1969-1970 Ford Mustang Boss 429. Dan Burrill

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       The iconic Boss 429 Mustang has survived the test of time and is more popular and more valuable today than ever. With the value constantly climbing, these cars have become a good investment for collectors.

      By the end of 1967, having performed very well on the racetracks of Europe, and winning the World Manufacturers’ Championship, Ford, under Henry Ford II’s direction, had achieved its goal of beating Ferrari. Therefore, Ford disbanded the European racing effort and shifted its attention to the home front, which meant NASCAR. The times were changing, as were the NASCAR rules.

      Ford felt that it was time for some personnel changes, so Leo Beebe was promoted out and Jacque Passino was put in charge of Ford Performance. This was a good move because Passino was well known in the Holman-Moody camp, which had worked closely with Ford in the not-too-distant past.

      Next came the big move. Henry Ford II convinced Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen of Chevrolet to come over and become president of the Ford Motor Company. Long before coming to Ford, Knudsen had established himself as a staunch advocate of high-performance cars, stating that racing was an essential part of marketing cars. As general manager of the Pontiac division, Knudsen, along with John DeLorean, Jim Wangers, and others, was behind the development and creation of the 1964 Pontiac GTO, which is considered the first muscle car. This precipitated the muscle car movement in the early 1960s. Knudsen was also a dyed-in-the-wool NASCAR fan, and is credited pushing the Boss 429 NASCAR engine forward. Knudsen’s favorite saying was, “Build what you race, and race what you build.”

      From the beginning, this was a very special, almost secret project. Ford developed this fantastic new engine and it was going into the newly designed Mustang. The idea was for Kar-Kraft in Brighton, Michigan, to modify at least 500 new Ford Mustangs to physically accept the new Boss 429 engines, which turned out to be somewhat of a challenge. All of the cars were exactly the same, except for color.

VEHICLE AND ENGINE IDENTIFICATION

      The Boss 429 was a homologation special, and held a special spot in Ford’s racing history. As such, properly identifying each car is of paramount importance and, in turn, registration and validation has become very important for protecting the investment. So where do you look for the numbers that tell you that this is a real Boss 429 Mustang? Start by opening the driver-side door and looking at the identification plate that is riveted to the door.

       This door tag above the data plate identifies this car as a Boss 429, KK 1493. The Ford Motor Company data plate gives the following information for the serial number 9F02Z164779.

      Each car that went to Kar-Kraft was assigned a NASCAR KK number that was placed above the VIN on the driver-side door. By the end of the program, Ford and Kar-Kraft had produced 1,358 Boss 429 Mustangs over the two-year period. KK 1201 was the first Boss 429 Mustang; KK 2558 was the final car to roll out the door.

       This NASCAR tire pressure sticker is on the driver-side door just above the data plate.

      KK 1215 was the first car offered to the public. This means that KK 1201 through KK 1214 were engineering cars and engine development cars. Several cars went to important people within the organization. Car number KK 1205 was an example of an in-house car, and it went to Bunkie Knudsen. Another car, KK 1217, was a special concept car that eventually became a crash car. Used to test safety and collect crash test data, it was driven into a barrier to see how it would hold up. The first 63 or 64 were high-priority cars that went to certain dealerships for sponsored racers. The invoice on KK 1279 shows that it went to Glen Organ Ford in Compton, California. At one time, Glen Organ was considered a high-performance and racing dealership; it sponsored Dan Gurney’s 1964 or 1965 Galaxie in NASCAR racing.

9	1969
F	Built in Dearborn
02	Mustang 2-door SportsRoof
Z	429-4V Boss V-8 Engine
164779	Serial number of this Ford scheduled for production at Dearborn
63B	Mustang 2-door SportsRoof
C	Paint Code
DAA	Black Clarion Knit Vinyl Hi-Back Bucket Seats
05C	Scheduled for build date
892001	Transportation Services Ordering District under Domestic Special Order 2001
V	3.91 Trac-Lok Rear axle
6	4-speed close-ratio manual transmission

       Check the front driver’s side of the engine for “HP 429” in raised letters. This verifies that it is a genuine Boss 429 block. These engines have a special equipment package that includes four-bolt main bearings, a forged-steel crankshaft, and forged-steel connecting rods.

      According to Ford Motor Company, it lost several thousand dollars on each car built, but that was the cost of running the Boss 429 race program. The purpose was to get the 500 engines into the cars and out to the public to meet the NASCAR homologation requirement.

      This Boss 429 has an HP block, and you can see the HP mark on the front of the block verifying its authenticity. Some of the mid- and late-1970s engines had what was called a mirror image 460 block. It was exactly the same block with no difference in the material. When Ford built an engine, several casting core boxes were used. From the very beginning, Ford used one casting core box for the front, two side boxes, a rear, and one that went down in the valley chamber.

       The serial number on this 429 block is located on the driver-side rear. The engine number and the serial number match, СКАЧАТЬ