Magnificant Merc

Photos and article by Jeff Burk

In Greek mythology Mercury is the messenger for the Gods. You know the guy we're talking about, he wears the cute hat, has wings on his feet and delivers flowers when he isn't working for the Gods. Mercury is supposed to be fast as a race car, but that hasn't always been the case. Although there have been a few Mercury Pro Stocks in drag racing they haven't always been bad or fast, with the possible exception of Animal Jim Feurer's nitrous injected "Massive Mercury." The sad fact is that most Mercury race cars haven't been sleek since the 1949-51 models. But take heart Mercury mavens, there is a new day coming.

Master car builder Jerry Haas ( he must be good; he's won the Car Craft award 13 times) has just built and delivered the first new NHRA Mercury Pro Stocker built in his Fenton, MO shop and, Mercury fans, it is a very aerodynamic, sexy-looking race car. As we speak it is in the hands of part-time Pro Stock racer and full-time drag strip owner Jim Cunningham.

Look at the way the windshield is laid back. The neat thing is that it conforms exactly to a stock Mercury Cougar windshield angle, according to Haas.

Jerry originally started this car for ex-IHRA/NHRA Pro Stock team owner Stu Evans. Evans, a dyed-in-the-wool Mercury maniac, wanted to start an NHRA Pro Stock program using a Mercury body and asked Haas to build one. Jerry was able to get hooked up with the Ford-friendly engineers at former NHRA Pro Stock racer now NASCAR racer Jack Rousch's shop to help design what may be the sleekest, slickest NHRA Pro Stocker since Warren Johnson's pre-hammer-tuned 2000 Firebird.

Jerry had the whole body formed out of carbon fiber. You'll find nothing on this body that a magnet will stick too, unlike many of the other current Pro Stock bodies that feature a metal roof or quarters. As a result, the body comes in weighing somewhere south of just 100 lbs.

The interior is immaculate, all black, and probably formed of carbon fiber material.

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