1972 Mercury Cougar Convertible According to “Cougar by the numbers” (Book produced by Kevin Marti of Marti Autoworks) there were 69 Standard Q-code convertibles and 368 XR-7 Q-code convertibles built in the ’72 model year. The climate had begun to change as the muscle car era ended. No longer able to use gross power numbers, the manufacturers had to use net power figures which dropped the once mighty figures down substantially.