(first posted 12/19/2012. It’s bizarre enough to see the light of day again) Tim in Thailand sent me these pictures, asking if I knew what this car was, as he’s considering buying it. He recognized the Cougar front end, but thought the rest of the car might have been an old Toyota Crown. No, it’s all Ford, but what an unusual pairing: a 1967 Cougar front end on a 1966-up Falcon four-door body. And the two seem to have mated quite successfully, with the Cougar front end looking like it was made to fit. Well, the ’66 Falcon was often referred to as a four-door Mustang, so why not a Cougar?
The rear end is a bit less successful. A second pair of Falcon taillights have been crudely implanted. Actually, the inner pair is slightly different; one of our experts will tell us what it’s from.
This mish-mash obviously originated in Australia, given the right hand drive. But I’m quite certain that dash is not original, or the seats.
Here’s the final picture, not that it tells us much. OK, so are the front ends of the Falcon and Cougar really the same width?
One word: Thundercougarfalconbird.
That was my first thought too.
+100! 😀
That is quite the interesting mash up. It is definitely wearing the Falcon fenders. The end caps are the tricky thing as they seem to line up well with the Falcon fender, Cougar hood and bumper.
The specs I found show the 67-8 Cougar to be about 2″ narrower than this Falcon body style but they don’t say where that max width point is or if it includes the mirrors or not.
I went right past it when it was on the main page thinking it was just a Cougar and then wha…….WTF?
Not something I expected to see this morning! I have to admit, though, that I never realized that the 4-dr post falcons were so reasonably well proportioned. I never really liked the profile of the 2-dr falcons all that much, particularly in comparison to the mustang.
Thunder-cougar-falcon-bird?
I don’t see a seam on the Falcon fender/Cougar fender extensions. I’d bet on a VERY thick layer of bondo.
Those tail lights are the original ones from the 1966 XR model Falcon, the outer pair look to be earlier model. The dash panel is a bit hard to make out, but might be from an early 80’s Falcon, a low-spec model as it does not have a tacho.
There are a few old Aussie cars still hanging around some of the Asian countries.
I was in Brunei about seven years ago visiting a girlfriend and spotted a VN Commodore SS. My first thought was, what the hell is that doing here?
A couple days later I came to realise that Brunei has ridiculously cheap petrol, excellent roads and zero police presence. In other words, it is the perfect place to have a VN SS.
More to the point of the featured vehicle. About fourteen years ago I was wandering through the back alleyway of a town called Nowshera in the North West frontier of Pakistan just down the road from where Osama got trashed when i saw a totally mint 1967 XR Fairmont, in white with the charcoal trim and the 289. The car was absolutely original and in perfect condition. Came as quite a surprise, I can only assume it was an old embassy car transferred to private ownership
Ford Aus did some exporting, but nowhere near as much as Holden. Mind you their exports to the Middle East were much later than the VN, more like 1998.
Those taillights are very Matadorish in the quad layout
I thought the same thing. In fact, I thought they were Matador units until I looked closer.
I think it’s the result of some very nice custom sheet metal work. Sure, the grilles were probably off an actual Cougar, but clearly the end caps, bumper and hood are the result of some highly skilled labor.
Guessing the seats are off a later model Ford Falcon, though.
No they are not, the headrests are not like any Falcon ones, and it looks like a hard plastic panel on the rear of the backrest, which no Falcon has had. The shape of the bottom cushion is wrong too.
I smell a new project……….Where are my meds?
Suspect it isn’t an Australian factory-RHD Falcon, as the wiper posts are on the wrong side – ie it’s the LHD Falcon scuttle panel. Being of ex-USA origin could explain the outer taillights which aren’t Australian spec. The gearstick screams 80s Nissan, as do those twin height-adjustment wheels on the driver’s seat. The instruments also scream 80s Japanese origin. So my 10c worth is that it’s a USA-origin Falcon that’s had a RHD conversion using 80s Japanese parts; and has been customised with a second set of (Oz-spec) taillights and a Cougar front end. The Cougar/Mustang/XR Falcon platform/firewall is very close, so the Cougar bonnet could logically bolt straight up.
I bet the Cougar hood would bolt to the Falcon hinges but it would be too long and need to be shortened.
Agreed. But then again, studying the two Falcon pics I posted below, the one with the Cougar front has got noticeably more front overhang. So maybe it is a normal length Cougar bonnet, with the guards extended to suit. Comparing the Cougar-Falcon (Cou-con?) with genuine Cougar pics could support this. And if the bonnet did bolt straight up to the Falcon hinges that would provide a static reference for whoever lengthened the guards. I love mystery mash-ups! 😉
I don’t know I think the Cougar hood is too much longer to be accounted for it what I do agree may be slightly stretched front fenders (guards).
This’ll show what I mean about the wipers: the left pic is an Aussie Falcon with factory RHD wipers; the right pic is the feature car with the factory LHD wiper location. Note the difference:
I like it. Numberplate definitely isn’t Aussie though.
I’m expecting to see this on eBay, advertised as a “rare factory proposal for a four-door Cougar” that somehow escaped the Ford skunkworks.
No documentation, of course, but the prior owner told the current owner that, three owners ago, it was driven for two weeks by the nephew of the gardener of none other than Lee Iacocca.
So it MUST be the real deal… 🙂
Have just tracked it down on the internet http://www.taladrod.com/b/w/Search/CarComp.aspx?cib1=949213&cib2=960578&cib3=834054&cib4=961857&cib5=966345 Google translate reveals it’s described as a 1967 Ford Mustang 2.0. It’s Toyota powered, with the 2.5L 1JZ engine. Price is NZ$4,125 or around US$3,400. Found another very odd Falcon for sale on the same site. It’s an Australian XA Falcon, fitted with the Toyota 1JZ, with guard extensions created from Ford Cortina MkIII guards…
The Cortina-Falcon:
Wait, this just got even weirder…the site has 4 vehicles listed that are described as a “Ford Mustang 2.0”. One is a genuine ’67 ish Mustang; 1 is the feature car above; 1 is a genuine Australian-built XR or XT Falcon wagon; the fourth is this mind-numbing creation: http://www.taladrod.com/w20/Search/CarDet3.aspx?cib=1019684 Although apparently a “Ford Mustang 2.0”, it is in fact a MkI Ford Capri, fitted with the front end of a 1982 Toyota Cressida (JDM headlight model), a 2.0L Mitsubishi sirius turbo engine, taillights from who knows what, and the roof console and dashboard from what’s possibly a 70s Celica… Clearly there are a lot of folks in Thailand who enjoy mashing up their favourtie parts of many and varied cars…
George Barris had a shop in Thailand? Who knew….
Looking at the Capri and 4 door Cougar, the guy shows some talent. particularly the Capri. The Falcon is black and the photo of poorer quality so it’s harder to evaluate. The back of the Cougar looks horrible and I’m not just talking about the paint.
I would buy a clean 4 door mustang in this style. I’ve had Ford vacuum lights before, so would opt for the Mustang. Make mine a Muslcon wagon.
No need for an Australian connection: Thailand drives on the left side of the road.
That means Australia is the most likely source of a RHD Falcon. Although with the LHD wipers this car is more likely to be from North America with a local RHD conversion – obviously not beyond the scope of the builder with all the other work done.
I see, I thought Paul meant it was imported used from Australia. I meant, it could have been built in Thailand, as the Australian Falcon seemingly was.
I think the Novamaro did it better:
Much like with the feature car, someone sure went to a lot of work to have such a unique custom car. Have never seen that before.
This kind of reminds me of a car by where I work–it’s a ’68 Cougar, by the looks of it from the doors on all the way to the back of the car, and the front clip is from a 05-09 Mustang. They styled the front middle nose part to resemble the Cougar’s, and it’s pretty cool looking, but I did say to myself, “not sure if like”. Gotta respect the time and effort in cases like these, though.
Sounds interesting. Can you get a pic of it and post it?