Jay Leno revives a lost Detroit legend, the 428 Cobra Jet-powered Cougar Eliminator
Published on Nov 08, 2025 at 5:01 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Nov 06, 2025 at 4:25 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Ben Thompson
Jay Leno was able to get his hands on a Detroit legend, the iconic 1969 428 Cobra Jet Eliminator.
The Cobra Jet checks all the boxes you’d expect a legendary pony car to check.
Starting with the name, which is probably the coolest you’ve heard today.
They call it the Mercury Cougar Eliminator.
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The latest car featured on the Jay Leno’s Garage YouTube channel is an American icon from the 1960s.
Launched in 1969 to compete with the Ford Mustang, the Mercury Cougar Eliminator came with a 428-inch V8 (hence the name), and it was rare.
Only 2,250 units were built that year.
The engine produces 335 horsepower and 440LB-FT of torque, giving it a 0-60MPH time of around 5.7 seconds.
The owner of this particular model had modified it and it now produces 500-600 horsepower.
But that’s not why Jay Leno drove it.
The main reason why he drove it is that he thinks this car epitomizes the golden era of pony cars and Detroit, when cars were fast, but also robust.
“The fun thing with cars from this era is when they did break, you could always bring them home. You could jerry-right something,” Leno said.
It also has one of the coolest names ever.
‘Cobra Jet Mercury Cougar Eliminator’ is great answer to the question, ‘what do you drive?’
Probably the coolest car Jay Leno doesn’t own
Leno is arguably one of the most revered celebrity car collectors in the world.
His collection has a bit of everything, including fire trucks and one-off prototypes.
In total, it’s worth at least eight figures.
But this one doesn’t actually belong to him.
Like other cars featured on his channel, it belongs to a fellow collector.
Jay Leno often features cars he doesn’t actually own on this channel.
He’s often featured Ferraris that he doesn’t own, and he once made a video about ‘The Beast’, the Secret Service limo used by the US President.
Of all the cars he’s featured on his channel that he doesn’t own, this is probably the coolest.
