1970 Mercury Cougar Eliminator, the 2019 Muscle Car of the Year! | Danville, VA

1970 Mercury Cougar Eliminator, the 2019 Muscle Car of the Year! | Danville, VA

Congratulations To Charles Donaldson For Winning The Goodguys 2019 Muscle Car Of The Year Title With His 1970 Mercury Cougar Eliminator! We’ll See You In Scottsdale November 15-17, 2019!

In the early 1990’s this rare 1970 Mercury Cougar Eliminator was owned by Cliff Ernst, a muscle car collector from Tennessee. The car received notoriety in a couple now-defunct magazines where it also earned its name, Lethal Cat. Eventually the Mercury landed in the caring hands of Charles Donaldson who was excited to have the Cobra-Jet-powered Eliminator in his collection.

One day back in 2014, Charles went to his garage to fire up the 428 only to experience a severe backfire which quickly spread under the hood. The car was still in his garage and the fire ended up causing extensive damage to the front end and the car’s rare hounds-tooth interior, not to mention his garage. If it weren’t for the quick actions of Charles and the local fire department, things could have turned out much worse.

Charles learned about several high-level Cougar builds that Kurtis Lawrance of KTL Restorations had done, so he hauled his damaged Eliminator from Dallas to Virginia to see if the Lethal Cat could be saved. Kurtis knew it could be saved, and he wanted it to be saved since it was such a rare car. Of the 2,267 Eliminators built in 1970, only 374 were powered by the Cobra Jet 428, only 13 were finished in Competition Yellow with a hounds-tooth interior, and only one of those was equipped with an AM/FM stereo!

Read the rest of the story and see all the images here!