A “sweetest moment” waits at the end of the video, but the real story is under the hood. This 1969 Mercury Cougar Eliminator carries the 320-horsepower 390 big block, a rarer choice than most Eliminator buyers made that year — only 260 of 2,250 total Eliminators got this engine. Built as Mercury’s answer to the Boss Mustang, it traded outright drag strip focus for genuine street presence.
Wait till the last minute of the video for the “sweetest” moment…
A throwaway line about waiting for “the last minute of the video” hides a much bigger story about a car that almost didn’t need a name like Eliminator at all. Born in March 1969, this package was built as Mercury’s answer to the Boss Mustang, yet its aggressive name never quite matched a car that was more about style and stance than straight-line drag strip dominance. Wrapped in a color like competition orange or bright yellow, with a blacked-out grille and a body-colored hood scoop, the Eliminator looked every bit the part. But under that hood was a rarer choice than most Eliminator buyers ever made — so what exactly made this particular engine option worth waiting for?
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Born to Wipe Out the Competition
The Cougar Eliminator arrived in March 1969 as the spiritual successor to the earlier Cougar GT-E, combining a decor and handling package — a $199.50 option — with a lineup of available engines. It shared showroom space with the Boss Mustang as one of Ford Motor Company’s answers to the era’s growing performance-package wars, dressing up the Cougar with a front air dam, a body-colored rear spoiler, styled steel wheels, and Eliminator-specific side stripes in white or black. Buyers picking the Eliminator package could choose from four factory colors: white, bright blue metallic, competition orange, and bright yellow.
The Rare 390 Under the Hood
While many Eliminators left the factory with Ford’s 302 or 428 Cobra Jet engines, this one carries the 320-horsepower, four-barrel 390 — an FE-series big block rated at 427 lb-ft of torque. For 1969, that 390 received real technical updates, including a switch from the cumbersome Thermactor exhaust emission system to the simpler IMCO setup, along with steel head gaskets for better heat transfer. Of the 2,250 Eliminators built for the 1969 model year, only 260 were ordered with the 390-4V, making this specific combination one of the rarer ways to own an Eliminator.
That rarity is part of why 390 Eliminators draw a second look at every show they attend — most collectors gravitate toward the better-known 428 Cobra Jet cars, leaving the 390 as something of a sleeper within an already uncommon model. For a package meant to “eliminate” the competition, this Cougar quietly proves Mercury’s underdog engine choice still had plenty of bite.
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