Left: Officially Twilight Blue Metallic, this stunning color lends itself great to the Blue Max package, which consists of the lower grey striping, luggage rack, red accent striping in the molding, and special badging. The car is still based on an LS, although there is no LS badging.

Left: The stock interior, not long after purchase.

Left: Although quite a clean car, there were some issues (mismatched paint, rust, dents, etc.) that prevented it from being a pure show car. Mechanically it had a few eccentricites as well, especially with the engine, which had to be replaced, and a fried AOD transmission.

Left: The rarer, first-version Blue Max Edition emblem with the Mercury "M" graced the sides. Eventually I swapped out the later Blue Max emblem, which had the Cougar cat head in the center.

Left: To make the interior a little more comfortable I installed a pair of good used buckets from a parted out '88 XR7, along with its console, dash panels and matching sport steering wheel. The car was converted to floor shift when the replacement transmission was installed. The stereo system was rewired and upgraded as well.

Left: A set of 15" turbine rims made the exterior look fantastic. As time moved on, though, I reassessed my vehicle situation and came to the conclusion that I had to get rid of a car (not enough garage space). I liked this car but was never really in love with it. In the summer of 2006 it was sold to a very worthy family.