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Automotive Lifestyle
VINTAGE: Mustang Boss 429 Rules
A Grabber Orange example of the acclaimed 1970 muscle car sold for $247,500 at the Barrett-Jackson auction.
The 1970 Mustang Boss 429 at Barrett-Jackson is a one-time drag racer restored to original condition. (Photo: Barrett-Jackson)
(This article was originally written by Roger C. Johnson for the Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas catalog.)
In 1970, the brand-new decade had American car companies reveling in a perfect storm of technology and social happenstance. The hurricane of inflated gas prices, aggravated insurance premiums and knee-jerk emission compliance was still down the road, and each of the Big Three offered a minimum of eight different V8 engines that year alone.
At Ford, six of their eight V8s could be had in Mustangs. And in this very impressive neighborhood of power plants, the Boss 429 has remained one of the sparkling jewels in our national archives of automotive treasure.
A rare Grabber Orange Boss 429 was offered at Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas (Lot #671), where it sold for $247,500, including buyer fee. It was one of two Grabber Orange Boss 429 Mustangs ordered by Los Angeles-area Russ Davis Ford back in the day, and the two were set up for local drag-racing duty. Eventually, one was destroyed with its boots on in competition, and the other one is before you.
As it happens, the gentleman who drove these cars on the strip for the dealership in 1970 kept the survivor for all these years. The present owner bought the car in 2000, and it has been painstakingly reassembled to its original showroom condition.
Owning a muscle car with a powerful engine under the hood is one thing. But an engine that also knocks people over at first sight is an entirely different level of ownership responsibility. That’s precisely what the Boss 429 Mustang brings to the hobby. Those big, wide valve covers do it every time. They created a perfect high-tech look even before we knew there was such a thing.
This engine was born to fight the Chrysler Hemi that was dominating the NASCAR series. Almost immediately, the excitable bunch at NASCAR insisted Ford Motor Company offer their Boss 429 engines to the public if they were going to be sanctioned and raced.
Chrysler’s Hemi went through this same ritual back in 1966. Apparently, no one cared which car hosted the engine as long as at least 500 people bought one. Since the Mustang was already the corporate golden boy, what better way to showcase this beast of an engine than in the most popular pony car in the world?
So Ford did, and the Boss 429 Mustang went on to become the ultimate rock star from this period, despite all the fast company.
The best news is this Hemi-like engine could deliver a lot more power than it was actually allowed. A small four-barrel carb and a low-rise manifold combined to reduce this engine’s performance on the street. So did its exhaust system and prehistoric anti-smog package.
Ford just wanted these Boss 9’s out there, period. They had already proved their enormous potential on the tracks in race trim.
We haven’t even mentioned the sound that this engine makes. Imagine the audible fragrance of a 400-plus-cubic-inch motorcycle engine spinning happily to eight grand. Big blocks shouldn’t be able to rev like that, let alone sound as if they love it. It’s as if Ford was toying with the very laws of physics. Even today these engines are routinely making over 800 horsepower in naturally aspirated form.
The California born, bred and whipped Mustang at Barrett-Jackson is a matching-numbers machine that has received a Marti Report certification. Even though it has been returned to “as delivered” condition, this Mustang’s soul still radiates firsthand knowledge from the mean streets and strips of 1970, thanks to its direct involvement in muscle-car racing lore.
No muscle-car collection is complete without a Boss 429 Mustang. It represents everything the classic era stands for: a brand that’s instantly identifiable, a body style that reeks of sex appeal and an engine that delivers unrelenting power just for the asking.
In 1970, the brand-new decade had American car companies reveling in a perfect storm of technology and social happenstance. The hurricane of inflated gas prices, aggravated insurance premiums and knee-jerk emission compliance was still down the road, and each of the Big Three offered a minimum of eight different V8 engines that year alone.
At Ford, six of their eight V8s could be had in Mustangs. And in this very impressive neighborhood of power plants, the Boss 429 has remained one of the sparkling jewels in our national archives of automotive treasure.
A rare Grabber Orange Boss 429 was offered at Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas (Lot #671), where it sold for $247,500, including buyer fee. It was one of two Grabber Orange Boss 429 Mustangs ordered by Los Angeles-area Russ Davis Ford back in the day, and the two were set up for local drag-racing duty. Eventually, one was destroyed with its boots on in competition, and the other one is before you.
As it happens, the gentleman who drove these cars on the strip for the dealership in 1970 kept the survivor for all these years. The present owner bought the car in 2000, and it has been painstakingly reassembled to its original showroom condition.
Owning a muscle car with a powerful engine under the hood is one thing. But an engine that also knocks people over at first sight is an entirely different level of ownership responsibility. That’s precisely what the Boss 429 Mustang brings to the hobby. Those big, wide valve covers do it every time. They created a perfect high-tech look even before we knew there was such a thing.
This engine was born to fight the Chrysler Hemi that was dominating the NASCAR series. Almost immediately, the excitable bunch at NASCAR insisted Ford Motor Company offer their Boss 429 engines to the public if they were going to be sanctioned and raced.
Chrysler’s Hemi went through this same ritual back in 1966. Apparently, no one cared which car hosted the engine as long as at least 500 people bought one. Since the Mustang was already the corporate golden boy, what better way to showcase this beast of an engine than in the most popular pony car in the world?
So Ford did, and the Boss 429 Mustang went on to become the ultimate rock star from this period, despite all the fast company.
The best news is this Hemi-like engine could deliver a lot more power than it was actually allowed. A small four-barrel carb and a low-rise manifold combined to reduce this engine’s performance on the street. So did its exhaust system and prehistoric anti-smog package.
Ford just wanted these Boss 9’s out there, period. They had already proved their enormous potential on the tracks in race trim.
We haven’t even mentioned the sound that this engine makes. Imagine the audible fragrance of a 400-plus-cubic-inch motorcycle engine spinning happily to eight grand. Big blocks shouldn’t be able to rev like that, let alone sound as if they love it. It’s as if Ford was toying with the very laws of physics. Even today these engines are routinely making over 800 horsepower in naturally aspirated form.
The California born, bred and whipped Mustang at Barrett-Jackson is a matching-numbers machine that has received a Marti Report certification. Even though it has been returned to “as delivered” condition, this Mustang’s soul still radiates firsthand knowledge from the mean streets and strips of 1970, thanks to its direct involvement in muscle-car racing lore.
No muscle-car collection is complete without a Boss 429 Mustang. It represents everything the classic era stands for: a brand that’s instantly identifiable, a body style that reeks of sex appeal and an engine that delivers unrelenting power just for the asking.
Goodwood Festival Of Speed
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