BIG BOSS: The 429 Showcases Ford’s Best Specialized High-Performance Components From 1969

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Written by David Neyens

For today’s hard-core “Blue Oval” followers and demanding collectors, no other efficiency vehicle compares to Ford’s mighty and exceptional Manager 429 Mustang of 1969-70. Intended and built at the peak of Ford Motor Company’s all-out “Total Performance” company campaign, the storming new Mustang had just one particular reason – to homologate Ford’s new hemi-head Boss 429 engine for NASCAR Grand National racing. Ford was enthusiastic by an urgent have to have for a racing powerplant with superior significant-rpm breathing than the venerable 427 “Wedge” and NASCAR’s refusal to approve the exotic SOHC 427 “Cammer.”

Although Ford’s then-latest NASCAR contenders were being the Torino Talladega, Mercury Cyclone and Cyclone Spoiler II, Ford went to more lengths to in good shape the massive new “crescent head” Manager 429 V8 into the Mustang. Whilst an highly-priced, labor-intense shift by quantity-oriented Ford, only 500 Boss 429 engines essential to be set up into a creation Ford Motor Enterprise design – any would do. Therefore, substantial modifications had been essential to develop the “Boss ’9” Mustang, with the cars and trucks primarily hand-created by Ford racing subcontractor Kar Kraft of Brighton, Michigan, with structural modifications including the intricate cutting and relocation of the manufacturing unit-authentic entrance shock towers and a decreased entrance trip top.

A full offer and considerably additional than the sum of its several particular areas, the Boss 429 Mustang was loaded with Ford’s finest specialised high-efficiency parts. Between them were being a stout Toploader close-ratio 4-pace transmission, 9-inch Traction-Lok rear conclusion with 3.91:1 gears, engine oil cooler, trunk-mounted battery, competitiveness suspension with front and rear anti-roll bars and staggered rear shocks, energy front disc/rear drum brakes, and chrome Magnum 500 wheels with intense F60x15 belted lifted-white-letter tires. A significant cold-air ingestion scoop atop the long Mustang hood, discreet Manager 429 decals at each individual front fender, and a decidedly menacing forward-raked stance ended up the only external clues of the mechanical mayhem ready to be unleashed by the Boss 429.

Ford officially rated the “street” Boss 429 at 375 horsepower, a determine properly down below both equally its precise and likely output. Stated from $4,087 new, the Manager 429 Mustang was the priciest non-Shelby Mustang Ford presented at the time. Dependent on the supply consulted, generation attained 858-859 (like two Manager 429 Cougars) for 1969, adopted by 499 or 500 far more for the model’s last hurrah in 1970. True to strategy, the Boss 429 engine was incredibly productive in competition, with Cale Yarborough scoring Ford’s first Manager 429 NASCAR victory at its debut, the March 30, 1969, Atlanta 500 – a race he utterly dominated, foremost 308 of 334 laps. At the time unveiled in enough figures to fulfill Ford’s NASCAR agenda, the Boss 429 was successfully campaigned on drag strips in the wildly well-known new heads-up Pro Inventory class, cementing the Manager 429 legend. Inspite of its quick two-calendar year generation cycle and little production numbers, the Boss 429 designed a massive influence on motorsports historical past and generations of Ford and Mustang fanatics throughout the world.

This Royal Maroon 1969 Ford Mustang Manager 429 is amongst the to start with 279 cars of the series developed with the exclusive “S-Code” engines that includes heavier-duty NASCAR-spec connecting rods, beefy ½-inch rod bolts, and cross-drilled cast crankshafts. Assigned Kar Kraft serial quantity 1358, the hairy Boss 429 was shipped new to Burk Ford in Perry, Iowa, for sale. The handsome merchandise of a latest and full restoration at Muscle mass Automobile Restoration in Owasso, Oklahoma, the Manager functions such correct specific functions as a RUG AE2 coded 4-velocity manual transmission and N circumstance 3.91:1 rear finish, a right HP engine block with early-model ingestion, a proper carburetor and distributor, correct KKX spindles, a rear sway bar, and a trunk-mounted battery. Offering with No Reserve at the impending Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas auction June 30-July 2, this freshly restored and visually stunning 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429 signifies Dearborn’s reply to Chrysler’s Hemi autos on the track, in the ultimate NASCAR S-Code early specification.

For up-to-date data on this car, click Listed here. 

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