Drag Illustrated Issue 114, October 2016 | Page 115

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The Hedger Brothers

Three Plus
One

A

lthough this cool and classy 1971
Mercury Cougar XR7 owned by the
Hedger Brothers is a fine example of a
well cared for car, the first time these
Kentucky siblings caught a glimpse of the vehicle
on that fateful day back in 1980, the car wasn’t
in nearly as fine as condition as it is today. In fact,
the Merc’ was sitting partially in a corn field at the
edge of some random person’s yard, and had sunk
so deeply into the ground that mud was running
inside the car through the open doors. For some
reason though, Bernie (far left) his brother, Bill
(center) and Steve fell in love with the car. The trio
bought it for nearly nothing, and immediately went
to work on its restoration – not the least of which
involved an extensive cleaning. It didn’t take long
before the Mercury was in fabulous driving condition and was very briefly tagged, insured and put
on the street until the brothers decided to make
a bracket car out of it some 36-years ago. Soon after the brothers made the conversion from street
cruiser to five-second race car, they towed the Cougar to nearby Thornhill Dragway in Morning View,
Kentucky, which is only about a 10-minute drive
from their home in Covington. The brothers are
blessed with an abundance of drag strips nearby,
including Edgewater Sports Park, which is just
over the state line in Cleves, Ohio. Bernie and Bill
each take turns driving the car, while Bill serves
as crew chief. Despite being without his sight, Bill
has a keen sense of touch and is quite gifted when
it comes to performing mechanical work on the car.
The brothers keep a detailed logbook on the Mercury, which reflects many years of racing enjoyment, with no less than 6,500 fun-filled quartermile passes on the car. “It used to clock 9.40s in the
quarter; this was back when we had the small block
Cleveland engine in it,” says Steve. These days they
compete exclusively in area eighth-mile events.
The 462ci big block that currently motivates the
Cougar has been bored and stroked to 502 cubic
inches of displacement, which the brothers estimate produces over 800 horsepower. The car features a Powerglide transmission, 9-inch Ford rear
end, tips the scales at 3,030-pounds (less driver)
and has impressively clocks 5.70s at 124mph. The
brothers are life-long Ford enthusiasts, who also
have a Rick Jones-built Mustang that they are currently putting the finishing touches on and hope to
debut later this year. As for their vintage Mercury
Cougar, they couldn’t imagine life without it. “It
will be up to our children whether or not they decide to keep it after we’re gone, but while we’re still
around we’ve definitely made our feelings clear
about this car.”
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