In my trove of old mags, I found this write in question.
Any drum braked Cougars with 428 found? 
cont’d
John Baumann restored a red / black / black '68 1/2 428CJ XR-7 about 15 years ago that had manual drum brakes and no power steering on the Marti Report, along with a 3.50 open rear axle ratio. The 4.30 ratio was the most common on '68 1/2 428CJ Mustangs so I do not doubt the letter at all, it sounds reasonable.
Except the part about a 350 horse Chevelle beating it. You would have to pull a couple of spark plug wires off a 428CJ Mustang to make it slower than a 350 horse 396 Chevelle.
Maybe the guy was just a poor driver, Royce. 
Interesting that a 428 car would be assembled with drum brakes. 
Whether true or not the belief at the time was that disc brakes cause a drag that hurt ETs ! So lots of buyer shyed away from ordering them for that reason. Also by ordering manual brakes you saved the weight of the booster.
It is true the Chevelle blows him off, it was part of the bet when the Chevelle lost.
OMG please don’t’ ban me if that was not appropriate
Personally I would think the initial letter was written by a Chevy guy trying to dog on Mustangs
If you want to compare ratios compare 4:11 and 4:10 that is surprising , definitely 4:10s
Mine is a “Q” code w/ram air SCJ and it is manual drum and no power steering.
Denny
Mercury Don hit the nail on the head. Most of the big time drag racers, when "ordering " a car, would specify drum brakes and non power steering. Made perfect sense weight wise. They’d also remove the spare tire, jack, back seat and any other non essential pieces at the track!
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