Smokey's Trans-Am Boss
On January 10, 1969, Ford produced seven 351-powered Mustang fastbacks destined for duty as Trans-Am Boss 302s. Three went to Bud Moore, three to Shelby, and one to Kar Kraft to be converted to Trans-Am specs for Smokey Yunick, longtime NASCAR competitor and a close personal friend of then-Ford President Bunkie Knudsen. The car was even painted in Yunick's trademark black with gold color. Although Yunick never entered the car in Trans-Am competition, it was prepped at Yunick's "Best Damn Garage in Town" for NASCAR's Grand Touring Division and entered in one race at Talladega. A broken rocker arm ended its day and career in NASCAR.
In 1989, the Smokey Yunick Boss 302 was located and purchased by vintage race car collector Ross Myer, who restored the historic Boss to its original Trans-Am specifications.
Basic Boss
These days, you seldom see a '70 Boss 302 without most, if not all, of the visual trimmings. Because so many of today's Bosses have all four of the popular exterior options--rear spoiler, rear-window louvers, Shaker hoodscoop, and Magnum 500 wheels--many enthusiasts believe those components were all standard with the Boss 302 package. In fact, it's rare to see a Boss in its most plain-Jane configuration, with 15-inch corporate hubcaps and trim rings, bare decklid and rear window, and flat hood.
According to Kevin Marti's Ford production data, the rear spoiler was the most popular of the '70 Boss 302 exterior options, with more than 65 percent of the cars equipped from the factory with the decklid bolt-on. The rear-window louvers were another popular option at 49.7 percent, while the functional Shaker scoop came attached to the air cleaner on 48.3 percent of the Boss 302 engines. A smaller 37.6 percent of buyers opted to replace the hubcaps with Magnum 500s.
In a flip-flop of his usual research method, Marti crunched his data to see how many '70 Boss 302s were not equipped with any of the exterior options. The computer spit out that 1,077 of the 7,014 '70 Boss 302s, just over 15 percent, came without any of the popular exterior options.
For a car that was produced as a bare-bones racer, it's cool to see a Boss 302 like Robert Cobb's yellow Boss 302. The Boss was ordered with only one option, the console, making it one of the lowest-optioned Boss 302s in existence.
The Boss Shelby
This one is still being researched, but it is known that this '69 G-code (Boss 302) fastback was sold to Shelby-American and was, at some point, equipped with a '69 Shelby console, a rollbar, and "Cobra GT" interior emblems. Apparently, the car was destined as a prototype for a possible Boss-powered '70 GT350 prior to the decision to pull the plug on Shelby production. Built very early in the '69 Boss 302 production run, on April 21, 1969, the Shelby Boss carries an 84 DSO (for Home Office Reserve) and a consecutive unit number that begins with "48,"--Ford's in-house code for Shelby Mustangs--as opposed to the standard Mustang numbers that begin with a "1," as in 100001.
George Huisman, who once owned the car and performed much of the research, says it appears the car never received the Shelby exterior fiberglass. During his ownership, Huisman found four Shelby-American GT350 emblems under the carpet.
The '69 Shelby Boss is currently undergoing a restoration in Indiana.
Best Modern Boss
John Coletti, former Mustang business planning manager and current SVT chief, is a man who likes a challenge. In 1994, shortly after the new SN-95 Mustang debuted, Coletti decided to drop a big-inch Boss 429 into a '94 Mustang in a response to Chevrolet's Rat-power prototype Camaros. Utilizing a NASCAR-spec Boss 429 engine, the huge powerplant was prepped for modern fuel-injection and other updates by Roush Racing. Coletti even called on Larry Shinoda, originator of the Boss name and '69-'70 graphics, to create a new stripe package for the '94 Mustang body style.