Watch A Tub Of Lard Battle It Out Against The Coupes Of The 1990s

Welcome to Sunday Matinee, where we highlight classic car reviews or other longer videos I find on YouTube. Kick back and enjoy this blast from the past.

Though it's not really remembered as a massive success today, the last generation Mercury Cougar took the motoring world by storm in the late 1990s with its dramatic styling and V6 engine. As we can see from this Top Gear clip from 1997 or 1998, Jeremy Clarkson was eager to get his hands on one too.

Unfortunately, the boys at Ford Europe broke their promises to lend him one for testing, so he was forced to replace it with a tub of lard instead. Makes perfect sense to me.

It may have been for the best. I'm not sure the Ford Cougar (as it was known in Europe) would have fared well against the crowd in this elimination test: the E36 BMW 328i, the Toyota Celica, the Honda Prelude, the Mercedes-Benz CLK, the Peugeot 406, the Volvo C70, the Fiat Coupé, the Nissan 200SX, and the Alfa Romeo GTV6.

One by one Clarkson scratches these cars off his top coupe list for various reasons, then puts the highest-ranking ones through their paces in a road test. Which one do you think will win? The results may surprise you.

Do you agree with the winner? Which one would you take today?