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Which Boss is Boss?

Peddling the mettle of the '83 GT vs. the '70 Boss 302
By George D. Levy
Everyone, it seems, has eyeballed the ads and heard all the hype: The Boss is back. Or so Ford would have you believe. But are the current crop of 302 H.O.-Powered Mustang GTs and Capri RS coupes worthy of the muchrespected Boss moniker? No suspense; no bull-the answer is definitely in the affirmative. "Yes," in layman's terms. And we've taken the trip back to 1969 to prove it. All the way back to Ford's original humble-pie PR play: "Our objective was to build a reasonably quick machine with a reasonably tight power-to-weight ratio," said the original ads. That's a bit wordy. The real objective was to kick some ass. On the street. And in the Trans-Am racing circus that was then the rage among domestic manufacturers and the domain of Chevrolet. Credit for the Boss Hoss' creation goes to one Semon E. (Bunkie) Knudsen, an earthquake of a top executive, hired away from Chevrolet in early 1968 by Henry Ford II. According to Gary Witzenburg's Mustang: The Complete History of America's Pioneer Ponycar (a good read for Mustang radicals), it was Knudsen who decided there should be a Mustang capable of blowing the Z-28 Camaro into the tall grass. By the time Knudsen was on board, the basic Mustang offerings for '69 were already on stream; the "Boss," as it was to be named, had to be hurried even to make a mid-year introduction-which it did. Intended as much as a SCCA Trans-Am "homologation special" as a legitimate street offering, Ford even considered calling it the Mustang "Trans-Am." But Pontiac had already agreed to fork over $5 per car for the right to refer to a high-performance Firebird model by the same name. Instead, the new Mustang drew its name from its engine, a tamed version of Ford's solid-lifter, smallblock racing engine. With specific block and heads (featuring canted intake and exhaust valves of 2.23 and 1.71-inch respectively), four-bolt main Searing caps, aluminum pistons and forged crank, it was not to be mistaken for the standard 302. Compression ratio was 10.5:1. Headers, dual exhaust and an aluminum high-riser manifold with 780 CFM Holley four-barrel were all part of the package. Horsepower was claimed to be 290 at 6,000 RPM. An Autolite rev limiter was standard, keeping the piece together with a hard-and-fast 6,150 RPM redline. Underneath, the standard "stiffen everything" approach was used in an effort to comply with what thenMustang chief engineer Howard Freers recalls as a directive to create "absolutely the best handling street car available on the American market -bar .none." Whether this was achieved in quantifiable terms is, of course, easily refutable. But there's little question they were serious in the attempt. Ford evell went to the expense of reworking the inner fenders of Boss 302 models simply to fit hunking F60x15 glass-belted Goodyear bias-plies-then the hotticket for performance--underneath . Other areas reworked were less consequential. The rear deck could be tricked up with an optional elevated wing spoiler and slats. The front end featured a nose spoiler which, for the '70 edition, did doubleduty under the snoot of leftover '69 Shelby models, which were spoilered, striped and renumbered to become "1970" models. In '70, too, came the trendy shaker hood option for which, it seems, no . performance increase was claimed. It is not our intent to label the Boss a cobble-car or afterthought, but it is enlightening to regard some of its less talked-about features. Because debuted. Said Car and Driver: "Without a doubt the Boss 302 is the best handling Ford ever to come out of Dearborn ... It's what the Shelby GT 350s and 500s should have been but weren't." With the exception of the '65 and '66 GT 350s, the opinion is wellfounded. The '69 and '70 Boss 302s (a pristine '70 Boss belonging to Californian Jim Fareio is featured here) were awesome long before Datsun ad men trivialized the word. But was it really as much of a performer as the current "Boss?" The '70's 290bhp would seem a hands-down winner compared to the current 302's 175 ponies-but, one current car's Eagle GT radials as Barney Oldfield's "999" does to the latest Penske PC-11. With each car on original tires, the new Boss pulls higher Gs-simply goes around corners more quickly, more ably. As it should. If we could have gotten an original Boss on its original tires (with an owner crazy enough to let us), we would have gone to the race track for hard numbers. But, trust us, the handling edge would definitely be in the current car's favor. On equivalent tires, however, and with equal gearing, our hunch is that the race would be close. Out in the street, the old Boss has rougher going. Literally.

Vic Huber photos

In terms of performance, the new Boss (left) is as deserving of the name as the original Boss (above). the added weight of the rear wing, mounted on the short trunklid, made the assembled unit too heavy for its stock springs, a small prop-rodsimilar to the prop-rods used on today's non-sprung hoods-was installed. On level ground, It wasn't needed. Facing up an incline, however, it was. Today it is one of the more soughtafter parts for the restoration crowd. The visual character of the Boss was established by its obligatory Magnum 500 chrome-and-blackout rims, husky white-letter tires-and especially the tape and blackout treatment penned by Larry Shinoda, whom Knudsen had plucked from Chevrolet shortly after his own switch to the FoMoCo side of the fence. The side stripes, for whatever earthly reason it was deemed necessary, were constructed of a reflective black tape material. Mercy. The automotive press was taken with the car almost as soon as it must remember that in 1972, a switch was made In horsepower measurements to the current, more conservative (but conceded by most to be more accurate) SAE Net readings. Also, very important, is the amount of effort exercised on the current car to reduce parasitic losses throughout the drivetrain. Just after the new Mustang GT came out, I was lectured by a very able Z-28 engineer that the Mustang GT just couldn't be faster than the most powerful Camaro, complete with an explanation of gear ratios, power-to-weight, etc. On paper, he was "right." On the streets? The Mustang GT, particularly now, with its new four-barrel carb, is the fastest American car in the business. It will do a 0-60 in under seven. Just under. Which is exactly what some of the car mags of 13 years ago quoted for the original Boss. In handling, the comparison is unfair. The original's bias-ply tires bear about as much relation to the Freers, now chief body and electrical engineer at Ford, has had a chance to sample both and has little trouble finding praise for the Capri RS that is his current everyday driver: "The old Boss was designed to be an all-out handling car ... for its day, with compromises in ride that wouldn't be acceptable today. "The current car is a car you can drive every day. I love it." He's prejudiced, of course. But we're convinced that in terms of pure performance, the new Boss is as deserving of its name as the original. For making a clean-living EPA v-a pull in the same league with a '70 reworked race motor, the Ford engineering crew deserves a pay hike. The current Mustang GT and Capri RS 5.0-liters will indeed bring back memories of '70-style performance. Just remember, before you get too choked upit's 1983.

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AutoWeek February 28, 1983

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