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Project Background & Assessment

The work just keeps piling up. Here is my latest project that was started in 2023, a 1968 Hertz Cougar XR7-G. It is one of the 188 XR7-G Cougars developed for Hertz as part of their Rent-A-Racer program. As with all of the Hertz cars it came with a 390-4V GT engine, C6 trans, Heavy Duty Suspension, A/C, Power Steering, Power disc brakes, California Emissions, tilt-away steering & power sunroof. It also came with the XR-7 standard leather seats and overhead console, which contains a seatbelt warning light, door ajar warning light, parking brake warning light & low fuel indicator. These 4 pictures were taken in April of 2008 when I first purchased the car.

The story behind this car is that it was originally leased to Hertz through the Merlin Motor Company in Camden, New Jersey. As with the other 187 Hertz Cougars, it was returned to Ford where it was resold as a used car.

The early ownership is not known at this time. It is known that at some point in the later part of the 70's with 78K miles of usage, it was impounded by the city of Camden, NJ. The car was eventually hauled away from the police impound yard by Walt & Al's Used Autos & Parts of Williamstown, New Jersey, who had the towing contract for Camden at that time.

The car sat there for an unknown amount of time before it was purchased by James Broomall of Woolwich Township,New Jersey on September 31, 1982. Jim did very little to the car besides moving it around for the next 26 years. I had purchased Jim's brother's 1969 Limited Edition 600 Mustang 5 years prior (You can see the restoration of that car at my Groovy Green Restoration Webpage). Appearently they liked my work since they offered me the Cougar before listing it for sale. Soooo, I found myself traveling back to New Jersey once again. At least this time I had a car trailer instead of a wobbly car-caddy.

If you are not a Cougar fan you probably have never heard of an XR7-G. It was a special 1968 Cougar model that was based on the XR7 that was intially designed for Hertz to use as part of their Rent-a-Racer program. After the first 188 were built and distributed to Hertz locations throughout the country, the model became available to the public.

The cars were first partially manufactured in Detriot and then were shipped to A. O Smith in the name of Shelby American, where the rest of the work was completed. However, if the car was to receive a sunroof, which all 431 did, it was shipped to the American Sunroof Corporation to receive a power sunroof.

Here is a list of items that were unique to the XR7-G. If you are looking to purchase an XR7-G, its good to know what's missing because it will cost a lot of money to replace them due to the rarity of the car:

Lucas Fog Lights - The same lights used on 68 shelbys
Special front lower valance - For mounting the Lucas fog lights
Talbot Color Keyed remote sport mirror - Driver's door only. Talbot Mirror
Third extra note horn - Delco Remy. Yup a GM part!
Fiberglass hoodscoop - Functional on 428 equiped cars. Also used on GTEs
Hood pins - Attached cable style. XR7-G only part
XR7-G grill emblem - Red circular XR7-G, like roof pillar. Mounted on RH headlight door. Replaces Cougar emblem
XR7-G roof pillar emblems - Red circular XR7-G
Dual exhaust tips - Chrome, pipe within a pipe. XR7-G only part
Modified rear valance with custom chrome trim - Standard rear valance with U-shaped cutouts with XR7-G only U-Shaped chrome trim
Special console top - Console top and liner are custom XR7-G only parts. The base is a modified 68 Mustang base
Special switchpanel - for sunroof and foglights, mounted on console. 68 Lincoln switch panel with XR7-G only woodgrain insert
Special gold right hand dash emblem - Brass plated metal 'Cougar' and 'XR7-G' emblem on right side of dash
Special gold Cougar horn emblem - Standard Cougar horn emblem, but Brass plated
Vinyl wrapped steering wheel - black only and used on 68 shelbys
Special automatic shifter handle - Shelby wooden shifter with custom gold Cougar insert replacing Shelby cobra insert
XR7-G trunk lock cover insert - standard trunk lock cover, but with red XR7-G insert
Special wheels with XR7-G center caps - First cars were equiped with Rader American wheels, but were recalled early on and were replaced with Cougar styled steel wheels with special XR7-G centers

If you wish to learn more about the XR7-G Cougars you can go to the Mercury Cougar XR7-G Homepage Information is compliments of Royce Peterson.

Here is a copy of an original Hertz brochure. The XR7-G was refered to as a "Gurney" Cougar , which stood for Dan Gurney the race car driver.

While examining the car I found this neat tag attached to the edge of the hood. It is a Hertz inventory/tracking tag, which has been reportedly appeared on a few Hertz Shelbys. I would love to see similar tags. So if you have a picture of one please feel free to contact me at e-mail

The vehicle itself is all matching numbers and very complete, though it is in terrible shape. The engine has a partial VIN stamped on the left head at the rear (sometimes they were stamped on the block, but not this car). A partial VIN is stamped on the top of the transmission.The VIN appears in full on the warranty plate on the driver's door (shown below). And the VIN appears in full on the Buck Tag (shown) below.

Here is the warranty plate from the door. Refer to the Marti Report below for the full decode. "Special Performance Vehicle" only appeared on the Hertz cars. The DSO 168051 is actually a factory mistake as the last digit should have been a 0 (refer to the Marti Report). It's not surprising that there was a mistake, the numbers were entered manually before the tags were stamped.

Here is the Buck Tag. It was attached to the body when it was being welded together. For the most part it was an aid for the metal shop as to what holes to put in it before paint.

Here is what the tag decodes to:

8F93S5470008 = VIN, 1968 Detroit built Cougar XR-7 Hardtop, 390-4bbl, 457008th Mercury vehicle schedulated to be built
65B =code for Cougar XR-7 Hardtop (all G cars are modified XR-7s)
M = code for Polar White Paint
147 = sequence number, most likely the 147th shell welded together on that shift
6B = code for Dark Blue Leather bucket seats
AC = code for Air Conditioning
TW = code for Twilt-away Steering Wheel
PB = code for Power Disc Brakes
PS = code for Power Steering
RM = code for Rocker Mouldings
H2 = Inspector stamp

Here is the Marti Report for the car showing the car's heritage. It's interesting that it was originally built on Feb 29th. It's a Leap Day car!

Here is what Merlin Motors looked like in 1968. It is unlikely that the car is in this picture, but it is possible.

Now, on with the Carnage !