"A horse is a horse, of course, of course...," but a Boss 429 is one tough stallion. Robert Groninger of Sharpsburg, Georgia, proudly added this Boss '9 to his stable over two years ago and hasn't regretted it once.
"In April of 1999," he recalls, "my friend Doug Rand and I went to Charlotte, North Carolina, to the 35th Anniversary show and started looking at the Boss 429s. That's when the fever struck. I had to have one!" Fortunately for Robert, his friend knew of a '69 Boss '9 with only 12,000 original miles. "We got back home from the Mustang show on Saturday night," he says. "The next day we went to Steve Daniele's house in Acworth, Georgia."
They learned that Steve had found the car in 1990 in Macon, Georgia. The previous owner had been in the process of making a drag car out of it and lost interest in the project. Consequently, the Boss had remained in storage since the early '70s. Steve had purchased the car and completely restored it over the ensuing years. But then it was Robert's turn at the wheel. "The Boss was beautiful. It was nicer than I expected so we struck a deal and I had my dream car."
And what a dream it is! To wrap up the restoration, Steve Daniele's shop, Body Works, laid down deep burgundy PPG Deltron paint to give this Boss its stunning good looks. Robert drives the Boss a few times a month and enjoys the admiring stares and thumbs-up he gets. As if that weren't enough, though, he also gets to enjoy all the glorious characteristics that make a Boss a Boss: a Clydesdale-powerful 429; a Top Loader four-speed; and a 9-inch Ford rearend with 3.91 gears, to which Robert added a Locker. To transfer all that giddyap to the pavement, this steed rides on 15-inch Magnum 500s wrapped in Goodyear 245x60s, front, and 275x60s, rear.
So how fast is this burgundy Boss, really? Well, if you're ever in northern Georgia and it rumbles up to the stoplight beside you, you'll find out. After all, if you really want to know, you have to "go right to the source and ask the horse."