a muscle machine that hasn’t just been given the Mercury name because its maker said so, but one which contains ample quantities of its namesake’s legendary mythical qualities. The Mercuriest of all possible Mercurys, you might say.

Enter Mark Piechowski of North Adams, Massachusetts. Raised on a steady diet of Hawaii Five-O reruns, Mark enjoyed watching Steve McGarrett hammering his big black Mercury sedan around Honolulu (and greater Oahu) and hauling in bad guys; when Mark reached driving age, he didn’t want something as big as McGarrett’s boat, but his friends’ speedy Mustangs and Camaros failed to attract. It didn’t take long before Mark discovered the early Cougar—pony-car sized and his preferred marque, all rolled into one. He recalled, “I thought, wow, that looks cool. So, I got one, and it needed everything,” which Mark, over time, sorted out himself.

This is not that car, but Mark draws a direct line between the experience of rebuilding and fortifying his first Cougar with his career choice—as owner and primary tech at Berkshire Transmissions in North Adams. So Mercury, the Roman god, proved his significance early on as a symbol to Mark’s own personal commerce and business, with the man’s own hands serving as a pair of magic problem-solving caducei.

Over time, Mark has collected eight ’69/’70 Cougars, in various states of operation and condition; half of them are the heated-up, low-production Eliminator model, with two of each model year in the collection. “I like things in even numbers; I had three Eliminators and needed a fourth. I also wanted to collect all the autumn colors; I had a Competition Orange ’69, plus a Comp Green and a Comp Gold ’70. I’m not real good at selling things, so I needed to find a yellow ’69 for balance.”

The hottest Cougar for ‘69 was called Eliminator. Built on a base model, rather than the more Euro-influenced XR7, Cougar Eliminators were easy to spot. Along with a restricted color palette (only Competition Orange, Bright Blue Metallic, White, and Bright Yellow were available), Eliminators featured a blacked-out grille; body-color hood scoop (functional on Cobra Jet-equipped models); black front air dam; body-color trunk spoiler; relatively subtle stripes in black or white; 12-slot argent styled-steel wheels with trim rings and center caps; racing mirror only on the driver’s door; and XR-7 rocker-panel moldings. Detroit styling legend Larry Shinoda, who also sussed out the look of the Mustang Boss 302 during his brief time at Ford, developed the Eliminator’s look. Interiors included the high-back front bucket seats, crinkled “camera finish” black instrument panel with full gauges (including a 6,000-rpm tach) and clock; a rim-blow steering wheel, plus rear seat arm rests, additional door trim, and interior lighting.

The 290-hp four-barrel 351-cu.in. Windsor V-8 was standard issue in the Eliminator, although both the 320-hp 390 and the 335-hp 428-cu.in. Cobra Jet V-8 were available—the latter with or without Ram Air. The 290-horse Boss 302 arrived late in the model year. Eliminators came with a “performance” 3.25:1 (3.00:1 with A/C) open rear, although an optional performance group upgraded the springs, anti-roll bar, and tires. A Drag Pack was also offered. Mercury shifted 2,250 Eliminators for ’69—roughly 2¼-percent of total Cougar production for the year.

Beyond slotting neatly into Mark’s matrix of color and year requirements, this example was built as a sort of middle-of-the-road Eliminator: a genuine S-code 390/automatic with power steering and brakes but no air conditioning, which allowed for peppier axle gearing. The Marti Report documents state that it was delivered new to McClure’s Lincoln-Mercury in Anaheim, California, in the spring of 1969, but the how’s and whys of its early life, and its subsequent move across the country, remain undiscovered.

The years had not been kind to it. Mark recalled, “I bought it from a Cougar collector in Georgia in 2021, who had purchased it from someone in Ohio, another Cougar fan, who sat on it for 20 years. It didn’t have the original engine in it, the engine it had didn’t run and was missing parts, the transmission was shot, and the body was faded and banged up a little, but it was pretty solid. I think it was raced back in the day; it had traction bars and mounts for a battery in the trunk. Racing is probably what blew the original engine.”

And if the original engine is gone, well … why not have a little fun? “I wanted to put some pep in it—and I would have modified it even if the original engine was there,” Mark says, explaining, “I always try to keep in mind not to do anything that can’t be undone. I have a ’68 Colony Park that I did a stroker engine on, and I thought, well, if I have to change the crank on this one, it was going to get a stroker kit.”

The result runs a forged SCAT crank that, with a streetable 9.3:1 compression, and now displaces 445 cubic inches—and looks more or less stock. Well, except for the dual four-barrel intake and twin 600-cfm Holley carbs (using a fixed, not progressive, linkage) hiding under that oval air cleaner. The result is 475 dyno-proven horsepower; anyone who assumes that Mark’s Eliminator might be an easy target at a red light will be the victim of one of Mercury’s pranks once the signal changes. It also draws a line under Mercury’s best-known reputation—that of an effortlessly swift runner.

As for the transmission, Mark put aside the toasted C6 and used his expertise to bolt up a more contemporary four-speed 4R70W automatic from a newer Mustang, which features both a steeper first gear (2.84:1, vs the stock C6’s 2.40:1) and a .70:1 overdrive for more relaxed cruising.

However, if you’re familiar with Ford engine and transmission compatibility, you know that the 4R70W uses a “small-block” style bellhousing pattern that won’t mate to the big-block FE engine. And could that newer overdrive handle the stroker engine’s torque?

“An enthusiast in Wisconsin was making adapter plates to attach the FE to the 4R70W, but there was some trimming and finessing to make it work,” Mark details. “As for the trans itself, it’s sufficient to handle the engine’s power as is. I installed one heavy-duty part to improve durability and drilled a couple of holes to sharpen the shift quality.” Keene Driveline in Keene, New Hampshire, built a new, slightly longer driveshaft, as even with the adapter plate, the new trans was shorter than the stock C6.

The result? “With overdrive and 3.25 gears in the rear, I’m turning 2,500 rpm at 80 mph,” says Mark. That’s considerably less fraught than the original combination, which measured in at 3,000 rpm at 65 mph. That 3.25 becomes an effective 2.27 rear with overdrive—a number that more resembles Salt Flats gearing than street cogs. What’s more, even with short 14-inch tires, Mark says, “I’m knocking down 18 mpg on the highway. I could probably get another mile a gallon out of it if I drove 65 mph, but I tend to do 75-80 on the open road. It seems pretty reasonable.” Really? Eighteen miles a gallon with 445 cubic inches fed by eight barrels of carburetor and the aerodynamic qualities of a suburban split-level home undersold as “reasonable”? We’d call it borderline miraculous—another amazing feat sorted by the Roman god’s magic wand.

Family friend Glen Walter attended to the body, which took a little more than a year. Once Mark got the body back from paint, in late April 2024, his next goal was to drive to Fords at Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, held the first week of June. “Yeah, I had five weeks to put everything together. I was working on it seven days a week after work, until 10 or 11 pm, then midnight … then I was there until 2 am a few times, then 4 am… The day before Carlisle, I still had a few things left to do and I didn’t sleep—I worked on it all night, then left for Carlisle in the am with no sleep. That was a lot easier to do 20 years ago; I’m not that old but I can feel it a little more now.”

Now, anyone who has tried to build a car in their spare time knows the endless hours, days, months, and years that such an endeavor can take. Assembling a running, driving car from a bare shell over five weeks, part-time, is a big enough job with a team. When it’s just you and an occasional pair of extra volunteer hands (in this case provided by pals Paul Damato, Les Farr, and Todd Kendall), things are bound to go haywire. Except they didn’t: the only issue on the initial run was accidentally running out of gas a couple of miles from home.

Following the successful run to Carlisle, Mark attended the 2024 running of The Great Race, the annual Hemmings-sponsored cross-country time-distance rally. That year the event started in Owensboro, Kentucky, and wrapped in Gardiner, Maine. He drove from New England to Kentucky for the start, sans chase vehicle or tow vehicle—just Mark, his co-driver Dave Wyrwas (the Eliminator registrar for the Cougar Club of America), a trunk full of tools and clean clothes, and one recently-shaken-down Cougar. Expecting the worst? Guess again: “The Eliminator was flawless on The Great Race,” Mark reported. “I drove it there and drove it home.” He even won a Rookie of the Day award, for the final leg from Rhode Island to the finish in Maine, just 13 seconds off the prescribed time.

So, to recap: Heady swiftness (and surprising efficiency) from its driveline, surprising power that outstrips the promise of the bright paint and spoilers, plus some luck during assembly via the owner’s magic-wand hands, plus 7,000 miles in this Cougar’s first six months of rejuvenation, was seemingly supervised by Roman mythology’s patron saint of travelers. And who knows? That mighty mythical overseer of messages just may have helped speed this tale to your mailbox. Mark’s sympathetically massaged ’69 Cougar Eliminator has more of the fabled Roman god Mercury in it than even Ford Motor Company bargained for.

SPECIFICATIONS–1969 MERCURY COUGAR ELIMINATOR

PRICE

Base price: $3,016

Options on car profiled: S-code Marauder 390 V-8 with Select-Shift automatic transmission, $301; AM/FM stereo, $213; Eliminator package, $130; power steering, $100; Eliminator Décor Group, $70; power brakes, $65