An LS engine might not be the first thing that comes to mind when it's time to stuff a new engine between the framerails of something like a '67 Cougar, but when you think about it, why not? After all, the owner, Andrew Borden of Tuscaloosa, Ala., isn't your average hot rodder. The way Borden, a marketing professor from The University of Alabama, saw it, why cut up a timeless machine like his and get rid of the shock towers just to make a Mod Motor fit? Borden turned his classic Mercury into the perfect combination of modern technology and old-school vibe, retaining the '70s street/strip look he was going for but with a decidedly modern touch – an LS engine. Instead of a Tunnel Ram with dual quad Holleys up top like countless muscles had in Borden's formative years in the 1970s, his machine has a Holley Hi-Ram intake but no carburetors. The result? He now has all the benefits of modern technology and the driveability and tune-ability of electronic fuel injection with a complete Holley Dominator setup – in a car that would have looked right at home in the glory days of hot rodding. It'll run in the 12-second zone on the quarter-mile, yet is as reliable as anything on the road today. "It's my daily driver, and it's dead reliable," Borden says. "You could drive it across the country if you wanted it to."