When it comes to the king of pony cars, there are three contenders: 1969 COPO Camaro, 1970-71 Hemi ’Cuda, and 1969-70 Mustang Boss 429. Despite being the ultimate expressions of big engine/little body during the muscle car era, only one carries a scarlet letter.
Image courtesy of Jim Campisano
If you dig into the original road tests for a 1969 Boss 429, you’d find headlines like “Boss Loss” — this despite running a 13.60 ET. What gives? Perhaps testers were wowed by the NASCAR-bred engine stuffed into an engine bay (with no room for even the battery) and expected 12s. Worst ET from the magazines was Car Life’s 14.09, which the writer claimed was due to the car bring short of break-in miles. “Biggest job on the strip runs was shifting, simply because shift points [at 5400 rpm, well short of its redline] came so rapidly.”
Image courtesy of Jim Campisano
Could it have been the early hydraulic camshaft, which was soon replaced by a mechanical one? Even the carburetor was a small 735 cfm (to be bumped to 780 for 1970). Undercammed and undercarbed, the Boss 429 was all about the potential, and that may have a dumb marketing move on Ford’s part — yes, the same company that struggled with a poor street reputation before the 428 Cobra Jet appeared on the scene in the spring of 1968.
Image courtesy of Jim Campisano
Nonetheless, the Boss 429 is a contender for the greatest Mustang ever, a modified creation that featured all the best that Ford had to offer in an unusual package that made no sense. Why not put the engine in a Torino? That would have been the easy route, and Ford decided to make a statement instead.
Muscle Car Campy once again presents us with more from Ryan Snyder’s collection. Though he’s a Camaro guy, Ryan has trouble saying no to a Calypso Coral 1970 Mustang Boss 429. Be sure to check out more from Ryan’s collection here as well as other videos from Muscle Car Campy.
