16 replies to this topic

[dbw]

anyone out there know anything about the early history of this english jag powered car??

[Stoatspeed]

How early? I know one of the (several) people who sort-of owned the business for a while in the early 90s, but I suspect you are looking for the beginnings of the firm ..

[Paul Parker]

Coincidentally a beige coloured Kougar motored past me in Bishop's Stortford yesterday.

I cannot recall now where this company emanated from but if you e-mail jwm.questions@kelsey.co.uk they might be able to help. This is Jaguar World Magazine and they are very helpful and knowledgeable.

[Peter Morley]

I just found this while looking for something else:

When the name of Crosthwaite & Gardiner is mentioned in conversation, folk will conjure up their own idea of what those two names represent. Having got together, Dick and John started the business back in the Sixties and rapidly established a rapport with one another that would last for decades. They moved to Buxted in 1969 and started to build the business.

Throughout the Seventies various challenges were undertaken which ranged from dabbling in FFI600 racing to running a full blown Le Mans entry for Alain de Cadanet, achieving a pretty impressive result in 1978 finishing 3rd!

Whilst all this racing activity was going on the guys still found time to create some, (nowadays well documented), Frazer Nash replicas and also to come up with a design for a `kit' car, resembling the aforementioned FN, powered by Jaguar engines which was known as the `Kougar', the project was sold on and is still being produced today.

[Hezza]

Hi,

I don’t know if this will be of much help but here goes… As has already been mentioned, the Kougar Sports began life as a Crosthwaite & Gardiner project although it was employee Rick Stevens who was apparently responsible for the car’s design. Stylistically, the Sports was meant to evoke the Frazer Nash Le Mans Rep and cycle-winged HWM, and it originally featured running gear robbed from the Jaguar S-Type (plus MGB steering rack). The Cougar (soon changed to Kougar so as not to upset Ford) was officially announced at the July 1977 Pageant of Motoring at Lingfield racecourse, Surrey (although as many as six body/chassis were already in varying stages of completion by then). The prototype was bodied in aluminium although ‘production’ cars had glassfibre shells.

Initially, the Kougar Sports was produced under the Storcourt Wells Ltd banner with Buxted Motors of Sussex handling the marketing although, and I may be wrong about this, the car was still being built by Stevens during the 1980s. During this time, the Kougar line-up was bolstered by the arrival of the Ferrari 750-ish Monza. Production rights passed to Phil Street in 1990 (I think) before moving on again in 1994. Sorry, I’m not 100% sure what happened next.

Best wishes,

Richard Heseltine

[Stoatspeed]

I think my connection is the "what happened next" ....
The timing seems right for it to be John Killick who took over the venture in 1994. John had built a very nice dark blue Kougar in the early 80s while he was working as a body development engineer at Jaguar (many parts of the car received expert "help" from various members of the Experimental shop!). At the time, he was one of the crowd of misfits who were lodging with Norman and Nan Dewis at Mill Farm, and it is rumoured that the mortal remains of the S-type which gave up its components to the Kougar actually got buried at the farm one weekend - some judicious work with a tractor-mounted backhoe covered up the evidence!
John sold the car when he embarked on a major renovation of a Daimler SP250, but kept an interest in the fate of the Kougar brand. He came from the Brighton area, so regarded them as a "home" team of sorts. He left Jaguar shortly before I did (1990?) to take control of Red Triangle Motors, the Alvis spares company. After this, he somehow gained control of Kougar - the details are hazy - but I don't know how long this went on, but there is a picture on the web http://hugop.users.b...gars/racing.htm showing him driving a Kougar in a speed event in 1997. I moved to the US around this time and lost contact with him. Last I heard, he was Director of the Mulliner division of Bentley, producing bespoke motor cars for the gentry, so his ongoing passion for special cars was no doubt in play.

One amusing story about John's Kougar - he drove it to Le Mans one year (as did a large crowd of Jaguar employees) and somehow got involved with the start of one of the historic demonstrations and was waved out onto the track for a few laps! The Kougar did have a very authentic look, so it is possible the gendarmes were confused, but it is also possible that Julian Ghosh (latterly President of the VSCC) was involved in the scam since he was good friend of John's and I think had a C-type (legitimately!) in the parade.

Every part of the puzzle might help ...

Dave

[David Birchall]

I like the Kougars but didn't make the connection with C&G and the FN LeMans Rep--what I would love to have

The problem for me with the styling of the Kougars was always with the nose-it just wasn't right and the latest iteration is even worse! The publisher of Sports Car Classics mag, whose name I forget, had one and he had a new nose made in alloy by Lynx Engineering and it transformed the car. Must be a fun thing to drive...

[Huw Jadvantich]

There is still a missing link there - John Killick had a couple of long time mates from Sevenoaks area who had been involved in Rover V8 tuning (They were quite well known but at the moment the company's name escapes me). I am pretty sure that they owned the whole deal for some time, but long before John took it over. I drove John's Kougar myself at Goodwood and it was truly a nice device, however he had this very spindly steering wheel on it and no belts to speak of. The steering wheel must have had about 1.5" of for-and-aft movement at the rim when the boss was standing still. Since this was the only thing for my top half to hang on to it all took some getting used to as the car had modern tyres and quite high levels of grip. Whilst the wheel was very 'period' I reckon with something a good deal stiffer the handling could have been expoited to make an extremely quick car. Eoin Young had one at one time.
I agree with David Birchall about the nose, I was always sketching something different ( I don't think i dared show John) but never came up with a coherent solution.

[Andrew Kitson]

Here is one in the paddock at Snetterton last weekend.

[Ian McKean]

Originally posted by David Birchall
The problem for me with the styling of the Kougars was always with the nose-it just wasn't right and the latest iteration is even worse! The publisher of Sports Car Classics mag, whose name I forget, had one and he had a new nose made in alloy by Lynx Engineering and it transformed the car. Must be a fun thing to drive...

The wings or should I say mudguards look wrong also

[David Birchall]

Originally posted by Ian McKean


The wings or should I say mudguards look wrong also

Yeah, they look more like wings !!

[asteinha]

Hi,
have a look to my German Kougar Page :-)

www.kougar.de

Gruß
Toni

[Frank S]

Are these a Kougar or Cougar?

http://www.fototime....A7/standard.jpg
http://www.fototime....08/standard.jpg
http://www.fototime....80/standard.jpg

Jaguar Club of San Diego Concours, a few weeks ago.

--
Frank Sheffield
San Diego CA
USA

[asteinha]

Hi,
the 3 pics are a very nice Kougar .

Gruß
Toni
www.kougar.de

[Kougarman]

Kougar's are great fun to drive, fast and loud, I know I have one, 3.8 litres of Jaguar straight 6 in a car weighing a ton, not for the faint hearted!!

I'm also Secretary of the Kougar Owner's Club.

[Kougarman]

[quote name='Frank S' date='Sep 12 2008, 05:37' post='3300127']
Are these a Kougar or Cougar?

http://www.fototime....A7/standard.jpg
http://www.fototime....08/standard.jpg
http://www.fototime....80/standard.jpg

Jaguar Club of San Diego Concours, a few weeks ago.

--
Frank Sheffield
San Diego CA
USA


Yes its a Kougar and a nice one too!!

[antonvrs]

Didn't the late Henry ManneyIII have a Kougar? ISTR it was modified to make it look even more retro.
Anton