a Taurus SHO to a real-deal aluminum-skin 427 AC Cobra. Conan’s car-guy status was confirmed by his June 1996 decision to pose for the cover of TV Guide with his Wimbledon White 1969 GT350.
134 Detroit automakers call it benchmarking. It’s the practice of securing a competitor’s model and comparing it to your offerings. In the case of the 1970 Plymouth AAR ’Cuda (Plymouth’s bid for SCCA supremacy), Chrysler Corporation purchased a Bright Yellow 1969 Mustang Boss 302 for evaluation. The car survived whatever tests and scrutiny Chrysler put it through and exists today in fully restored condition. The Boss warranty sticker indicates it was sold new to Chrysler Corp., 341 Massachusetts Ave., Highland Park, Michigan, on May 7, 1969. One can only imagine the influence the car had on the final rendering of the AAR ’Cuda of 1970.
The door sticker on this 1969 Mustang Boss 302 says it was purchased new by Chrysler Corporation! Fact No. 134 tells why.
135 One of the best movie car chases of all time is seen in the 1968 action-adventure flick Bullitt. Lasting 10 minutes and 53 seconds, Frank Bullitt (played by Steve McQueen) piloted a Dark Highland Green 1968 Mustang GT in a thrilling road battle against a pair of hit men aboard a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T. Both cars were 4-speed equipped. The Mustang packed a 325-hp 390 (S code), the Charger was motivated by a 375-hp 440 Magnum (L code). Initial plans called for the duel to be an all-Ford affair. Production parent Warner Brothers Studios, had a promotion agreement with Ford Motor Company that called for the hit men to drive a full-size Galaxie sedan. Two Galaxies were supplied for shooting, but the rough landings and extreme maneuvers quickly damaged them, so Chargers were chosen to replace them.
136 Continuing with the Bullitt chase scene, the failure of the Galaxies (two were supplied to the movie’s San Francisco set) is odd because Galaxie-based police cruisers had an excellent reputation for durability and strength in taxi and police fleet service. But as body-on-frame cars, you can assume that the jumps likely bent their frames at the firewall that led to badly misaligned front fenders and hoods. This sort of stress likely also caused overload to the transmission tailshaft, which then led to instant immobilization. The Dodge Charger shared the Mustang’s unitized body and frame construction, which is likely why these cars surpassed the Galaxie’s suitability/survivability for the jump scenes. Regardless, two Mustangs and two Chargers were “used up” during filming.
137 With all of the violent treatment absorbed by the two Bullitt Mustang movie cars, it is difficult to imagine that one of them survived and is in private hands today. But it is true. Thought to be garaged in Tennessee, it has purportedly been repainted (in the same Dark Highland Green it wore during filming) but otherwise appears the way it did when filming ended. The other Bullitt Mustang suffered a bent body shell and was scrapped in 1968 or 1969 (accounts vary).
138 Sometimes it is better to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission. When the producers of Bullitt met with the city leaders of San Francisco, the unstated agreement was that cars wouldn’t exceed 35 mph on public roads. So when shooting commenced in May 1968, outraged citizens along the route of the chase scene are reported to have called City Hall and police authorities with news that the cars were traveling as fast as 110 mph. The resulting action stands as one of the most exciting filmed car chases of all time, and none of it was “faked” with computerized graphics or other trickery. Bullitt film editor Frank P. Keller earned an Academy Award for film editing.
139 Luckily, the Bullitt stunt vehicle coordinator elected to customize Frank Bullitt’s Mustang GT390 with American Racing Torq-Thrust wheels before shooting began. That helped it avoid the embarrassing continuity lapses that plagued its Dodge Charger R/T partner car. As the sinister black Dodge careened about, the standard 14×6JJ steel wheels flexed enough to repeatedly dislodge the full wheel covers. Because the chase scene took nearly two weeks to film, there were plenty of opportunities for well-intentioned production assistants to reinstall the lost wheel covers. As a result, the Charger suffered repeated “now you see them, now you don’t” continuity lapses. No fewer than eight wheel covers were jettisoned in action, only to reappear in the next sequence. This error would have been avoided if the Chargers had been equipped with mag-type wheels similar to the Mustang’s, or the optional ($67.30) 14×5.5 chromed Magnum 500 road wheels.
140 Speaking of Magnum 500 wheels, the 1969 Boss 429 and Boss 302 Mustangs stand as the first Ford muscle cars fitted with these popular chrome wheels. Exclusivity was added by the fact the Boss-spec Magnums employed massive (for the time) 15 × 7–inch hoops to allow fitment of the latest low profile rubber. All previous 1967–1968 Chrysler and GM assembly line installations of the Magnum 500 used smaller 14-inch rim diameters of 5.5 or 6 inches width.
141 Love ’em or hate ’em, miniature-sized spare tires are a fact of life today on cars not otherwise equipped with run flat tires. But did you know the 1968 Mustang was the first Mustang to offer a collapsible spare tire? Optional on all three body types, a canister of compressed nitrogen was supplied to inflate the tire before use. At 16 inches in diameter, the collapsible spare tire was nearly a foot shorter (deflated) than the standard full-size spare. The reduced bulk added cargo capacity.
The Boss 429 was so hot that its battery was installed in the trunk. But what about 428 Cobra Jets? See Fact No. 142 for some cool details.
142 As cool as the mighty Boss 429 was, drivers and passengers did plenty of sweating on hot days. The engine bay was already so full, the battery had to be relocated to the trunk. Cramming the $379.57 SelectAire A/C system in there too was not an option. But what about the Mustang’s second most potent engine offering, the 428 Cobra Jet. Was A/C offered? Yes, but only when the automatic transmission was included, to tame rapid RPM spikes that could otherwise harm the belt-driven compressor. So 4-speed 428 drivers sweated it out. That said, Mustang VIN specialist Kevin Marti has verified the existence of 11 1970 4-speed 428 Mustangs with air conditioning. Assembled late in the 1970 model run, the handful of warranty-taunting mechanical combinations were all fitted to luxurious Mach 1s. All of them exist today in various states of preservation.
143 It is not difficult to imagine Carroll Shelby’s paranoia as Ford began to encroach onto his turf in 1969 with specialized Mustang performance models including the Mach 1, Boss 302 and Boss 429. That Shelby was impressed by the high-revving canted-valve Boss 302 was proven by the recent discovery of an aborted scheme to build 36 GT350s with Boss 302 power and suspension upgrades in place of the usual 351 Windsor engines and GT suspension settings. Research reveals that the cars were to have been painted yellow with black stripes, and offered a mid-point performance level between the mild 351 GT350 and brutal 428 CJ GT500.
144 The Boss 302/GT350 hybrid program never materialized, but a single prototype was built and it exists today. Based on an early production Acapulco Blue 1969 Boss 302, Shelby had the car shipped to Kar-Kraft, where the full GT350 body and interior conversion package was installed. No external reference to the car’s Boss 302 origin was retained and conventional GT350 graphics were applied. The prototype was the only 1969 Mustang built with both a Shelby and Boss 302 VIN sequence: 9F02G482244. Deciphering it, the “G” in the fifth spot designates the 290-hp Boss 302 and the “48” in the sixth and seventh spots identifies Shelby models. The car was tested at Kar-Kraft before it was purchased by a Ford engineer and used for personal transportation. Billy Jay Espich can be thanked for identifying and restoring the car. In the end, the Boss 302 GT350 was simply the wrong car at the wrong time. As Shelby production wound down, the program was abandoned.
145 If Shelby toyed with the idea of a Boss 302 GT350, it’s reasonable to imagine he also envisioned a Boss 429–motivated extra-duty GT500. Or did he? Although it’s a fascinating idea, there are no records to support the scheme. Remember, the Boss 429
