Merry christmas to me, how I almost got a 71 hemi Cuda Conv, cheap!

[1969chargerrtse]

So every year on Christmas Eve my Aunt has dinner at her house around 6:00, they eat pasta and seafood all night long.  I'm close to her son (my cousin) and haven't seen either of them for quite sometime.  I've been in the holiday spirit and decide tonight I'll swing by.  I drop in and give all the normal, hello's, to everyone . Soon were sitting at the dinner table when my cousin sitting next to me ask, how is the Charger is coming?  I start to tell him, it's moving along very slowly but I'm picking up parts here and there.    There's an older man to my right with his older wife, it's a bit noisy at the table but he Say's,  What do you have?  I say a 69 Charger R/T.  He Say's,  You want a 71 Cuda Conv?  I say What?   With in seconds my car is on a trailer and gone in my mind (can't afford both) .  I'm sorry, did you say 71 Cuda conv?    Yes I have one.  You do?  Yea, been sitting in my garage for years.  At this point, I can't even think straight, my forehead is starting to sweat as I try hard to keep a straight face, his wife giggles, another person at the table Say's "Merry Christmas", to which I reply, yea you ain't kidding.  A little silence but at this time I'm saying to myself, please God let him continue with something like Yea, it's got two big carbs and always just drank to much gas.  Or, it's got this stupid looking pistol shifter thing.  Anyway, while I'm dreaming his wife Say's , Yep, 71 cougar conv.      After I picked up the pieces of myself off the floor, I asked what size engine?  Did Cuda's have 351's?   

[rav440]

that sux !!! how does he get CUDA from cougar ?  or was he saying cuga ? getto for cougar , and ya mis uda stu him 

[1969chargerrtse]

that sux !!! how does he get CUDA from cougar ?  or was he saying cuga ? getto for cougar , and ya mis uda stu him 

It was a nice thought for a short time, outside of the 69 Charger/ Daytona/Bird, it's my favorite Mopar.  71 Cuda, just sounded like 71 cou  gar.  And I said " You have a 71 Cuda ( conv mind you)?"  and he said , Yes.    So of course in my mind after all the barn find stories I've read, it's a Hemi conv Dana 4 spd, In survivor condition.  Actually, I'm gonna go look at the 71 COUGAR, just for the fun of it.  Nice car if he gives it away (cheap).

[bull]

I didn't know the Cougars came in a convertible... but then I probably don't care either. Well, at least you didn't go all the way over there to look and then find out it's a Cougar. Funny how some people mix and match car model names without really thinking about it.

[1969chargerrtse]

I didn't know the Cougars came in a convertible... but then I probably don't care either. Well, at least you didn't go all the way over there to look and then find out it's a Cougar. Funny how some people mix and match car model names without really thinking about it.

Hey, they made conv's, I don't think  I'll buy it as the Charger has me dead broke.  But if I do , I'll post it.  One of my best friends is retired and is looking for projects, I'll go with him and one of us will come back with it, if it's a good deal.  Love old cars.  Love , love conv's.  It's only one town over.

[BrianShaughnessy]

My friend has a 71 Cougar ragtop...         It's no 'Cuda.

I thought I had a pic somewhere on the 'puter but I must have trashed it.    Unless it's a cream puff I'd leave it where it sits.  They don't hold any value compared to earlier years vs. the cost, time and effort to put them together.   

[AJ1966]

If he doesn't know much about the car, you might be able to get it cheap!  Let me know more about it!  The chances of finding people too ignorant to know what they have are dwindling, if anything, people over-value the cars they have.  I still can't believe how much 2nd gen Chargers have gone up over the years since my mom bought hers about 15 years ago.   

[1969chargerrtse]

If he doesn't know much about the car, you might be able to get it cheap!  Let me know more about it!  The chances of finding people too ignorant to know what they have are dwindling, if anything, people over-value the cars they have.  I still can't believe how much 2nd gen Chargers have gone up over the years since my mom bought hers about 15 years ago.   

I hear ya AJ, at the cruise night you and I were at, I was showing people my car, that needs work and cost 30,000.00 and they're going, yea, got this R/T with Air for 7,000.00 or that one for 5,000.00.  Oh man have they gone up, and from what I see on ebay, they are still up, and the 30k I spent doesn't look so bad.  I'll keep you in mind after I see it.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

  Anyway, while I'm dreaming his wife Say's , Yep, 71 cougar conv.      After I picked up the pieces of myself off the floor, I asked what size engine?  Did Cuda's have 351's?   

Didn't I tell ya to lay off the eggnog? 

Great story  

[1969chargerrtse]

  Anyway, while I'm dreaming his wife Say's , Yep, 71 cougar conv.      After I picked up the pieces of myself off the floor, I asked what size engine?  Did Cuda's have 351's?   

Didn't I tell ya to lay off the eggnog? 

Great story  

    You crack me up.

[41husk]

I have read that the challenger design was taken from the cougar,  They actually brought a cougar in to model.  Not a bad looking car

[Ghoste]

Was it taken from it as much as had the clay styling done beside one to target it it specifically in the market?

[GeneralLeeTESH]

I took my buddy AL Gold Panning yesterday (12/24) and we ran into a COUGAR here on the Puyallup River (3 miles North of the town of Orting) ! I had an intense and immediate adrenaline RUSH, which I felt behind my eyeballs. The Game warden has beeen tracking it all week. Thank God the Cougar ran up river and away from us. All WE had was a shovel if it attacked us ! The IRONY of it all-is my son Wrestles for the "Sumner Panthers". We were half way between Sumner and Orting on the riverbed and saw the COUGAR sitting under the bridge by himself sheltered from the rain and on the Black sandbar where we were going to set up our Sloose box !
Pics below show the prints, etc.
-The TESH

[1969chargerrtse]

O.K, so I call the guy the other day and he is not home.  I ask his wife " can I just swing by and take a quick look? "  NO.  O.K, have him call me at home.  Oddly enough, I run into him at a mall while I'm  working on  an Escalator, we talk and he says he'll call me New Years day.    I say, call around 8:00am.  So come around 1:00 I call him.  Hi, I'm on the road can I swing by?  No,  I'm going out, will you be around this weekend?  I say, Ahhh, I don't know?  You know what, if you want me to come up, you have my home number just call me.   Sorry people, thats just me, no Patience at all for people that say things and don't back it up.  It's a 71 Cougar, not a 71 Cuda convert.  Geeez.

[Shakey]

I'm gonna guess the New England accent played a major role in this confusion.

Couga - Cuda

Like the good lookin' chick I was chatin' up at a bar in Boston a number of years ago stated that "she wanted to go potty with me"         

[Brock Samson]

Great story,  you wanted him to say "Cuda"...
as to the Cougar being the target of the Challenger, that is correct, the chally was to be an upmarket version of the Barracuda like the Cougar was to the Mustang,.. slightly more expensive, somewhere in the marketing process detroit figured out they could get more profit from the cars by loading them up with options and that preformance options combined with luxury packages spelled big profits, hence the RS SS Camaros,.. RT SEs, XR-7 GTEs. If you look at the market in that time frame, the number of options went through the roof, of course the Hi-po stuff took it on the chin once the insurance and Govt. Nox standards took hold in the mid '70s,..
by then the cars were loaded to the gills with all this luxury and safety equipment like the 5 MPH bumbers and yet were strangeled by the primitive pollution controls and falling lead content in the gas,.. then combine that with the gas crisis and the way engines were being tuned for fuel economy and the once great american cars were dinosaurs by '74.

 

[dodgecharger-fan]

I'd take a Couger 'vert.....