The 1970 El Gato concept was developed as a racier version of the Cougar, but meanwhile, the Mercury product planners were sending the production Cougar in an entirely different direction.

Unveiled to the public at the Chicago Auto Show in February of 1970, El Gato (Spanish for “the cat,” of course) was a production 1970 Mercury Cougar, but barely recognizable as such, as it was radically restyled from front to rear. The windshield was chopped several inches and laid back at a racy angle, producing a missile-like profile, while the stock Cougar’s notchback top was cut off and replaced with a fastback roof panel from a a ’69-70 Mustang Sportsroof . No hint remained of the production Cougar’s formal roofline and greenhouse.

The front end was stretched several inches forward and in the center of the grille was a prominent “Bunkie beak.” The beak was named after Ford president Bunkie Knudsen, who in his short tenure as head of the company (just 19 months) favored the pointy front-end treatment. The exterior paint was a trendy Candy Lime Gold that the Mercury PR people called Lime Moonmist. While it doesn’t show well in the existing photos, the paint was reportedly applied in a darker color below the white paint stripe and a lighter shade above it.

The interior was done up in a bright Lemon Yellow vinyl, with highback bucket seats in the front and the rear seat eliminated in favor of an elevated cargo shelf where the spare tire was stowed in the European GT fashion. Speaking of tires, EL Gato was an early application of the Firestone LXX prototype wheel/tire system, which used a heavily cantilevered tire sidewall matched to an extremely narrow (3.5 inches) alloy wheel. The early run-flat technology didn’t work out, however, as the tires failed to stay on their rims when deflated and the idea soon died.

At the rear, El Gato featured center-mounted chrome exhaust outlets, a full-width tail lamp array, and a large, offset fuel filler that could have come from an FIA race car. It’s interesting to reflect that despite the overt racing theme of the show car, the Mercury product people had entirely different plans for the production Cougar.

The Cougar was conceived as essentially a luxury version of the Ford Mustang. (See our feature Mustang in a Tuxedo: The 1967 Mercury Cougar.) But soon the car was steadily growing in size and evolving into a Mercury version of the Thunderbird. Eventually there would even be Cougar four-door sedans and Cougar station wagons before the model name was retired in 2002.