What is it about the Cougars and T-Birds that make them special to each of you ?
I was in high school when the 87-88 body styles came out, and I wanted one for a long time. I slowly moved away from them because I really didn't have plans for a 'new' car until years later. My first was a 4x4 Dodge Ram Charger (74) with a removable top and 318 motor. I drove the out of it, and had it in mud well above the bottom of the doors. I couldn't kill it, but eventually parked it for something more practical.
I have had several new cars over the years, but again, I didn't even consider the Cougars until recently. Even then, I wasn't looking for one. I sold my 03 Cavalier and started looking for something more interesting and fun. Wanted something I could put wide tires on, raise the rear end, and just play around with it. I am not a mechanic, and in fact, have always hated working on cars. Why the change now, I don't know. My wife asked me the other evening if I was looking for my youth again, and I responded that I still had it, and laughed, but I do wonder if this is why I knew when I found my 87 that it didn't matter what I had to do to it, it was coming home with me. My 13 year old refused to ride home with me, said it was embarrassing. I have to agree with him, it does lack in the 'cool' department, at least right now. I finally convinced him it would probably be his first car, so now he wants to get involved a little more. How do these cars keep us coming back for more? I have read threads from some of you that have had your cars for a very long time, and have probably spent ten fold what they are worth, so why? Why do we do it? Anyone??
each one of us has a different reason really
my car was given to me, almost as an apology from my father for having my 71 Scamp towed, and selling a 1980 Porsche 924 that was promised to me, and when i saw this dull, red, chromed out 3.8L, i hated it, thought it was ugly, grandpa car, POS, whatever you could think of calling it
after a while, i got over being angry, and started to check the car out, cleaned it up, polished it, got some wax on it, and i was in denial, i said i didnt like it, but i loved it, i found the original forum on EZboard, found Carmens site, and got hooked, about a year later, i started modding it, mostly in the interior
felt the same way about my first one..(87 3.8 base tbird, grey on grey). got it cause my dad wouldnt let me get a mustang. i drove that for awhile and then sold it and bought my second tbird (88 sport 5.0 loaded cept for leather and roof light blue on blue). at the time i thought it had the same 5.0 as a mustang. tinkered with it then sold it after about 2 years. drove a 92 tempo gls (2 door 3.0 6cyl stick) till my gf wrecked it. bought a cheep 92 subaru loyale wagon 4x4. drove it till i was sick of it and bought a tc. 5.0 ho t5 allready almost done. finnished it, loved. got a great offer on it and sold it after about 9 months. the kid totaled it within 2 weeks. continued driving the suby till i got my mark viii. few years later got rid of that and got my ranger. bout a year ago i bought the sport for dirt cheep. only thing it needed was the windows fixed and a radio. started tinkering with it 2 months ago.
seems i always end up eyeballing the tbirds (primarily the 87-88 fox). everybody has a mustang. ive always been a ford fan but i always like to be a little different. i like the extra room in these cars and they look 100 times better than a fox mustang. the way they have been falling through the cracks in my area makes me like mine that much more. guess i will always have a soft spot in my heart for them. wont stop me from owning a cobra though.
Ask your son if he wants to ride around in this: :D
This is why of love theses cars:Their potential!!!!!!!!
My love affair with these cars started way back when the '87 came out, when I fell in love with the clean lines and round tail lights of the 87 TC. It wasn't a REAL love affair, though, as my first car was still a few years off.
By the time I turned 17 and sed together a few hundred dollars to buy a first car I had just about forgotten about T-Birds. I just wanted something with a V8, because all of my friends were driving Chevettes, Escorts, Pony's, etc. I couldn't afford a Mustang but found a '78 Trans Am. I loved that car but eventually it became unroadworthy, so I sold it and bought another Firebird ('80 Formula). I was getting bored with Firebirds, though, and was driving down the local main drag and saw a white car in a sales lot that really caught my eye. It was an '84 V6 T-Bird. I knew absolutely nothing about these cars, but I knew I liked the looks of this one. I wanted to trade my Firebird in on it, but the lot would not give me a good trade in value, so I went home and put the Firebird up for sale.
By the time the Firebird sold the T-Bird had long been sold, so I set off in search of another one. Didn't know anything. Didn't even know that Cougars and T-Birds were essentially the same. Didn't know the interior changed in '85. I just knew I wanted one. I eventually found a light sage green metallic '85 V6 'Bird. This was a very basic 'Bird - no EFI, no power options, no cruise, no air - it didn't even have a passenger's side mirror! It was enough, though, to cement my love for these things. I've since owned five (four T-Birds and a Cougar).
Well for me it goes back to when i had my Z28.
I use to go mustang hunting on the weekends and did very well.
There were a few old guys with there T birds that always sayed to there own.
Now this is like 13 years ago and u had old cars and new stangs fighting it out.
Import racing was not realy anything.
Anyway with my little 400 done to tits 9inch and lader bars i had a quick car.
Tommy morana of Afordabale proformance had 84 T bird that ass raped me 3 ways from sunday, 460 with toploarder and a 9 inch,
other people all had 351s with superchargers and the respect for the mustang on storaids started right there.
i had 85 RS capri and 88 cobra. There nice cars but ride and extra room of T birds and cougars is much better. Also fact that your stang just got ass raped by a cougar is priceless
Anything you can do to a Mustang GT,you can do to these,but they're better looking,more room,not everyone has one,they'll run like the wind in comfort.I'm on my 8th T-Bird,and wouldn't want anything else.The one I'm driving now is the one I'll never let go of.It's special to me because I built the car from the ground up.A lot of time and love.Once i get the H.O. bolted under the hood,it'll be a whole new world.Even after owning the car for 6 years now,I still like looking at it.
Why do I have a Bird(actually 5), cause I'm to ed old for a Mustang!!!! I like the birds cause they have a reasonable amount of room, arn't big attention getters and can be modified easily. Really love the looks of the '87-'88 TCs, but have always thought Ford should have produced a sister car with its styling, features and available HO 5.0/5 speed. Since they didn't I built my own, and if anything happens to this one, I'll bucher another TC...
My cougar was my first car, imagine being barely 16 with a $110 dollar 5.0 car, that your dad says that is okay to wreck. The car fits me very well. I am over 6'4" over 200 pounds and have been since I was 16. I am not comftorble driveing my freinds cars because of how small the are. I could not hope for a car that fist me better. I have also gotten another cougar since then.
My father bought a '78 Ramcharger 4X4 new. It had been special ordered by a contractor (this was back when you
could special order vehicles) who then went bankrupt before buying the truck. It was extremely rare because of its options. In 1978 Dodge made Ramchargers (SUV's before the term SUV even existed) and Power Wagons (pickup trucks). My father's was a Ramcharger Power Wagon. It had a 440 4-bbl engine, 727 tranny, full time 4WD, full floating 8-bolt axles, 33-12.5-15LT tires, the "Power Wagon" hood, and of course the Ramcharger's trademark removable roof. All of this was factory installed. The salesman told my father that it was one of 5 Ramcharger Power Wagons sold in Canada. We actually did see another one when we moved to Calgary in '79, and the owner and my father became CB buddies (the Flinstones version of messdage boards I guess).
My father cried when he traded it in on a Voyager minivan in '84. He traded it on a Friday, called back Monday to buy it back, but it had already been sold. We still saw it around right up until a few years ago.
Being a kid I loved that truck. It was big, it was mean, and it was tough. I have very fond memories of my father driving us around with the roof off. If it's possible for me to love an SUV as much as I love T-Birds, the '74-'79 Ramchargers would do it. I will find and restore one some day, and build it into a blue and silver Power Wagon clone.
The styling of the '87 TC really caught my eye when it first came out, which doesn't really happen with too many new cars. Well I was working construction during the summers at that time, so I bought an '80 F250 4x4 instead. Fast forward to '94, I had built a 351 that I was looking for a vehicle to put it in when I found a georgous midnight blue '85 T-Bird. I drifted off to the old muscle cars for awhile, but when I sold my Torino(insurance restrictions were extremely tight on that car plus i needed money), I went back to the fox body Tbirds and Mark VIIs for the love affair that was started with that '85. The main reason though, there's nothing better than lining up with a Z28 in your comfy Mark VII or Tbird and blowing it's doors off. Even though I'm getting the Torino back, I will still always have a Mark VII or Bird. BTW, if I ever think about selling again after I get it back, ya'll have full permission to kick some sense into me.
My first car was an 86 Cougar LS that I got for $200 and put about $1,000 worth of work into to get it back on the road. I loved that car to death. When I sold it because it was having some minor issues I didnt have the money to resolve I missed it. Then, the friend I sold it to crashed it, what a sad day that was. I had an IROC, I had a few other cars that were fun, but never compared to the cougar. So, every day I bowsed the papers and I eventually found the XR-7 that I currently own.
The car is great, but what has kept me around has mostly been the great friends I have made because of the car and the internet combined. It's also nice to stand out in the crowd, funny how the little mustang punks react when they pull up to me at a stop light and hear the exhaust... heh.
Why Tbirds and Cougars?
Because they're not Mustangs.....
I had my share of Fox Mustangs after switching from the Mk1 water-cooled VW's (loved my Scirocco's). This was in '90 or so. Had an 82 5.0 Mustang GL. Good car. Quick and I shouldn't have sold it. Got my first TBird in '94. It was an 83 5.0 car. Mainly because it caught my eye and the price was right. Had it for a while, gave it to the wife as a daily when we got rid of her 79 Mustang.
I bought my 83 in '96 after some old woman killed my 80 Capri RS Turbo (SVO drivetrain). From that point on I slowly weened off Mustangs (I started working for KB's about that time and the "Mustang Crowd" really started to irk me..and I saw the ed things every day. I also started vering away from the 5.0's as well. I got rid of the 82 GT roller and my last Mustang was the 79 Pace Car (notice a trend?...79-82..the best looking Mustangs/Capris) that was my ex's driver (turbo car) until the divorce. She kept the house...I kept the cars. I sold it to help fund things.
To me the 83-84's Tbirds/Cougars are the best looking of the bunch, esp when done right. The 85-86's are ok..but things like tail lights and dashes turn me off.
I don't like having the everyday or "normal". The '87 Ranger is the most mainstream of the bunch..and it's turboed...
I can look at the lines on the Tbird for hours. I think it's something that Ford got right on the first try.
Im to tall to fit comfortably in a stang, and Im pretty cheap so the Tbird fit both criteria. :)
i liked the style of it and it was different from what everyone else had
The unique styling of the T-bird/Cougar is the main attraction to me. Like my mother says, if you don´t know what year is the car, you can say that is a modern classic car. I personally prefer the 83-86 models, but the 87-88 are very pretty when they´re modified (no one does that here....)...maybe i´ll be the first. I appreciate the ride quality on these cars over any car. But the most important for me is that i´m the only guy that drives a cougar at the entire university. Looks rare besides a Sentra and a Jetta.
And i´m like Chuck W says: I can look at the lines on the cougar for hours. Yes, several hours....
(http://usuarios.lycos.es/racingtrykes/cougar/cat2.jpg)
Dominator...I'm with you. I look at the Cougar and see SOOOO much potential. Your T-Bird looks ten times nicer than my cat, and it may never look that good, but with this being my first, I will play for awhile and try to get to know them a bit before I build one to compare to anyone's show car. My interior is perfect, aside from the seats being worn, and body isn't bad either (rust on deck lid and very small amount bottom of driver door). All are minor repairs, but since this one will be my daily driver I will be limited to what I can do for awhile. My wife has had a kick from watching me feel the seams, get down on my knees and look over the finish for flaws to fix, etc. She said I am like a kid with a new toy, and I guess that was what I was looking for.
I haven't been this excited about a car in a long time.
Thunder Chicken....I can remember driving to and from work in the Ramcharger with it raining or storming, and soaking wet by the time I got to where I was going. Can't remember times when I enjoyed myself more. My old boss would tell me he could drive down the road and feel sorry for the poor guys on motorcycles in the rain, but a dumba** like me deserved to be wet. I basicly refused to have the top on between May and October. Loved it.
The Cliff Notes version, written stream-of-consciousness style: My uncle had a new 83-86 bird and drove me around in it when I was 5 or something (so my mom claims, I don't remember anything). Fast foward 15 or so years, was bored in the apartment, went eBay surfing. Saw a 1986 T-bird, said to myself, "Wow! The back of that car is really nice/oddly triggering fond memories!" Bought the car on an impulse (why study for class when you can blow your savings and have a good reason to procrastinate?), went on a memorable road trip, car makes it back in once piece. Start fixing her up. Find Eric's Coolcats website, learn some stuff, curse myself: "DAMMIT! I have this py V6! arrrrrgh!" :slap: The 5.0 bug bites, almost do the swap but wisen up :screwy: . Sell the '86 Bird to a friend, buy an '85 modded TC (thanks again eBay!). Little to my knowledge, Eric's incessant ramblings about Cougars implants itself deep within my subconscious, and I soon feel the itch again and buy an 88 Cougar Xr-7. Apparently this wasn't the solution though, because the desire to buy more fox bodies is still there.... :evilgrin:
#1 At the age of 5 i was like thats one slick car.
#2 At my high school people either owned Mustangs, Camaros or ricers
#3 Its got high potential in my eyes.
Sorry so long...
My fondness for the t'bird started back in '88 when i went into the ford showroom looking to trade in my '86 Bronco II. I was thinking that I would get another Bronco II but, when I went in, I laid my eyes on the front of an '88 base model. I think it was the pointed nose that got me, along with the side glass and round taillights. I no longer wanted a Bronce II - I wanted a T'bird.
I asked my father what I should do - I was only 20 and i valued my father's opinion. He wasn't happy with me giving up the 4x4, Since I'm in a wheelchair he was worried how I would get around in our snowy winters. So I decided I'd get another Bronco II...but not before talking my sister into trading her 87 duster in on the T'bird. She hated the duster and it's fwd and would only drive it in sunny weather.
The first 7 or 8 years I put most of the miles on it. I loved the car on the highway and the torque from the V8 made it fun in town. We garaged that car every winter except for the second winter - after all, I still had a Bronco II.
That car is still registered to my sister but my dad is now driving it. It has over 200000km on it now and had fallen into a state of disrepair since my father's been using it. The frontend is loose (bearings, rack, tierod ends - I'm not sure), it needs a valve stem job and there are a couple spots of surface rust on it.
I still hope to get my hands on that car within a year or two. Lot's of memories in the back seat of that car. :D
I had been looking for my first car for a bit. I knew I wanted something stylish with a V8. I found a few Camaros, but nothing I really liked. I also looked at some Monte Carlo's but couldn't find any in decent shape. The Mustang appealed to me, but I coulnd't really find one I liked in my price range. I looked at a beautiful '79 Trans Am Silver Anniversary with a 400, but realized it really wasn't a practical daily driver for me. My mom was looking in the paper and found my current Cougar. I wnet to look at it, it was two tone brown (wasn't quite hooked on it yet) with white walls, but the basic stance, and style were beautiful. I wasn't very familiar with them, other than they were so close to Thunderbirds, but this car was immaculate. Took it for a spin, power was pretty good, comfort was better than anything else I'd driven (I'm 6'8") and I was hooked. Have been driving it ever since.
Why T-Birds and Cougars?
It's all my fault...everyone can just keep blaming me. ;)
IT'S ALL ERIC'S FAULT!!! :p
For me it all started when I was 15 and bought my first '86 cougar to learn to drive with. After I got my license, it's the only car I wanted to drive, I just loved it, especially doing a brake stand and watching the digital speedo slowly fading out due to rubber smoke. I had the car for almost three years when I went to fire her up one winter morning before school and she just wouldn't start, so I went inside and told my mom my car wouldn't start, and needed a ride to school, she said she had to leave for work soon and couldn't, so I made a few phone calls and finally found a ride to school. When I got home from school, my car was gone, so MY first thought was that my mom found my keys and got my car to start and took it to work, WRONG! I went in the house and my mom was there, so I asked where my car was and she told me, "Oh, you said it didn't run, so I sold it for you" :flip: Yea, thanks mom. Anyways, ever since then I've been looking for another one, and finally found one this past summer, now if only I can get it running before long, so I can drive it to CJ.
I seen my Bird almost a two years before i bought it. It was in pieces, plus i was looking for a Mustang! Then a friend of mine bought another Mustang and sold his other 'V6' Mustang to me. I had the car for about a year and a half before it finally decided to die on me! I traded the Stang (big mistake)... and looked for another one. Whilst looking for another Stang i realized that it was not the ideal car for my current relationship... 5 ppls would be quite the c hauling around town everyday. I needed more leg room and trunk space... but i didn't want to give up sportiness. ^_^ That's when i saw the TBird again, this time it had more parts on it (carb, tires, exhaust) and i couldn't pass up $900 for a nice looking car with a V8 with more room than Mustang. It's had it's share of problems, but they are almost all removed.... as soon as i get it back on the road. So me and my son can enjoy it's company again. ^_^
If you have to ask why, the car isn't for you.
My sister pretty much destroied the car I was going to get to learn on, so when I got my license we went out searching. The big issues were safe, kinda big, cool, fun, needing a little work, and cheap-ish. Looked at a bunch of stuff, even turned down an F-bird TA because of body rot, then somebody my sister knew had "an old T-bird" for sale that we went to look at...
I wasn't sure about the car when we first rolled up behind it, looked it over, started liking the lines, my parents took it for a test drive so I got the backseat, comfy, $1200 later... Got it home and cleaned up, found out I had a heatercore to do... Fell in love with it sometime while I was playing in her guts.
I love my tbirds. I in all including the two I drive now, have had 7 TBirds. I also have 3 parts cars. I am in the process of buying another 88. My very first one was a 86 with a 5.0, and two tone gray. My latest one was an 88 Turbo Coupe, converted to HO 5.0. With 3.73gears. I will keep driving my TBirds for as long as I can.
Because I like 'em.
The first time i rode in one. That did it for me. A friend of mine dad had a brand new one in 85. He traded in his 84 supra for. The day he got it he took us for a ride. The thing nearly made me shiznit my pants. I was only 12 and was in the back seat sliding all over the place hangin on for dear life. It was way better than the supra he had before. after that i always wanted a bird or a cougar. I finally got my 84 T/c blue/gray on gray. Also 2 other cougars on i totaled when i fell asleep while dirveing with the cruse on. The other is a 85 couger XR7 2.3t. Any way always remeber thinking about how fast that car was when i was little made me want one. Now that i have one i can't get enough
I started liking them as early as I could remember. In 1988, I was three years old and my grandparents neighbor bought an 88 two toned LS Cougar. They kept this car for several years until I was about 8. I remember looking over at it and for what reason, I don't know why, I liked it a lot. Starting when I was about 9 or so, I wanted an 85 Thunderbird. I had seen a couple and really liked the styling. So the time comes to buy my first car when I was 16 and I didn't care what I got as long as it was a rear drive V-8. I was looking at camaros, firebirds, and monte carlos of the 80's as well as muscle cars of the 60's and 70's. Since I only had $1,000 that I was allowed to spend on a car, all of the decent ones were out of my price range. While looking through the paper one day, I found and ad for an "88 Cougar 5.0 loaded. $900 or best offer." As my dad and I pulled into the sellers driveway, I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. I stumbled across Eric's website and saw the potential for these cars. So since things started giving up on me, I have been modifying it. The car is not perfect. It has its rust spots here and there and the interior shows it's age, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. What other car is as affordable as this, can be modded as easily as this and take 4 full grown adults comfortably on a trip with a trunk full of luggage, tools, extra fluids and still have room for car parts at summit?
My parents bought a Metallic Red 1987 Cougar LS with red interior and the 3.8 new in October of 87. I was 11 at the time and this was the first brand new car they had purchased since before I was born. Fastforward to 1993 and MY first car, a 1978 Olds Regency 98 with the Olds 350. I bought that car, immediately rebuilt the top end of the motor with help from my uncle (perf. cam, lifters, springs, valve job, etc...) and drove it around for about 5 months before I threw a rod. My parents were about to trade the cougar in for a new 1994 Toyota Camry when this happened. Instead I was given the Cougar which was in immaculate condition with 45,000 on the clock.
In a little over 4 years I drove that car 90,000 more miles and the only problem I ever had was the TFI module going out on me once. I had put a true custom dual exhaust on her and had a friend of mine mill the heads down and do some valve work to her. She almost performed like a V8 after that. I sold it to this guy my step-father knew for $2000 at the end of 1997 and she was still spotless untill the guy put it into a tree two months later.....
I bought my black one on New Year's day of 1998. Full digital dash, dual power seats, V8, grey interior, 42,000 miles on the motor, 98 yes 98 miles on a BRAND NEW AOD and I paid less for it than I sold the other one for. This car has been very kind to me as well never leaving me stranded and always giving some type of warning before breaking on me.
I bought my first 88 tbird with a V8 back in '94. I just loved the way it looked because it didn't look like anything else on the road. The arrow-like front end and the cool looking taillights just made the car a one of a kind! I had the car for three years and did a couple of mods to it, but a deer ended the life of that car.
So I bought a truck to replace it and I didn't like it, so I went out and bought another 88 tbird with a V8. I just got in another accident with a deer ( deer). This accident wasn't so bad...my car is fixable.
Where I live, there isn't very many fox tbirds and cougars so parts are hard to find, but that doesn't stop me from repairing my faithful car!
I guess I just like the fact that these cars still look good for being designed in the late 80's and that they can be modified to become high performance daily drivers.
I've always been a fox-body fanatic after owning a '91 taurus so when the '89 grand prix that I had at the time blew a head gasket and me fixing it just to have it blow again (GM :toilet: ). At least it was free and in good condition. But after it died, I bought my mom's '88 XR7 and been modding it since.
A lot of people ask me about my car daily. Guess there not used to seeing one modded. I get a lot of why not get a mustang and now I can say I have one of those too :D And sometimes someone will give me shiznit about needing the small dents fixed in both my front fenders and I say well Go before Show and that leaves them with a dumb look on there face. I love these cars!
i can rember being 4 seeing a bran new aniversary cougar with the gold turbines at a guys house near me and wanting it so bad. it was still their about a week ago. im waiteing for him to put a forsale sign on it.
I blame my buddy john for it. Its all his fault. Then I found Erics site before I found this board. Then I found my Cougar in a junkyard! Kick Ass! I love the car even though it down drive anymore.