1969-1970 Ford Mustang Boss 429. Dan Burrill

went back to what wins on Sunday, sells on Monday.

      Looking at this, you can see that this car was scheduled for building on 1-31-69 (January 31, 1969), built on 1-31-1969, and released on February 19. The paperwork shows that it shipped on February 13, 1969. There’s full documentation on all cars regarding when they were built and when they were shipped, etc.

      Another interesting item, if you look at the original invoicing for each car, is that Ford couldn’t release a car from the facility unless it was actually sold. So all those cars were sold to Shelby American, and then they were released to the Kar-Kraft factory or facility, in Brighton, Michigan, where the work started. When the cars were finished, they were invoiced to the individual dealers. This was Ford’s way of handling this particular program.

       The Marti Report tells just about everything that the car owner would want to know about his or her car.

       These two invoices tell a lot about the operation of Kar-Kraft. For example, there seem to be several different prices. Invoice no. 2 shows that the car (KK 1279) is going to a dealer, reflects the dealer prices, and the current price of items. Invoice no. 3 (KK 1279) obviously shows a wholesale price.

      Please note that with the increasing value of these cars, many of these vehicles are now no longer just fun, vintage cars. Some are becoming part of automotive history. As such, the paperwork becomes an important part of that history. If you purchase any paperwork, please use adequate care to preserve it for posterity.

       Most Boss 429s had a total list price of $5,022 and a sales amount of $4,066. In most cases, you could buy one of these cars for $3,600 or $3,700, depending on who you were and how badly you wanted the car.

      There are several ways to verify a vehicle, especially a Ford. Marti Auto Works, a research firm, uses original Ford invoices, and can generate the paperwork and a complete report on the vehicle in question.

      The Mercury Comets were well known on the drag strip but the full-size Mercury was meeting limited success on the NASCAR and USAC tracks. Ford was still promoting safety rather than performance.

      At about the time that the baby boomers were getting their drivers’ licenses, Ford realized that it was missing out on one piece of the pie: the performance market. Chrysler, Dodge, and General Motors were raking in this new group of customers because they cared less about safety than they did performance. It didn’t take Ford long to change up its game plan and Lee Iacocca gets the credit for that.

      For roughly the next 10 years, 1961 through 1971, Ford went all out with dedicated racecars and high-performance street cars, as well as with a wide range of racing parts and company sponsorship for top builders and racers, including Carroll Shelby. Ford even contracted with Shelby to produce the Mustang GT 350 and the GT 500. To help promote the cars, Hertz Car Rental had a number of Mustang GT 350s that anyone over the age of 25 could rent.

      When Bunkie Knudsen went to Ford on February 6, 1968, he took Larry Shinoda, one of his top designers, with him. His mission was to improve the styling and sales of Ford’s model-year lineup, but his role extended far beyond that. He played an integral role in the product planning for the Boss 429. However, Shinoda’s first project at Ford was the Boss 302 Mustang and later the Boss 429, also known as the Boss-9. Shinoda had high regard for Knudsen and chose the name Boss in recognition, and also because Boss was popularly used to express cool and authoritative.

      Another person who joined Bunkie Knudsen’s racing efforts at Ford was master mechanic and engine builder Smokey Yunick. Smokey was not an employee but rather an independent designer, engineer, and shop owner contracted by Ford. Yunick was a self-taught engineer and one of the most creative and innovative racing minds of the day. He designed, engineered, and built competition cars for IndyCar, Trans-Am, and NASCAR racing. In fact, Smokey Yunick’s cars won the Daytona 500 in 1961 with Marvin Panch and in 1962 with Fireball Roberts. When Knudsen enlisted the help of Smokey Yunick, he had an ace in the hole.

SELECTING THE MUSTANG

      Ford developed and built the Boss 302 to homologate the car for Trans-Am road racing. Shinoda developed attention-grabbing graphics and body accents for the high-winding small-block. However, when it came to the Boss 429, Shinoda wanted a no-frills car and he styled it as an understated yet dedicated performance vehicle that was almost a sleeper.

      Before the styling work began, Shinoda and the engineers met to discuss the Boss 429 project. Basically, they wanted to put this engine in the Galaxie because it had a large engine bay and would accept the huge engine easily. Moreover, it was for NASCAR, right? The Galaxie had been raced in NASCAR for years so it was the natural car for the engine. Ford could bolt the wide semi-hemi engine right into the car, sell them out of the dealerships, and go racing. But the burgeoning youth market was not interested in the staid full-size Galaxie, LTDs, and similar cars.

      Mustang created the pony car market, and car buyers were buying compact and intermediate cars with potent V-8s. Shinoda and Hernandez knew that, so they discussed the marketing and the success of the Mercury Comet program. At this point, Shinoda took over and suggested they do something a little bit different this time. “If we put this new very different engine in the Galaxie, no one is going to notice, except the stock car racing world, and our sales will likely stay the same.

       The Boss project required the best people Ford could assemble to make it a success. This confidential organizational chart for the 429 NASCAR Mustang Program, printed on October 16, 1968, identifies the key players involved in the program.

      KAR-KRAFT BUILDING