NY ALLEY CAT
By ROB MAY and FRANK KUENNEKE
Mach 1 just to name a few, and I was hooked ever since.”
Returning to the Cat theme, this 1972 Mercury Cougar GT makes its den in Rock Tavern, NY with its owner Frank Kuenneke and his wife Jean. Frank started tinkering with engines by the time he was 12 (lawn mowers and minibikes), and it just went from there onto cars and motorcycles. “My older cousins really got me into the muscle car scene before I was 16. They had several great cars, ‘68 Torino 428 Cobra Jet, ‘70 Boss 302 Mustang, and a ‘71
The Cougar came along shortly thereafter upon getting out of high school when he found out his first employers’ best friend (Walter Cooper) was selling it. “I really admired the Cat the first time I saw her.” The Cougar was originally ordered by Walter from Daniels and West Lincoln-Mercury in Middletown, NY. That was in 1972. “In ’78, I paid $1,600, and she is still mine to this day.” The original owner was an older gentleman and ordered it with drum brakes all around and no AC. When Frank bought the Mercury, the mileage was around 40,000. The Cougar was already starting to rust out the quarter panels and the aprons under the hood. The trans was slipping, the radiator was full of muddy antifreeze, and the motor had a bad miss in it. All the original owner really did to her was oil changes, since he got that for free where he worked. “After a major tune up, trans rebuild, and a radiator re-core, she ran great. Eventually a B&M shift kit was installed and that really helped the trans perform.” Frank and his brother replaced the quarter panels in 1980, and they decided to two-tone paint it after seeing a new Caddy with that color scheme. “We drove her with one side done for about a month and after a lot of compliments on the two-tone scheme we decided we may as well do the other side.” There is no plastic anywhere in this car. “The hood is still original paint (and it shows), but my brother painted the rest in my dad’s garage. She still wears that same paint to this day. I want to repaint her, since the paint is starting to crack and craze but that would erase the memories of my brother’s hard work. I put the hood scoop on her along with the GT badging around 1980 as well.” After all the improvements over the years, the Cougar now has GT suspension and ‘67 Shelby disc brakes (Kelsey Hays reproduction). The Cat still has the original 351C 2V and FMX trans Continued Next Page
72| Motorhead Magazine - September 2021
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