The Boss 429 was first introduced in 1969 in
order to homologate the Boss 429 engine for NASCAR usage.
Although the Torino and Montego were actually raced the
Mustang, being the image car, was chosen to make the engine
available to the public.
In order to fit the engines, the cars were
shipped from the Ford assembly plant to an outside
contractor - Kar Kraft- who performed the modifications.
These included moving the front suspension outwards thus
widening the track by 2 inches and the custom building the
exhaust system.
The Boss 429 engine took-up most of the
available space in the engine compartment, so Ford moved the
battery to the trunk. This also helped the weight
distribution of the car, particularly for drag racing. A
special battery cap vent kit was included to vent fumes
outside the trunk area via a rubber hose. Most original
battery vent caps were tossed when the first battery
wore-out and was replaced, making originals a very rare
item. Presumably, having the battery take-up a large portion
of the trunk area, was the reason that Boss 429's were not
available with the fold-down rear seat option
The Boss 429 engine was built to compete
with the Chrysler 426 Hemi in NASCAR oval track racing. In
order to qualify the engine, Ford had to produce a small
number of production vehicles equipped with the engine. The
street Boss 429 shared almost no parts with the Boss 429
Hemi that was actually raced. Boss 429 Mustangs were
produced in calendar year 1969 (Jan-Dec). The early cars had
hydraulic camshafts, the later cars had a solid lifter
camshaft with more lift and duration that was the same one
used in the 429SCJ wedge. Lack of development time caused
the early hydraulic camshaft equipped Boss 429's to get a
bad performance reputation. The later solid-lifter B-9
engines actually run well even though they do not have the
radical camshaft of a MoPar Street Hemi. Unfortunately, the
ignition rev limiter kicks-in about 1,000 rpm below where
the engine was really designed to perform.
The front spoiler is unique to the BOSS429
Mustang and is not the same unit installed on BOSS302 and
MACH-1 Mustangs. This spoiler is shorter than those spoilers
because of reduced ground (and curb) clearance due to the
lowered front-end on the BOSS429 Mustang.
This Boss 429 is a Museum quality car at the
total concourse correct level with all numbers matching and
features the following:
