The FIRST engine ever to impress me on looks alone was that of the Jaguar XK, with it`s lovely polished alloy rocker covers and carbs and black enamelled exhaust manifold, impressive indeed for a young mechanically minded yoof..
Thus the Kougar with it`s Jag engine and strong space-frame construction aligned with race car looks has a built to last appearance that seems hard to ignore..? However on balance all those advantages are in some way undermined when practicality comes to the fore, either for day to day weather conditions in the UK where rain is no stranger, but even on too hot sunny days, regular Kougar usage seems to require quite a bit more..err.. determination than might ever be the case in a Trad Morgan..? .... ........
STTom, I suspect but for the efforts of Bill Fink and some others, there would be far fewer Morgans in the US and perhaps Canada, than there currently are, given it was emissions and safety regs that had created a barrier to Morgans being imported all those years ago. Thus the chances of kit car and other small volume manufacturers like Kougar from outside the US entering your market ..err..legally, seems very unlikely...?
The Kougar has similar weather equipment to a trad Morgan i.e. windscreen, hood and tonneau. Admittedly the hood isn't user friendly, but as someone who almost never puts the hood up anyway, I didn't find it any less practical than a trad Morgan. Let's face it most of these cars, including trad Morgans, are predominantly fair weather cars these days anyway.
Although Kougar Cars still exist, the current owner has pretty much put them into hibernation while he concentrates on building toolroom replicas of D Type Jaguars. His first exposure to Kougar was many years ago as a panel beater working for Lynx Engineering - restoring genuine C and D Types. He was so impressed with his first drive of a Kougar which "cost less than a set of wheels for a D Type" and outperformed the real thing, that many years later he bought the company. Incidentally the car that he worked on all those years ago was owned by motoring journalist and commentator Simon Taylor and was regularly featured in Classic and Sportscar. I was fortunate to own it some years later and it was indecently quick.
There are several Kougars in the USA, both left and right hand drive. Surprising really given the low production numbers. Here's one.
