1967 Mercury Cougar - k718cougar

Modified Mustangs & Fords, thank you for the picture and write up about my ’67 Cougar in the August 2008 edition!  

I have had friends from all over the U.S. calling to say they saw it in your magazine.  Some of the info in the “Reader’s Roundup” article "Competitive Cat" is a bit dated as it is from 2003.  The car still has a .020” over, SRP 12 to 1, 351W with a stock crank, and Eagle H-beam rods.  The World Products cast iron Sr. heads were replaced with aluminum AFR 205 that has stainless steel 2.08/1.60 valves and the one-time use NOS has since been removed.  The same T&D shaft rocker arms that operated the World Products valves now operate on the AFR heads.  The Engle solid roller cam gave way to a slightly larger Comp Cams solid roller.  The current cam has 262/268 degrees of duration at .050” and .672” lift for intake and exhaust with a 106 lobe separation.  A custom set of 1 7/8” headers with 3 ½” collectors replaced the Hooker 1 5/8”.  The car still wears the same Demon 825 cfm carb, Hughes 8” 4900 stall converter, and reverse valve body C-4 trans, but the rear ratio was changed to a cut-back and polished set of 4.22s.  The reason for this change was because the AFR heads allowed the engine to rev so quickly and higher, I was afraid the stock crank may depart from the race car.  I try to keep the finish line RPM to about 7000 RPM, but with the old ratio and the AFR heads, the engine would pass the traps at about 7500!  Since the changes, the car has made a best pass of 10.785 @ 126.01 MPH without NOS and a 60’ time of 1.54 seconds.  All of this took place at Bakersfield, Ca (Famoso Raceway).  Still not bad with an all steel body, slapper bars, nine-inch slicks, and no trans-brake.  The car runs on an average of low 10.80s.  There are no plans to install any NOS or other power adders to the car, EVER!  I recently took the car to the famous 1/8 mile track “TOYOTA Drag Strip at Irwindale” (Irwindale, Ca) and after changing the rear ratio to a set of 5.00s for the 1/8 mile track only, the car ran 6.773 at 100.49 MPH which loosely converts to 10.62 in the quarter mile.  The best 60’ time at Famoso was 1.54, but for Irwindale it dropped the 60’ times to 1.465 possibly due to the rear gearing and excellent traction!  A 393 stroker is on the board when it comes time for a rebuild.  Thanks again, Dave…