BIG BOSS: The 429 Showcases Ford’s Best Specialized High-Performance Components From 1969

Penned by David Neyens

For today’s tough-core “Blue Oval” supporters and demanding collectors, no other general performance motor vehicle compares to Ford’s mighty and rare Manager 429 Mustang of 1969-70. Made and built at the top of Ford Motor Company’s all-out “Total Performance” company marketing campaign, the storming new Mustang had just a person objective – to homologate Ford’s new hemi-head Manager 429 motor for NASCAR Grand Countrywide racing. Ford was motivated by an urgent require for a racing powerplant with far better high-rpm breathing than the venerable 427 “Wedge” and NASCAR’s refusal to approve the unique SOHC 427 “Cammer.”

When Ford’s then-latest NASCAR contenders had been the Torino Talladega, Mercury Cyclone and Cyclone Spoiler II, Ford went to more lengths to suit the large new “crescent head” Manager 429 V8 into the Mustang. When an high priced, labor-intensive shift by volume-oriented Ford, only 500 Boss 429 engines required to be mounted into a output Ford Motor Organization design – any would do. For that reason, considerable modifications were required to build the “Boss ’9” Mustang, with the cars and trucks primarily hand-developed by Ford racing subcontractor Kar Kraft of Brighton, Michigan, with structural modifications which includes the intricate slicing and relocation of the manufacturing facility-original entrance shock towers and a decreased front experience top.

A finish deal and significantly a lot more than the sum of its a lot of specific elements, the Boss 429 Mustang was loaded with Ford’s very best specialized large-general performance components. Between them were a stout Toploader close-ratio 4-pace transmission, 9-inch Traction-Lok rear finish with 3.91:1 gears, motor oil cooler, trunk-mounted battery, competitiveness suspension with entrance and rear anti-roll bars and staggered rear shocks, energy entrance disc/rear drum brakes, and chrome Magnum 500 wheels with aggressive F60x15 belted raised-white-letter tires. A massive chilly-air intake scoop atop the very long Mustang hood, discreet Manager 429 decals at each individual front fender, and a decidedly menacing forward-raked stance ended up the only exterior clues of the mechanical mayhem all set to be unleashed by the Boss 429.

Ford officially rated the “street” Manager 429 at 375 horsepower, a determine properly down below both of those its precise and possible output. Outlined from $4,087 new, the Boss 429 Mustang was the priciest non-Shelby Mustang Ford supplied at the time. Depending on the supply consulted, production attained 858-859 (which include two Boss 429 Cougars) for 1969, followed by 499 or 500 a lot more for the model’s very last hurrah in 1970. Correct to system, the Boss 429 engine was really effective in competitiveness, with Cale Yarborough scoring Ford’s to start with Manager 429 NASCAR victory at its debut, the March 30, 1969, Atlanta 500 – a race he utterly dominated, leading 308 of 334 laps. After produced in ample quantities to meet Ford’s NASCAR agenda, the Boss 429 was correctly campaigned on drag strips in the wildly well-liked new heads-up Professional Inventory class, cementing the Manager 429 legend. Regardless of its small two-calendar year generation cycle and little manufacturing quantities, the Manager 429 built a big affect on motorsports heritage and generations of Ford and Mustang fanatics around the world.

This Royal Maroon 1969 Ford Mustang Manager 429 is among the the first 279 vehicles of the collection developed with the special “S-Code” engines that includes heavier-duty NASCAR-spec connecting rods, beefy ½-inch rod bolts, and cross-drilled cast crankshafts. Assigned Kar Kraft serial selection 1358, the bushy Manager 429 was delivered new to Burk Ford in Perry, Iowa, for sale. The handsome products of a latest and full restoration at Muscle Automobile Restoration in Owasso, Oklahoma, the Boss attributes these appropriate certain attributes as a RUG AE2 coded 4-speed handbook transmission and N scenario 3.91:1 rear end, a suitable HP engine block with early-fashion consumption, a proper carburetor and distributor, suitable KKX spindles, a rear sway bar, and a trunk-mounted battery. Promoting with No Reserve at the upcoming Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas auction June 30-July 2, this freshly restored and visually gorgeous 1969 Ford Mustang Manager 429 signifies Dearborn’s reply to Chrysler’s Hemi automobiles on the observe, in the final NASCAR S-Code early specification.

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