1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302 – A Texas Motor Speedway Trans Am Veteran

This 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302 was built into an SCCA Trans Am racer when brand new, it was then raced extensively in Texas including multiple appearances over 10 years at both the Texas Motor Speedway and Austin Raceway Park in the 1970s.

The Boss 302 was a factory homologation special developed specifically for Trans Am racing, where the engine displacement limit was set at 5.0 liters – or 305 cubic inches.

Fast Facts – The Ford Mustang Boss 302

• The Boss 302 version of the Ford Mustang was created specifically to challenge the Chevrolet Camaros in the hotly contested world of Trans Am racing.
• The name “Boss” is said to have been chosen almost by accident, the top secret project to develop the Boss 302 was led by Larry Shinoda. When people asked him what he was working on he would just say “the boss’s car” in refence to Ford President Semon “Bunkie” Knudson.
• The Boss 302 first appeared in 1969 it would lose to the Camaros in Trans Am competition but later analysis discovered that many of these races had been lost either in the pits or due to the tires. In 1970 they would triumph, winning the SCCA Trans Am Championship for Ford.
• The surviving Boss 302s are now among the more collectible of the special edition Mustangs, they’re prized for their racing pedigree and the slew of performance modifications that make them great to drive.

The “Camaro Killer” Boss 302

When Larry Shinoda and his team set to work to develop the Boss 302 and Boss 429 in the late 1960s they had one goal – to beat the Camaros. While the Mustang may have been the car that founded the “Pony Car” market genre in 1964 the other big American manufacturers had wasted no time in catching up.

The 302 cubic inch (5.0 liter) V8 used in the Boss 302 was good for 290 hp in street trim and considerably more when tuned for the track.

The Boss 302 was designed to race in the Trans Am series and the Boss 429 was aimed at NASCAR, with its considerably less stringent engine displacement regulations.

Shinoda developed the Boss 302 both to win on the track and to sell on the showroom floor. The Boss 302 (Hi-Po) engine utilizes a thin-wall, high nickel content block casting with 4-bolt mains, and heads that use a canted valve design that was being concurrently developed for the 351 Cleveland V8 engine.

The body of the car was given black “Boss” decals that changed depending on the model year, but most of the Boss 302s has the trunk lid spoiler and the front lip spoiler – one of the first times this combination was used on a production car.

The changes made to the Boss 302 weren’t only limited to the engine bay and the exterior, the suspension was modified with larger sway bars, a lower ride height, reinforced shock towers, and heavy duty spindles.

This 302 retains its spartan race-ready interior with no sound deadening, carpets, or passenger seats. It’s fitted with a full roll cage and a fire suppression system.

Ultimately Ford would keep the Boss series in production for just two model years – 1969 and 1970. After they won the SCCA Trans Am Championship in 1970 they had proven their mettle, and the performance car world of the 1970s would be vastly different to that of the 1960s.

The Texas Boss 302

The car you see here was ordered new in 1969 by Cade Motor Company in Bryan, Texas and immediately converted into Trans Am specification to compete.

Many Boss 302s were converted in this way, the series of homologation modifications made to the car by the factory made the conversion simpler than converting a normal Mustang. Its first race was at the Texas World Speedway, over the subsequent decade the car would race extensively, mostly at the aforementioned Texas Motor Speedway and Austin Raceway Park.

A new owner acquired the car in 2005 and immediately had it rotisserie restored to its original as-raced condition from 1970, the car remains in this condition today, right down to the Goodyear Speedway tires are matched original tires with correct period sizes that were located in a Pennsylvania basement.

Mecum will be offering this car at their Kissimmee Auction in Florida in January and the price guide is $80,000 to $120,000 USD. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

Images courtesy of Mecum

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Full Retro Review: MotorWeek Drives The Ferrari 328 GTS – Lotus Turbo Esprit – Lamborghini Jalpa

MotorWeek is one of the most important automotive television shows in North America and its in-depth reviews and true motoring journalism are sorely missing from many modern TV equivalents or YouTube channels.

In this famous episode John Davis reviews the then-new Ferrari 328 GTS, Lotus Turbo Esprit, and the Lamborghini Jalpa. He also takes a look at the Porsche 959 with fellow presenter Beth Nardone, who accurately predicts just how important the 959 would become.

At the end he adds a review of the AC Mark IV, an exotic car that was comparable in pricing and performance to the Ferrari, Lotus, and Lamborghini, though considerably less refined. Owners would argue that this lack of refinement is exactly the point of the car, and that its over-powered analogue driving experience was the hallmark of the original AC Cobra.

This 1986 review covers the then-new Ferrari 328 GTS, Lotus Turbo Esprit, Lamborghini Jalpa, and the AC Mark IV, as well as a special mention of the recently launched Porsche 959.

With the exception of the 959, the four cars shown in this episode were all exotics but not quite supercars.

They would have appealed to those who wanted to actually daily drive their high-speed European sports car, and of course they would have appealed to those who couldn’t quite afford the sticker price of the more expensive big brothers of the Ferrari and Lamborghini.

Remarkably, MotorWeek has been running since 1981 with John Davis at the helm, a remarkable 40 years and counting. The episode shown here is from the 1986 season, and it’s a great example of series, showing clearly why it has become such an important voice in the automotive world.

If you’d like to read more about MotorWeek you can click here to visit the official website.

Images courtesy of MotorWeek.

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For Sale: An Australian Army Land Rover Perentie – The “Toughest Land Rover Ever Made”

The Land Rover “Perentie” is probably the toughest Land Rover ever made, a few thousand were built for the Australian Defense Force and they were deployed in both peacekeeping and military roles in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia over there decades-long service life.

Although the Perentie looks not that different to the standard two-door, 110 long-wheel base Land Rover  it has been significantly modified. Power is now provided by a bulletproof Isuzu 3.9 liter diesel truck engine and it has a heavy duty chassis that’s so strong the entire vehicle can be transported by helicopter with a tether to just one corner.

Fast Facts – The Land Rover Perentie

• In 1983 the Australian Army put out a tender for a new series of 1 and 2 tonne 4×4 and 6×6 vehicles the would be able to fulfill a variety of roles, from reconnaissance and troop transport to ambulance and radio communications.
• The name “Perentie” comes from the lizard species (varanus giganteus), the largest goanna lizard native to Australia.
• Each Perentie started life as a two-door, long-wheelbase Land Rover 110. Most are soft tops in military camouflage and they’ve now been largely soft into civilian ownership where they’re prized for their off-road ability.
• Some Perenties have been customized by their civilian owners, with new paintwork and some additional changes to make them easier to live with, like sound deadening, stereo systems, new seats, and new non-military paint schemes.

Perentie – The Toughest Land Rover Ever Made

In 1983 the Australian Army launched the Project Perentie tender to supply 3,000 1 and 2 tonne off-road vehicles for military use. The applications were quickly whittled down to three marques – Jeep, Mercedes-Benz, and Land Rover.

This Perentie still has all the military upgrades, but it’s been given the “Urbanisation Package” by Team Perentie to make it much easier to use in a civilian capacity.

Ultimately it would be Jaguar Rover Australia (JRA) that would win the tender, though it wouldn’t be a production Land Rover that was given the green light, but rather a highly modified Land Rover 110 with a new 3.9 liter Isuzu 4BD1 diesel engine, an uprated gearbox, uprated axles front and back, heavy duty suspension, and a strengthened chassis that had been hot-dip galvanized.

Both 4×4 and 6×6 versions of the Perentie were made, the 4×4 was 1 tonne rated and the 6×6 was 2 tone rated. The larger 6×6 version had a full custom chassis and was often used as a field ambulance, considerably fewer 6×6 variants were made and they’re not popular for camper conversions.

The original Land Rover diesel engine that was in use at the time was deemed underpowered for military use, which is why Jaguar Rover Australia (JRA) opted to use the 3.9 liter Isuzu diesel engine. This engine is a four-cylinder unit with overhead valves that produces 88.5 hp at 3,200 rpm and 180 lb ft of torque at just 1,900 rpm.

In the 4×4 version the engine was naturally aspirated and in the 6×6 version a turbocharger was added. Due to the toughness of the engines a popular retrofit now is to bolt on a turbo kit to the 4×4 to boost power significantly with no compromise to reliability.

The Perenties were built under two major contracts, the original Project Perentie contract from 1987 to 1990 and the second was titled Project Bushranger, which took place later in the 1990s. They’ve been called “The toughest Land Rovers ever made” and there’s some truth to that, they have certainly lived up to their giant goanna namesake.

Above Video: Les Hiddins became an Australian icon with his ABC television series “Bush Tucker Man,” he drives a Land Rover Perentie throughout the series and introduced the vehicle to many Australians outside the armed services for the first time.

The majority of Perenties have now been sold into civilian hands and there are companies like LandyBitz that specialize in sourcing and shipping them to international buyers.

The 1989 Land Rover Perentie Shown Here

The Perentie you see here is a 1989 model that has been modified and upgraded by the team at Team Perentie in Australia with the “Urbanisation Package” that makes the vehicle better suited to regular civilian road use.

This package includes soundproofing, a keyed ignition, and new seals throughout. It also has KLR power steering, Raptor coating for the load space, bars, and wheel arches, plus checker plate metal trims. It is fitted with a TP custom ‘bikini’ canopy, shark fin snorkel, and an LED headlight upgrade.

This Perentie also comes with receipts for approximately $7,000 in recent mechanical maintenance work, and it’s been resprayed in a custom Dune Beige colour scheme over a Black interior that utilises hard-wearing marine grade vinyl and carpeting.

It’s currently being auctioned live online by Collecting Cars, if you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

The 3.9 liter Isuzu diesel engine is renowned for its toughness and for its excellent torque output at low RPMs – making it perfect for off-road use.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

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