Images: eBay Motors

It can be hard growing up in the shadow of an older, more successful sibling. Such was the case with Mercury’s take on the Mustang, the Cougar. While both cars were essentially the same underneath the sheet metal, Cougar sales never approached that of its closest contemporary, the Pontiac Trans Am. As a result, Cougars are a relatively rarity in the wild, and as such the handful of special edition models made with the Mercury badge are few and far between.

The rarest of all Cougars is the 1968 GT-E, which featured the legendary 427E “7.0 Liter” V8 engine. Fewer than 400 of these mythical beasts were ever built, and one managed to find its way to eBay.

The GT-E package was essentially an upgrade over the standard Cougar GT package, which up until 1968 came with a 390 cubic-inch engine. Then Ford upped the ante by offering both the 427E and the 428 Cobra Jet Ram Air V8 engines in the ’68 Cougar.

A majority of the GT-E’s came with the 427 engine though, and the package itself cost an extra $1,100 on top of the Cougar’s $2,900 base MSRP, making it one of the pricier muscle cars from the era.

As a result, only 394 Cougar GT-E’s were ever built, and the package was only available on the ’68 model year, making it quite a rare find. The last GT-E Cougar to go up for auction brought over $180,000 at auction though, making the $99,000 Buy It Now price seem like a relative bargain.

Unfortunately, there just isn’t the same market for all Mercurys like there is for old Mustangs, and this Cougar failed to sell. Would you prefer to purchase such a rare cat over a common Mustang, or does this Mercury just not do it for you?