1970 might have been the zenith of the Supercar. Not that the cars prior to 1970 or the ones afterward were any slouches, but it's difficult to purchase a car today that makes the quarter mile right off the showroom floor in the mid-14's. After January 1,1971 most cars made had to run on unleaded gasoline. The insurance companies were hounding the consumer and the auto makers to slow everyone down via high rates. Detroit complied starting with the 1971 year model cars. The last of the Supercars or super powered cars were produced prior to January 1,1971 even though they were called 1971's. It took a name or some sort of gimmick to sell a car in 1970 as being hot, or just plain different. Even though your car had a sedan or pony car exterior you would tell your friends that it came equipped with Ram Air or Hurst or a Posi and that under the hood your engine was a Rat, Mouse, Hemi, Six Pak, Boss, Cobra Jet or the new Cleveland. Everything was in a name. It described the car the feeling and any thing else the manufacturer wished. The Supercars also carried along their own name now such as Charger, Z-28, The Judge, 4-4-2, Boss, Trans-Am, Spoiler, AMX, and more importantly -- ELIMINATOR! The 1970 Eliminator once again differed from the standard Cougar (code 65A) in appearance, appliances and engines. Selecting the Eliminator option, only $129.60 above the base 65A price, got you more than the dollars implied. The car was just completely different than a standard Cougar and this article will attempt to explain some of those differences. The first item which separated the new Eliminator from last year's was the new premium fuel 351-4V Cleveland engine (code M) as standard equiptment for Eliminators. This new engine was rated at 300 H.P., 10 more than last year's 351-4V Windsor. The performance crowd loved it. FoMoCo also made note of its capabilities in many of the speed specialty magazines such as Hot Rod. The new design cylinder heads were some what similar to the Boss 302's. With the new breathing capabilities came increased fuel economy, better emissions and room for the hot rodder to modify. The engine was a clear favorite as optional engines for all of FoMoCo's lines in 1970, and just about any of the available transmissions were installed behind it. Although somewhat changed, it is still around in 1982. The 428-4V Cobra Jet (code Q) was making it's last appearance in a Cougar for 1970. Although both a standard carbureted version and a ram air version were anounced for 1970, only standard versions were built according to FoMoCo records. The 428 was to be obsoleted by the newer Boss 429 (code Z) or by the Cobra Jet 429, but it didn't happen until 1971. The Boss 429 was listed as optional equiptment for 1970 Eliminators (not available in Standard or XR-7 models), however only two Cougars came so equipped. These were described in the June-July 1981 issue of At the Sign of the Cat. The 428 came with Select-Shift automatic transmission or the four speed manual, now with the Hurst shifter assembly. The axle ratios most popularly installed behind automatic transmissions was 3.25 and 3.50 with four-speed cars. The third engine to be available to customers was the Boss 302(code G). This was also available only in the Eliminators. Though not quite as wild as last year's engine, it still was potent. The 1970 Boss engines had some slight cylinder head changes making it more suitable for the street. The Boss was available only with a four speed. Production line Eliminators started rolling off the Dearborn assembly line right along with the firsts of the Cougars. 2200 were built for 1970. Down slightly from last year, but then all car lines were down from last year. Any regular Cougar (65A) could get any color, however the Eliminator came only in six colors. Competition yellow (code D), Comp. blue (code J), Comp. orange (code 1), Comp. green (code Z), Comp. gold (code V), and pastel blue (code N) were those colors. All 1970's had the popular high back bucket seats. The standard interior design was similar to the standard Cougar, but with a few exceptions. Standard seats were black vinyl (code 1A), medium blue (code 1B), or white and black (AA). Opting for the decor group got you seats of black and white houndstooth check (code 3A), or comfort weave vinyl in black (5A), blue (5B) or white and black (EA). The vinyl roof was once again not available.
The exterior of the 1970 Eliminator was what really turned an eye. Wheras the standard Cougar and XR-7 carried re-designed sheet metal, underneath they were similar to'1969 models. So the outside was once again jazzed up like the 69 Eliminators with a black vinyl front spoiler, a hard non-reflective hood air scoop (very similar to the Comet GT's) and a rear deck mounted spoiler which was painted the basic body color. Striping, either black or white, was much different than the 69s. Running along the entire length of the belt line was a 1 1/2" wide stripe with two 1/4" wide stripes below and parallel. The rear deck spoiler carried a rectangular 3 1/2" wide multiple stripe with ELIMINATOR inside. A 1 3/4" tall ELIMINATOR tape nameplate was placed on the rear quarters near the side marker light. There were two different hood stripe styles. The general shape of the hood stripe was trapezoidal on top of the hood crease. The narrow portion started at the hood mounted grille, then widened out as it went under the hood scoop. A pair of 1/2" wide stripes flanked the hood grille. On production models, these same two stripes ran parallel to the outer edges of the large trapezoidal stripe and under the hood scoop. Advertising photos and some early Eliminators used for test purposes depicted these side stripes as being about 1/2" wide near the grille and widening out to about 2" near the hood scoop. See detail on page 3.  The headlight doors, instead of being black and brightly polished, were completly black with no emblems either. The trim around the headlight doors was polished along the outside edges and had black tape attached to the inner flat portion. The grille in the hood was black with a polished Cougar at the top. The rear of the Eliminator was once again similar to the regular Cougar, but with some exceptions. Again the the trim around the taillights resembled the partially blackened front trim. The cast double ribs of the taillights were painted black instead of the more normal chrome. The gas tank door was black with a chrome Cougar in the center. This door was different than that used on the other Cougars.
Mucho thanks to Tom J., Jim R. and Kirk Y. of the Eliminator Registry.- WK |
The Eliminator option got you a unique dash board. It was similar to the XR-7 lay-out (302 models came with a 0-8000 tach), but it had a camera case finish. The same option also got you the competition handling package as standard equiptment. The rear axle selections were once again similar to the 1969 models. 3.25 to 4.30 ratios Traction-Lok, Drag-Pak, staggered shocks, 31 spline axles and F-70-14 tires on 6" rims all once available again on Eliminator for 1970. Wheels were covered by small "Mercury" hubcaps and bright trim rings.
Sports Car Graphic and Cars magazine did some tests on a Boss 302 equipped Elim-inator when they were new. Both went in assuming the car to be another ill handling street car and both were quite impressed with the car after they got into the actual testing a little. The Eliminators handled well and took off like a bomb. The 1/4 mile times were about 14.40 at 98 M.P.H. Top speed was 110 M.P.H. and gas economy was about 8 M.P.G. Both magazines recomended removing the stock tires and the electronic R.P.M. limiter (set at 6150 RPM), and this would easily bring the times into the 13's. All magazines agreed that it was a groovy car to own for anyone around 25, or 35 or maybe even 45. What more can be said about Cougar's Super Car climax.