It could arguably be the best muscle car of all time. It has a loyal almost legendary following and
will easily draw a large crowd at any car show where it appears. The car is
rare, since only 857 were ever produced, so don’t take a raincheck to meet up
with one if one is scheduled to appear near you. It’s the 1969 Boss Mustang.
At the time, MOPAR was king of the road with their big bad
426 inch cubic inch Hemi engine. Ford decided it wanted to get some of that
glory so it set its engineers to build a 429 cubic inch big block engine. They
had to build at least 500 units to meet NASCAR’s rules for being classified as
a production car in order to race competitively.
It was decided by the powers that be to put the engine into
the Mustang fastback. They wanted to increase the appeal of its popular ponycar
by turning it into a muscle car and the new engine would accomplish that.
The
only problem with that strategy was that the engine compartment wasn’t big
enough. Modifications to the engine bay had to be made to hold the new power
plant. This would turn out to be a hand built process as the Mustangs were
shipped from the factory to the Kar Kraft plant in Brighton, Michigan for the
modifications. All 429 engines have a ‘KK’ code printed on them.
The result was a sexy clean looking sleek machine known as the Boss 429 that could burn up any track or highway with its massive engine.
Ford’s specs indicated it had 375 horsepower but that was either a joke or a deliberate typo. Most likely, it cranked out closer to 600
horsepower. The car almost looked like a stock Mustang fastback except for the
429 decals on the fenders, the massive air scoop, a front spoiler, chrome
Magnum wheels and racing mirrors.
The car had a 4.1:1 rear axle, a 4 speed manual transmission,
front disc brakes and rear sway bars. It was available in 5 colors.
If one shows up at auction and you want to bid on it, and
you’re not independently wealthy, make sure you sell your house first and take
out an additional loan so you can afford to pay for it if you have the winning
bid.
