#st24

The Ford Cougar is based on the rather successful Mk2 Mondeo, with the Cougar in essence a coupe version of the tweaked ST24.  Now the ST24, rightly revered at the time, had wishbones made out a substance with similar properties to that of cheese. And a crumbly one at that like Cheshire, not a decent hard one such as a good Manchego (it would probably have lasted longer than the monkey metal Ford used).  Anyway you get the idea, Mongys of that era consumed wishbones as if they were a routine service item.

The good news is the Cougar used the front suspension of the ST24′s yet-to-be-born* troublesome sibling, the ST200.  These were much better and tougher and the suspension components generally lasted the life of the car in most cases.  

The bad news is that parts for these venerable old beasts aren’t easily obtained (ignore claims by ECP etc that their 90 quid pattern parts are Cougar specific; they ain’t), so off to Poland for a pair for about £170 via fleabay.  Re-bushing isn’t an option either, unless you happen to have access to a polyurethane mold and facilities.  All in it’s took our spend to about £370 including MOT fees, so well under the £500 budget.  It would have been cheaper but the work needed doing in a garage, a garage that actually took convincing to undertake the work as they felt it was dead horse. Some persuading by one of the party, Jacknife, resolved that issue.

The handling still isn’t right for me though.  All Mondeos were renowned for their handling, the Cougar even more so with additional stiffness and wider tyres.  This one still wanders a touch for me, more on this once we get the NS bearing swapped as we think it’s just the tracking off.