The Car That got me Started

The car that snapped my brain into it's automotive (for lack of a better word) obsession was very unusual in the car world. Most kids ride in an uncle's Porsche, Ferrari, Corvette, Jaguar... you get the point, but I fell in love with my (now future Brother in Law) sister's boyfriend's 1999 Mercury cougar. 
At the time I really hated that guy, but damn was that car awesome. The car was far from stock, but it was my first taste of how great a properly modified car could be. The list of modifications was rather extensive, but the biggest part of that car's character was with the addition of the 3 liter duratec engine. Stock the car came with a 2.5 liter engine producing a measly 170 bhp, but its replacement added 50 extra horsepower, and buckets of torque. Driving this car is seriously like trying to fight an alligator while riding on the back of, well, a cougar. The addition of a quaife limited slip differential made this rocketship a torque steering, fire breathing monster out of the hole. Trying to convince a person that this car only made 200 whp is impossible, they simply will not believe you. 

Watch the video here:

Both of those videos were recorded when the car was limping on three cylinders, I've never seen a car drive so well well with holes in half the pistons. These cougars, they're troopers.