In this week’s Hot Car, we turn our sights towards one of America’s greatest V8 monsters of old – a car from an age when cubic inches and chest hair were the norm: the 1970 Ford Mustang 302 Boss belonging to Eric Gaignard of Sooke.
Built specifically as a hard track machine, the Boss 302 took the Mustang to the next level, heating up its rivalry with Chevy’s Camaro SS for years to come.
This particular Mustang however, wasn’t born as a Boss 302, but it’s certainly a fastback; a breed of the Mustang that has become rarer and rarer as time passes by.
For Gaignard, that’s all he really wanted; the look of the Boss — a process that took him several years to restore and paint, considering the car was half-demolished when he first got it. But a piece from here, a piece from there, and years of welding, and the old machine roars on.
And the rest? Well, beneath that muscular hood purrs a 428 cu. in. Super Cobra V8 (unlike the original’s 302) — with 457 horsepower at the flywheel, it’s got enough power to shred itself, the tarmac it’s on and the fabric of space time.
This power gets transferred through a modern five-speed manual gearbox as well, just for that extra touch.
“It’s a tribute, so it looks like a Boss, handles like a Boss, but it’s got the drivetrain of a Mach 1,” Gaignard said. “That way, you get the best of both worlds.”
A fine tribute indeed.
reporter@sookenewsmirror.com