Mustang of the Week 1/25/02

Charlie (roadracer)

The Story

The car is originally from Houston and has had two previous owners. I am the current owner and a native Houstonian. In 1969 I was 10 years old and served as a crossing guard at my elementary school. I also remember a mean sounding yellow mustang with rear louvers passing through my intersection periodically and really liking the car. After purchasing this car I learned the original owner lived in the same neighborhood in 1969 and in fact drove through that intersection every morning on his way to the office. This is in fact the exact same car I used to admire as a kid! I spent 8 long years performing the restoration and did all the work (including the paint) myself.

Some History

Designed by Larry Shinoda, the 69' Boss 302 is both rare and unique. This car represents one of 1628 built by Ford in 1969 to allow the mustang to compete in the sensational SCCA Trans-Am series of 69' and 70'. Mustang teams lead by Bud Moore and Carroll Shelby fielded drivers like Parnelli Jones, George Follmer, Peter Revson and Horst Kwech. The competing teams, lead by Roger Penske and others, fielded Camaro, Javelin, Barracuda and Challengers with drivers like Mark Donohue, Dan Gurney, Sam Posey and Jim Hall

The phrase "Race on Sunday, Sell on Monday" truly applies as these are road race cars disguised as production vehicles. In combining Ford's most advanced smallblock engine with Mustang's most advanced handling suspension a complete performance package was produced. Some people said the Boss 302 was "the best handling car ever to come out of Detroit" and it was proven on road courses all over America by doing what it does best, going around corners very fast.

Born to race, the Boss 302 was not available with amenities like air conditioning and automatic transmissions. What you received in trade was a truly a factory hot rod, driven off the showroom floor complete with solid lifters, Holley carburator, 9 inch rear, 4-speed, staggered shocks and a smallblock engine that that pulled strong all the way to the factory rev-limit of 6150 rpm. Designed for the purist they are relatively sparse in creature comfort but were relatively expensive, priced very near the Chevrolet Corvette.

Unique Features of the 69' Boss 302

The engine block in this car is an actual "C8AE" part number Trans-Am racing series tunnel port block with matching VIN number. These blocks were surplus from the 68' Ford factory Trans-Am racing series effort and were installed by Ford in several early 69' Boss 302s.

The 69' Boss 302 was the first production car to have rear wing and window slats. Mr. Shinoda deleted non-essential items like fake air scoops and emblems (notice his autograph on the passenger side sunvisor).

The first American car to have a factory installed electronic rev limiter. Ford felt this was needed for warranty protection purposes as the engine could easily turn to incredible rpm.

Although standard issue 69' Boss 302s had 15 x 7 Magnum 500 wheels with Argent (silver) painted centers, this car has the optional chrome Magnum 500 (notice the correct satin finish to the chrome in the wheel centers).

Ford never made money producing these cars. Produced only in Dearborn there are far too many unique parts to make such a limited production run profitable. When compared to the more common 70' Boss 302 there are numerous differences.

The most obvious are the blue smog cannister, chrome valve covers, crossflow exhaust and reflective "C" stripes on the sides.

Less obvious are the cross-drilled crankshaft, larger intake valves, robust rev-limiter wiring, lack of rear swaybar, and different accessory pulley arrangement.

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