Luxury and performance did not go hand-in-hand back in the 1960’s as it does in the modern era. When Mercury introduced the Cougar, it was one of the first pairings of muscle car performance and plush amenities to hit the road. Many enthusiasts stuck with the Ford Mustang due to the simplicity and availability of parts, but there are still Cougar aficionados out there.

Ron Aschtgen has run a best time of 10.17 at 135.5 in the quarter-mile in the 1968 Cougar, but this car the potential go much faster.

Ron Aschtgen of Moreno Valley, CA had been racing a Ford Lightning for sometime, but like most car guys he involved in a little horse-trading on the side.

When Animals Attack

When a motivated seller listed a 1968 Mercury Cougar Aschtgen knew it was time to let go of the Lightning and imagine himself in a Mercury. After some wheeling and dealing, Mr. Aschtgen became the proud owner of the black 1968 Mercury Cougar.

This particular Cougar is not sporting a standard issue 302, what lies beneath the hood is something larger and considerably more powerful. Aschtgen’s Mercury is powered by 427 cubic inch engine complete with a Dart block. When one hears the name Dart, visions of wheel standing drag cars typically come to mind and in this case it is entirely possible that ’68 could easily pull the front wheels.

Presently, the Cougar’s ET at the drag strip is limited by the use drag radials and the foot brake on the starting line. With Aschtgen being 64-years-old, he no longer felt the need to experience a brutal wheel standing launch; however the desire to have a seriously fast street/strip car is something that one never grows too old to enjoy.

This Cat’s Packin’ Quite a Few Horses

Luis Araya at Payless Auto Repair in Downey, CA was responsible for creating the powerful combination powering Aschtgen’s Cougar. With the Dart block serving as the foundation for the 427 the rest of the supporting components are equally impressive; the combination includes an Eagle crank, Probe pistons, Eagle rods and 700 lift solid roller cam. Topping off the potent grouping of parts are a set of Dart cylinder heads and an Edelbrock Super Victor intake.

It is hard to beat the iconic combination of Weld skinnies wrapped with Mickey Thompson tires. The '68 has a pair of 15x3.5" wheels in the front and a set of 15x10" wheels with drag radials in the rear.

As if the 427-engine was somehow lacking for power, a Vortech supercharger helps take this from a mild Cougar to one with a lot of attitude and perhaps rabies. Amazingly, this car runs on pump gas albeit a considerable amount of it.

Fuel economy goes out the window when it comes to forced induction and drag racing, gallons per mile might be a more apt description. Dual Aeromotive 1000 pumps, an Aeromotive fuel regulator and a blow-through Holley 750 cfm carburetor keep the hungry beast full of 91-octane.

Thanks to the generous amount of horsepower and torque created by the engine a few safety items were needed to ensure driver safety and to make sure the car could survive abuse at the local drag strip. At a certain point normal parts will fail in spectacular fashion when subjected to amounts of copious power; with that in mind a Fab 9 rear end with 35-spline axles seemed like the obvious choice. In order to complete the rear differential a set of 4.11 gears and spool were added to get Cougar moving down the track or street.

Transferring the power to the rear tires would require a stout transmission capable to standing up to the stress of racing and fair amount of power.  A Performance Automatic Super Comp full manual C4 with a trans-brake along with a 3,000 stall were selected to complete the drivetrain.

One of the uncommon features of Aschtgen’s ’68 Cougar is the exhaust system. One might ask how there could be anything uncommon in an exhaust system when it basically consists of headers, tubing and mufflers or the lack of. When Aschtgen purchased the car, the previous owner had an issue with how noisy the Cougar was and was concerned about the potential for a fix it ticket.

Wait, Ten What?

With the desire to keep the Cougar’s roars to minimum the original owner kept adding mufflers until the sound was sufficiently stifled; a total of ten 4” inlet/outlet mufflers were used to subdue to the raucous roar. Aschtgen has no plans to remove 4, 6 or even 8 of the stainless steel mufflers at present, but things may change at some point in the future.

This Cougar is ready to pounce thanks to front coil-overs and ladder bars with rear coil overs. A set of Mickey Thompson 295/65/15 drag radials are mounted on a pair of Weld 15×10 wheels to help the Aschtgen get traction on or off the track. Like any street/strip car worth its salt, a set of 15×3.5 Weld Wheels are wrapped with Mickey Thompson rubber.

With plenty of street legal rubber on the car Aschtgen enjoys cruising the Cougar around town, to car shows, participating in the Hot Rod Reunion and the occasional trip to the local drag strip. Since the car does double duty, the brake system needed to stand up to the rigors of racing as well as tolerate the stop-and-go nature of city traffic; this dual purpose car features Wildwood brakes in the front and rear.

Watch This Cat Run

As it stands Aschtgen’s Cougar has run a best time of 10.17 at 135.5 mph with a 1.43 60-ft time in the 1/4-mile.  Thanks to the potent combination the Cougar also ran a 6.41 in the 1/8-mile; sure that does not sound all that impressive but when you find out that Aschtgen lifted 3/4 of the way down the track it becomes a little more impressive.

If he had run full throttle the rest of the way it would have resulted in his tech card being pulled and the Cougar being loaded on the trailer for not meeting the safety requirements for running under 6.40 in the 1/8.

Currently the car has a roll bar and 5-point harnesses, but if Aschtgen wants to make full use of the supercharged 427 and use the trans brake he will have to make some additional changes.

It takes the support and help from friends and family to make the most of anything on the track, but finding the right car is deserving of thanks as well. Mr. Aschtgen wanted to thank Atilita Herria for selling him the ’68 Cougar. Additionally, Aschtgen wanted to thank his son, Ron Aschtgen, owner of Outlaw Motorsports in Riverside, CA and Luis Araya at Payless Auto Repair in Downey, CA for their help with the car.

Along with the mechanical help and labor, Aschtgen wanted to make certain to thank his wife “for her never ending support of everything that I have done in our 45 years together.”