Cool cars you don't see everyday.

[Travis T]

I missed out on a relatively cheap 71 Boss 351 for lack of money years ago. I didn't really care except for the fact I could have flipped it for a nice profit.

[brianj]

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Attachment 99454

Little late to the party for an answer, but that is a breaker for a substation or high yard. Big stuff, 345, 000 volt or greater. It's basically a big on off switch for power transmission.

[grabbergreen84]

Little late to the party for an answer, but that is a breaker for a substation or high yard. Big stuff, 345, 000 volt or greater. It's basically a big on off switch for power transmission.

Ah, thanks. Something I don't see everyday.

Did this car happen to have Ohio plates?

[PaceFever79]

Did this car happen to have Ohio plates?

Sorry I didn't catch the plates. Pic was taken in McKeesport, PA (south of Pittsburgh). The most interesting feature of the car was the 1970's MetalFlake paint job on an otherwise original looking Mach 1.

[grabbergreen84]

Someone around here painted one just like that, but no prominent metal flake. If I see that car out this season, I'll take a picture. It has Cragers, and I believe, traction bars - and the mirrors might even be painted white.

[PaceFever79]

[dburdyshaw]

Is the side badge referring to the vehicle or the dude in it?

[PaceFever79]

He was sitting in the back with his son eating at the drive in.

[PaceFever79]

[xctasy]

Fiero-ed up, and then nackered like it twaz a lame horse. What a blqqdy shame.

Great car. Wowzers with warranty claims were all the excuses GM needed to kill that bad boy off.

With a V8 they are insane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65-VhSWspVE

[cb650]

[PaceFever79]

[grabbergreen84]

Do the 'late model' OEM Bullitt wheels fit these T'Birds?


Sorry for the so-called 'smart'phone element...

[mustangxtreme]

Do the 'late model' OEM Bullitt wheels fit these T'Birds?

The bolt pattern and spacing is correct so yes they will physically bolt on but, I'm not sure if the offset and back spacing are correct for them.

[grabbergreen84]

Not to mention the hub - like how they won't fit the Ranger brake rotor which gets used to convert a fox to five lug.

[84StangSVT]

Saw this the other day....

Attachment 100702
Attachment 100703
Attachment 100704

[cb650]

[roadkill]

And yet again I got caught without my camera... saw a pristine '66 Chevy II 2 door sedan while picking up lunch, and it had that distinctive straight 6 purr. Nice to see a Chevy II that's dead stock.

[82gt50]

I have tried really hard to like the 71-73 Mustangs but I just can't do it. Least favorite of all Mustangs.

I gotta come to the defense of the '71s here since I owned 2 of them a grabber blue coupe with a 302 and a Mach-1 351c Ram Air.
1. The '71 Boss 351 was faster than both the Boss 302 and Boss 429 as stated by multiple tests in their time.
2. The '71's cowl didn't start rusting out from day one like the 65-68 Mustangs.
3. The '71 had a much superior integrated power steering system unlike the add-on cylinder and valve arrangements of the 65-70s.
4. The '71 has taken a lot of heat because of it's size but one directive of the design team was it had to be able to fit any Ford engine without modification or additional structural support. The 69-70 Boss 429 required a ton of cutting and welding to install the engine but the Boss 429 would have fit the "71 as a drop in and the much stronger structure would have needed no extra support. Unfortunately the Boss version of the 429 didn't make it to 1971 but the production 429 Cobra Jet 4-speed combination was quite fast.
5. Believe it or not the extra weight of the '71 helped in the traction department given the size and marginal grip of the bias ply tires available at the time.
6. I like them

Unfortunately like the bass boat blue metal flake car in the picture the adjustable rear spoiler is incorrectly angled to match the slope of the fastback instead of being parallel to the ground, I see that all the time on 71-73s.

Sold my last '71 the Mach-1 in 1983 to buy my 1982 GT. Tip, the '71 351c 4bbl Ram Air with an automatic was a dog but with a 4-speed and 3:50 gears, well an early Mustang had better be packing a 428 to mess with it!

[xctasy]

I gotta come to the defense of the '71s here since I owned 2 of them a grabber blue coupe with a 302 and a Mach-1 351c Ram Air.
1. The '71 Boss 351 was faster than both the Boss 302 and Boss 429 as stated by multiple tests in their time.
2. The '71's cowl didn't start rusting out from day one like the 65-68 Mustangs.
3. The '71 had a much superior integrated power steering system unlike the add-on cylinder and valve arrangements of the 65-70s.
4. The '71 has taken a lot of heat because of it's size but one directive of the design team was it had to be able to fit any Ford engine without modification or additional structural support. The 69-70 Boss 429 required a ton of cutting and welding to install the engine but the Boss 429 would have fit the "71 as a drop in and the much stronger structure would have needed no extra support. Unfortunately the Boss version of the 429 didn't make it to 1971 but the production 429 Cobra Jet 4-speed combination was quite fast.
5. Believe it or not the extra weight of the '71 helped in the traction department given the size and marginal grip of the bias ply tires available at the time.
6. I like them

Unfortunately like the bass boat blue metal flake car in the picture the adjustable rear spoiler is incorrectly angled to match the slope of the fastback instead of being parallel to the ground, I see that all the time on 71-73s.

Sold my last '71 the Mach-1 in 1983 to buy my 1982 GT. Tip, the '71 351c 4bbl Ram Air with an automatic was a dog but with a 4-speed and 3:50 gears, well an early Mustang had better be packing a 428 to mess with it!

I am passoinate about every aspect of the Boss 351. It was the ultimate Bunkie Knudsen car, and has sadly gotten a really bad wrap. It was the most underrated performance car ever. Making nearly 400, 000 cars in just three years from 1971 to 1973 wasn't a commerical flop in any way considering the gas crunch. Especially when the Sports Roof was such a hard car to see out of.



Items 1, 2 and 3 I can really comment on because part of the design and high end mechanicals was transfered to the Aussie production Fords for 1972 and 1973-1975 by Brian Rossi and the Dearborn US team that did the XA and XB Falcon Hardtops.


Item 1. True, it was an awesomely quick package. Even with four quoted compression ratios of approximately 11:1 ratio, it didn't need emissions gear because of its specail carb, and it was very, very strong.

They never had tubing headers, but with just headers, a better carb, good tires, and tweeking of the hydraulic cam settings, you could make a streetable 430 flywheel hp net, and do 12.6 to 11.6 sec 1/4 miles at on up to 110- 116 mph. People claimed they were mid 13 second cars from the factory, but they weren't able to do that two up with the stock exhaust. They were a high 14 second car stock. However, the press cars to Hot Rod Magazine and every other major publication were not the standard 1803 off production cars. There were about 1807 made, not all were production legal.

They were conclusively "over-prepared" and "doctored" pilot build factory cars, just like the "doctored up" press release 1982 Mustang 5.0 were. And you'll notice that even later four eyed Saleens and EFI or 4bbl Mustangs never went as hard as the first preproduction 5.0 liter 2-bbl HO's did for 0-60 and 0-100 mph times.


For example:
the press release Boss 351 used by Hot Rod Magazine for the coming 1971 model year was equiped with just one person, and

a) had what I think was the stock 250 built QC solid lifter Australian Export camshaft for the Phase III GTHO Falcon, a 300 degree, 500 thou lift pre production cam (stock became the 290 degree SAE hydraulic with just 477 thou lifft cam),
b) non standard tubing headers, traction bars, and had the 6150 to 6250 rpm rev limiter removed,
c) The axle was stock 3.91 ratio with stock Goodyear Polyglass F60 15 tires
d) Shifting at just 5500 rpm, it did 14.09 at 102.73 mph one up at Orange County International Raceway.
e) Shifting at 6500 rpm with the headers still bolted up, 13.80 at 104.52 mph.
f) Uncorked, 13.589 at 107.52 mph, still with the 4300-d 715 cfm Autolite 4-bbl carb.

It weighed 3560 lb, 143 pounds heavier than the 1971 Falcon GTHO Phase III, which with factory Tri Y HM Headers and dual exhausts, were dynoed at 350 hp SAE Net by Mick Webb in 1971. They did 14.6 second seconds two up with a 3.25:1 axle and wide ratio Toploder. Unlike the Boss 351, the hot 351 GTHO engines used the 69-70 302 Boss Mustang 780 cfm 4-bbl Holley carb which all 1971 Phase III and planned 1972 Phase IV and all RPO 083 XA Falcon GT's got.

The press Boss 351 cars were never, ever the stock 1803 build Boss 351's plucked from the production line, they were all massaged cars. So you'd find a stock one had pressed to make 13.9 second ETs one up with the stock cam and rev limiter. It also had a not well understood, but very advanced spread bore 4-bbl Autolite model 4300-D 715 CFM carb. The carb was fine on cars like the 1970-1975 DeTomaso Pantera's, but no good in the really hard cornering situations in the front engined Boss Mustang.


For more info, see http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...g-Holley-carbs


Item 2: All the modificatiosn from the pre 1971 Fairlane based cars, such as the hideaway wipers, just made the car an oak leaf and pine needle trap. So did the SportRoof. Road Salting and the unloved nature of the cars did the rest. A pillar and C pillar runoff water went down the internal structure, and Aussie hardtop XA,XB, and XC's had the same issues as the 71 to 73's did. But they look so dang tough because of it.

Item 3:All FatStang parts were Dearborn designed, but had inputs from Australian Patents for the Dr. Arthur E. Bishop-Kirby power steering, which was actually used first on the Australian HQ GM Holden Statesman and the 1970-1/2 model year US F car Camaro and Firebird. http://www.sae.org/news/releases/fellow-bishop.htm

This was a very advanced kind of recirculating ball steering system which had a low ratio on center, and high ratio at lock to make the steering safe under emergency driving. The 4 turns lock to lock with the 16 ratio unassisted went down to just 2.6 turns, yet there was a low ratio equal to 4 turns lock to lock on cneter. Although it was used with 4 pound rim effort in the Fords and GM cars, it could be revalved for 8 pounds, and then became an exceptionaly good option when equiped with the Formula 500 whels with big tires. It was used from 1970 to the current higher effort on GM trucks. It was one of Australias sucess storries, like heavy durty 1984 PBR Corvette and later SN95 Mustang brakes, and the exported Heavy Durty replacment 1984 to 1988 9 bolt G52 limited slip BTR axles for the Camaro and Firebirds

[Travis T]

I don't know about the 71s not getting rusty cowls, that is what parked the Boss 351 I was looking at buying. Only rust on the whole car.

[PaceFever79]

Reminds me of this Muscle Car Shootout, it doesn't include the Boss 351 (sadly), but the Boss 429, GTO Judge, Challenger HEMI, GS455, Chevelle LS6, HURST OLDS, and AMX, all of them stock on original (Coker repop) bias ply tires. Much to my surprise, The Boss 429 was the quickest!

[PaceFever79]

(also, how cool SPEED was before Fox got a hold of it!)

[wraithracing]

This is one belongs to the owner of a local garage here in Grand Junction. Yes it's real.



Trey

[82gt50]

I don't know about the 71s not getting rusty cowls, that is what parked the Boss 351 I was looking at buying. Only rust on the whole car.

The 1965-1968 Mustangs all had an upper slotted cowl panel which allowed leaves and debris to fall down onto the lower cowl where 2 chimney intakes drew air into the vent system. The problem was Ford welded the upper and lower cowl panels together creating an enclosed chamber that the owner could not clean out so the debris clogged the end drains and rusted the lower cowl out. What's worse is the car was painted after this assembly was welded together so the steel had no protection against rust since in those days car bodies were not dipped before painting. The result was the lower cowl would rust through and rainwater would drip behind the dash to the floor contributing to floor pan rust from the inside out. But the painted upper cowl of course still looked fine. Do some research on early Mustang cowl rust it's a pain of a job to cut the cowls apart cut out the rot weld in repair panels and weld the cowls back together.

The '71-'73 had removable plastic grills with smaller square openings for the cowl panel which allowed for access to the lower cowl to clear debris from the drains and prevent rust. And of course since the hood covered much of the area above the opening less rainwater went straight down the cowl.