The 1969 Mercury Cougar XR-7 is one of the car appears in the 1969 James Bond Film “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”
In fact it was Carroll Shelby prepared Mercury Cougar XR-7 with 428 Cobra Jet engine (335 HP conservatively rated, more like 360-370 HP) with Ram-Air. Carroll Shelby built 3 Cougars not for the public, they were actually built to appear in the 007 movie. One was an extremely rare Shelby prepped Cougar and used by him personally for awhile! One of these 1969 Mercury Cougar XR-7 was blown up during filming and one is in England.
I'm not sure about any Shelby connections to the three R code XR-7 Cougar convertibles used in the Bond film. By '68/'69 I'm not sure the who/what/where of any modifications or why they would have been needed in the first place.
Two 428 Cobra Jet Ram Air XR-7 convertibles were ordered for the film on the 19th of September 1968. It is speculated that when one of the Cougars was badly damaged in the race scene the third CJ Cougar was ordered.
CCOA knows the VINs for all three Cougars. The damaged Cougar was thought to be scrapped, but evidence may have been found that it was for sale in the UK in 1971. One of the Cougars was purchased by the Ian Fleming Foundation and is in their collection. And the third one was undergoing a restoration in England last I heard.
- Phillip