February 2015 Ride of the Month is: Dennis Pierachini’s '68 Augusta Green Standard
Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce knew they needed to come up with a better name for the new company they were starting in Mountain View California. Moore Noyce sounded way to much like “more noise”. In the electronics business noise is bad and more noise could only be worse. So on July 18th 1968, they decided to name their new company Intel for Integrated Electronics. It would be fair to say that Intel would change every part of the future of humanity. Barely 30 minutes away in Milpitas California, a new Cougar would roll off the assembly line.
Gordon Moore would postulate that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit would double every two years. The truth of the statement would eventually be called Moore’s Law. Pretty heady stuff in 1968, but the only place in the new Cougar where you would find a transistor much less an Integrated Circuit, was in the radio. 1968 was a turning point for electronics and for cars. The new Cougars for 1969 would replace the wiring behind the instrument panel with a new flexible circuit board, and the race towards the automotive electronics future was underway.
Dennis Pierachini’s 1968 standard has traveled through time very much the way it came out of the factory gate back in 1968. Over 75% of the paint is original. All of the drive line is original and the engine retains its factory bore. It truly is testament to the way we were… We can see the effect of Moore’s law around us in everything we do. Modern cars have more computing power in the radio than Apollo rockets would take to the moon. Cars like Dennis’s let us remember how it used to be…
Dennis’s Story
As far back as he can remember Dennis was a car guy. Thunderbirds were his favorite until at age 7 he discovered a new coolest car ever, the '68 XR-7 purchased by a 16 year old neighbor. It was Red with a black top and black interior and it was perfect. Dennis’s first car would be a Red '67 Standard with black top and interior. There were other Cougars in the neighborhood. In 1979 a neighbor would purchase an Augusta Green '68 standard from it’s original owner. If he had been really lucky maybe he could have taken a picture of his first car and the Cougar that would ultimately become our February 2015 Ride of the Month.
Life happens and it would be many years before Dennis would own another Cougar.
It began with a phone call. The owners daughter informed Dennis that her mom was ready to sell. Amazingly enough this Cougar was located right next door to the Cougar he had fallen in love with at the age of 7. The Cougar had been parked in the garage for some time as there had been issues with the power steering (including a few fires!). The car was dusty from its time in the garage, but otherwise it was a very clean, honest, and rather plain Cougar. It did have AC and that was a must. After a short test drive Dennis gave the Cougar a bath and back in the garage it went until a new car arrived to take its place.
After getting it home, Dennis had this to say about what followed. “Once I got it home, it didn’t really need much at all. A good cleaning and detailing, a good coat of wax, and it looked pretty much like it does today”.
As far as mechanical work is concerned, I had the AC repaired and did rebuild the engine in 1995 at 153,500 miles since the timing gear went. When we disassembled the engine, the machine shop owner was very impressed – it was very clean and did not need to be over bored! He just honed the cylinders to clean them up, reconditioned the heads, and put it back together with new seals. The carburetor was rebuilt by Pony Carburetors and the engine runs great, even after sitting a few weeks between drives. It’s also had the front end rebuilt, and in 1995 I replaced the aftermarket wheels with Cougar styled steel wheels.
At its first show, the 1995 CCOA West National Show in Concord, CA, it took a first in class. I’ve also had the dash chrome redone, the driver’s seat patched, and replaced the carpet. I won the console in a drawing at the CCOA West National Show in 1997. Otherwise, the interior is original. It did sustain some minor damage to the left rear quarter panel which I had repaired in 1993, and the right front fender that was repaired by Ed and Marie in 1986 (another fender bender). I would say that about 75% of the paint is original, and since the car has always been garage kept, it looks pretty good for a 47-year old car. It presently has 182,000 miles."
“I like my cars to be very stock appearing, like they just rolled off the showroom floor. However, I have added quite a few factory accessories, like the styled steel wheels, front license plate frame, locking gas cap, rear window defogger, under hood light, RH rearview mirror, and power trunk release.”
Dennis’s enthusiasm for all things Cougar has proven so powerful that he has even enlisted his Chevy loving brother Kevin to the Cougar community. And that is a very good thing because Kevin is a mechanic by inclination and trade. Kevin helped rebuild the engine in Dennis’s Cougar and now is working on restoring a '68 XR7-G and a '68 Standard. Between the two of them many Cougars have come and gone with one ending up in Australia.
Dennis has long been active in the Cougar community, joining the Cougar Club of America back in 1980 in response to an ad in Hemming’s Motor News, placed by Tom Jacobellis, the founder of the club. He was also a member of the Northern California Cougar Club in the early to mid '80’s.
Shortly after buying this Cougar in 1993 Ron Johnson of Stang-It Cougar and Mustang parts, and a few others started the Mercury Stray Cats. Dennis joined shortly after and has held club officer positions, including President for 4 years and newsletter editor for about 6 years.
The passion doesn’t end with Cougars. Dennis has a very large collection of Ford and Lincoln-Mercury brochures, dealer data books, and other memorabilia that he has been collecting since he was 16. He also has an all original ’73 Marquis Brougham 4-door pillared hardtop, all black, with 80K miles on it. Another survivor car.
What you need to know about Dennis: He also has great sense of humor and abundant talent. Be sure to check out his Cougar Commercial Parodies on You Tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV1rr1XIk_E, and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-YMD9ZPjNU .
Bonus! IF you have read this far, can you find this “special” thing about Dennis’s Cougar? Dennis says “My car has always been a bit high in the front/low in the back. I’d swear that they installed springs for a 390 AC car in my 289 AC car, causing it to rise in the front more than most other ‘68 Cougars. It has a couple of other build errors, so I wouldn’t be surprised. If you look carefully, you can see one build error in the side view photos – let me know if you can’t spot and I’ll fill you in. It was delivered like this, as confirmed by the original owner to the second owner, whom I bought it from, and who pointed it out to me back in ‘79.”
