Does the 2000 Ford Cougar ST200 exist or not?

[Frank N. O.]

Like the 2000 200hp Mercury Cougar S (fwd streetmodel) the reports of the 2000 Ford Cougar ST200 (205hp) have been that the car allegedly was to be put into production and parts exist, like the special ST200 rear-strutbrace that you can get via British American Transfer and I read that the Cougar S parts are listed in parts-catalogues although that car was never produced.

I think that a Cougar ST200 is a nice looking thing, especially in the unique Ice-Blue Metallic colour that the demo-model on the web is in but does all parts exist so one could make your own? For instance I read on a press-release that lessons learned from the Mondeo ST200's suspension was used when making the Cougar ST200's suspension and there are also ST200-style dials in the Cougar-shape made as can be seen on the printed Cougar ST200-brochure uploaded to www.contour.org (http://www.contour.org) (Ford Contour/Mercury Mystique/Ford Mondeo site in the US).

Here's a photo of the real ST200: http://www.carenthusiast.com/news2711/cougar_3.jpg

Note the 14-spoke 7x17 ST200 rims also used on the Mondeo ST200 with 215/45-17 tires. Also note that the Cougar does not have any styling-difference externally from the std. models, except a twin exhuast system that however is not noticable from this angle.

Frank

[blackice111288]

i dont know about the st200, but the Cougar S does exist.

[Frank N. O.]

It does? I read that it was stopped at the very final second. Have you seen any on the street (which would be hard to recognize since they seem to use the std. 6-spoke 16" rims and only has the flat thin wing).

This one right?
http://speedycars.chinacars.com/wallpaper2/mercury/Mercury%20Cougar%20S%202000%20-%2001.jpg

Frank

[VQ]

wouldn't you just stick mondeo parts on it and call it a St200?

[Frank N. O.]

Well as far as I know the engine and transmission is the same, and the V6 and ST200 share the same brakes but there's the matter of different instrument-colours for the Cougar-version and specifically different tuning of the suspension. But I did plan on just making what I think is called a Clone, but I needed to know if the instruments and suspension-parts could be sourced apart from the well-known Cougar ST200 rear strutbrace.

I don't know if the power-steering and brake-system has a different tweaking though but maybe that shouldn't be so complicated to recreate.

I've though of using Focus ST170 rims instead of ST200 since they are both the same size and inset (7Jx17 ET49) and the bolt-cover looks cooler and more smooth imho.

Frank

[blackice111288]

It does? I read that it was stopped at the very final second. Have you seen any on the street (which would be hard to recognize since they seem to use the std. 6-spoke 16" rims and only has the flat thin wing).

This one right?
http://speedycars.chinacars.com/wallpaper2/mercury/Mercury%20Cougar%20S%202000%20-%2001.jpg

Frank
yes i belive i have seen a couple, and im pretty sure i've seen a few for sale in the paper. i'll do a google search for you and tell ya what i find. -^

[blackice111288]

http://www.nctd.com/review-intro.cfm?Vehicle=2001_Mercury_Cougar&ReviewID=867

if it wasn't a "S" (even though im pretty sure it was) then it was an XR or whatever the other top of the line model was.

[VQ]

Well if your gonna do a suspension setup, might as well get it done to suit you then what the ford engineers designed it for.

[Frank N. O.]

Hmm well I guess it doesn't exist after all, apart from a single prototype.

Vq, well I'm sure I'd like the ST200 and even more sure that I don't know how to get a costum-set assembled and especially sure that I won't like hard ride and ground-scraping clearence.

Ok I guess that's it, thanks for the replies.
Frank

[VQ]

That's the thing now adays, you can have whatever settings you like from a suspension shop, there are so many different suspension setups you can get, only if you want hard suspension would good suspension shop give you that.

[Frank N. O.]

Well as I said, I'm sure the stock ST200 setup will be perfect for me and I don't know any details about setups anyway to make a costum-order and it's not that important. And lastly, such a costum-setup would surely cost a lot of dosh, a lot more than the premade parts from Ford so....

Frank