One of the rarest and most sought after muscle cars of all time is the Boss 429 Ford Mustang. So when Charlie Lyons heard from someone who told him that someone had a Boss 429 hidden in a garage, it seemed too good to be true. You see, Charlie is a muscle car dealer and restoration shop owner from Irvington, AL who is known to rescue barn find cars. He says, “I get those calls fairly frequently, but they rarely turn out to be anything.” Well, in this case, it turned out to be one of only thirteen real Boss 429’s with Calypso Coral paint and a white interior. An article about the amazing find is featured here on msn.com. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Michael for the tip on this great story.
Here is what makes the Boss 429 so special. A rumored 500+ horsepower engine featuring aluminum heads and intake. During the height of the NASCAR wars, cars that wanted to compete had to be “stock cars” meaning a certain number of cars had to be produced for public sale. This created cars such as the Superbird and Boss 429 Mustang. These cars were specifically built to compete in NASCAR and fortunately for the rest of us, some made it to the street.
There has been some aftermarket racing modifications done to this particular car, but it doesn’t appear to be anything too drastic. The new owner can probably put the car back to stock configuration fairly easily. These cars easily command six figures at auction and are the centerpiece of many high-end car collections. This Grabber Green version sold at Barrett-Jackson earlier this year for $230,000 at the gavel!
The article on this car doesn’t really indicate what its future will be. It will probably be restored to original condition and sold or retired to a high-end car collection. If you were lucky enough to pull a car like this out of a garage somewhere, what would you do with it? Let us know.
Great story Montana, thanks. Kind of speechless. I give the seller credit though, not only do you have a Boss 9, but you top it off with a bottle of juice. Trying to think when N.O.S. became popular?
Amazing what people will hoard.
Amazing how perspective changes definitions. Those who HAVE it, “collected” and OWN it. Those who are JEALOUS call it “hoarding”.
Tree, I think Dean was referring to all the other *stuff* that was stuffed into the garage, and surrounding area. I really don’t think he was talking about the car. Ease up.
Funny that the new Hot Rod magazine has an article on this very subject
N.O.S. kits started appearing around 1978-79. A fellow in my high school installed one on his Trans Am. It took everyone a while to figure out why he was so fast.
We have a customer who owns a Boss 9 left to him by his uncle. It doesn’t get out much because anytime he drives it someone wants to buy it from him. He has no intention of selling it, but this illustrates one of the side issues associated with rare cars.
Of course it’s a problem I’d love to have.
CCRVTT I fix and flip Subarus and the kids are removing all badging to become sleeper. This post only shows the Boss 429 on front fenders so if the sticker can be found unused take badging off so your friend doesn’t get hit up every time he drives.
I’m pretty even that won’t stop people from trying to buy it when they see it. Lol
There’s more to it than the badging to someone who knows what they’re looking at.
Ever watch “John Wick”? Punks, nowadays have the attitude that if THEY want your car you should give it to them or they have the right to take it. I am of the same sentiment as John.
Cool story. You have to give the guy credit – he had that thing well buried and blocked in by so much junk that it would have been hard to steal even if someone had known it was there.
What a great find. The stuff is out there; who wouldn’t love to get a phone call like that? Although, if it had happened to me, when the guy finally rolled back the covers, there would have been a Mustang II under there. Story of my life.
I read an article on Hot Rod. com. about this car. One noteworthy things is with factory cast iron exhaust manifold really chocked the engine H.P. wise. with through fender well headers 500 H.P easy. What a great find.
I don’t remember Mustangs ever competing in NASCAR. Did they?
No Mustang never competed in NASCAR, Ford would have been better off putting Boss 429 in Torino. That way the exhaust port could have been raised in the heads. Early 460 had same exhaust port, couldn’t see exhaust valve with heads off the engine
That’s way we have air shears, cut off tools & ford put sheet metal all around that beautiful 429, so us shade tree engineers have a project 2 improve on, who needs inner fender wells anyways, they weigh 2 much.
No. The motor was intended to. They just used the Mustang to carry the engine around.
The Mustang with the Boss 429 engine never competed in NASCAR.
NASCAR rules required that a certain number of cars or components had to be built, to be legal to use in competition. In 69, it was 500 units, for 1970 it was changed to two per each dealer a manufacturer had.
In 1969, Ford built about 800 Boss 429’s, enough to make the engine legal for use in NASCAR, even though it wasn’t being raced in a Mustang body.
Mustangs actually did race in NASCAR in the late 60’s and early 70’s, but not in Grand National (today’s Monster Energy Cup). From 68-72, NASCAR ran a series of races for American pony cars (Mustangs, Camaros, Javelins, etc) first called Grand Touring, and later changed to Grand American. It was basically an oval version of the SCCA’s Trans-Am Series, with the cars initially powered by 305’s, but later increased to 366’s.
In 74, NASCAR introduced a new series to replace Grand American, called Baby Grand, for Mustang II’s, Vega’s, Monza’s, Pinto’s, Opel’s, Mazda’s, Datsun’s, etc. The Baby Grands were powered by 4 cylinders.
Toady, a body the “resembles” the Mustang, is raced in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series, and will be raced in Cup, next year.
Greatly appreciated knowledge, thanks for sharing GBvette !
As others have indicated, no; but Ford did have a funky, homologation car in the 1969 Torino Talladega. It wasn’t as crazy as the Superbird/Daytona, but did have a unique nose for aerodynamic advantage. They even used a modified (?) rear bumper for the front.
These are pretty collectible now and they all have 428 Cobra Jet engines, but are saddled with bench seats and automatics…
Seriously folks- What would you do with it besides drive to the local race track to buy gas for it ? Pretty much useless.unless you own a museum.
Sunday cruiser
I doubt it will ever be driven again.
Please if you can afford this car you can afford gas for it 🤨
I have a 65 Ford Custom 2 door post, 427,and i am mad everytime I fill it with with Sunoco 94 ($1.60 per litre ) But about half way thru second gear the frown turns into a great big grin!!!!!!! Damn the torpedoes-full speed ahead.
Morley
I would re-black top the roads around my place. Screw the museums, Drive it, beat on it, I think it will handle it just fine. Wash it and put it away for next time.
run it. gas is cheap. If I buy a car I’m gonna drive it, that’s why I got it in the 1st place
He’s right. That’s not a house I would expect to find a Boss 429 in either!
My favorite looking Mustang, with the Magnum wheels and wide oval tires they came with new, definitely looked the part of a total street terror, whether they ran all that good or not has been up for debate since the first one hit the showroom. Nice ride.
I’d drive the SNOT out of it!!!
LOL
There’s a white one that shows up at some of our local KCMO shows. When it starts up it’s a terror to be reckoned with and of course it always wins 1st in it’s class which puts our 70 Mach1 in second or third but who cares.
Too bad the original aircleaner is missing. I have seen those bring over $25,000 all by themselves.
Love stories like this, could only be better if a “regular guy”, that is not some well known high dollar restoration shop had bought it. My observation on Boss 429s is that they are no longer drive able cars. Like Mopar wing things, COPO cars, and other exotic engine specials.
They are now just currency, bought and sold as investments by well heeled semi car guys, who have no intention of driving them, or even bringing them to shows. It’s their cars to do with what they will, but a shame for the rest of us who would love to seem driven.
Nice find, I have a similar find. As a marketing consultant, I travel the country, and found a junkyard in rural Iowa that hasn’t crushed since the late 1980’s. There was every make, series, and model. The picking was so good, I flew my father from NC and purchased an 1972 ambulance to transport all the parts. The third day of junkyard crawling, the owner, in his 80’s, told my father and I of a 429 Boss that he purchased from a kid in 1984 for $5K because the kid could not bolt the power steering pump back on the car. He also had a shell, partial shell of a 1968 Shelby GT 350 in the yard, completely ransacked. I will attach pics
Second pic
Fifth pic
I don’t see it if was put away hard
Back in 1985 I convinced my wife that we needed to by this 1970 Mustang from a guy in West Palm Beach I saw in Auto trader she got a loan to by a sofa for our house and I changed her mind we still have the car 33 years later it’s the next best Mustang a 428 SCJ with original paint and all.
Back in my late teens early 20s (late 80s early 90s) I used to deliver pizza. I used to keep my eye open for cars in garages and under covers. I couldn’t afford to buy anything but I loved cars. One my regular deliveries was to a guy with a grabber blue Boss 429. The owner was patient enough to answer some questions from an exuberant youth (me) regarding the car. He was saving it for his retirement. A rolling 401K as it were.
I had another delivery to an old apartment building in a seedy part of town. I caught a glimpse of blue over white LeMans stripes on a car parked between two buildings. After my delivery I literally sprinted over to check it out thinking Shelby.
Mustang II. Oh well.
Read this story on msn. Soooo cool! ! They are out there waiting for someone to discover them. I found a 69 BOSS 302 sitting in a lady’s back yard had 32K miles on it! Her husband had passed away in the mid 70’s and the car had been sitting there ever since. Made her an offer and took it home. Would love to find more like that!
Same car today
For sale now?
Have a friend that bought two cars in the day one was green the other the corral the red car has had three owners including original. Car is located in central Calif and has been there entire life. I did some painting on it for the current owner and actually rode in it several times with the second owner. It has remained in about the sale 25 mile radius it whole life. He turned down a offer close to 250k over I think ten years ago. Car is mint but not sure of the millage.
Not as fast as you might expect though. Another raced the same motor in flat bottom boat for years. Boat was called “Bodacious” Boat was sold he kept the motor.If it were mine off the the strip I would go full time!
I never get that lucky, to find something like this. I’d drive the hell out of it. That’s what it was made for….
Yes… I would enjoy it! Drive it, drive it and drive it some more
Then restore it… Then park it!
Love it. I had one as a kid. Traded it for a GT 500 convertible I was 22 years old. Sold that for my education in fact sold all my cars for that education. Should have just kept my cars and done regular work! Full circle 22 years later I got my car collection again! Was fired, 3 boxes at the curb and a cop making sure I did not do anything and life is better than ever! Would love to find that grabber green boss9 now!
I have a 71 429 motor in another vehicle, anyone out there know roughly how much $ 2 make it into a Boss motor, heads r probably hard 2 find or go 2 speed shop
Walt, the Boss 429 was a completely different animal than a standard passenger car 429. It had a special O ringed block with 4 bolt mains and other differences.
Get it roadworthy and tear up the bitumen
A buddy has one of those Boss’s Totally original. He is the original owner and drives it on weekends right here in Port Chester, Ny.Funny thing he has the same last name as the writer of this post.
I’d rather it were a ’69. The front ends were more attractive than the ’70.
I tried contacting HotRod magazine about this article.
The story in the link says that the owner would remain nameless yet his name AND address is posted in one of the pictures.
They should take this photo down but my emails are failing to send!
Always have to laugh at the penniless dreamers who always boast they would “beat the hell” out of a $200K classic.
If I could afford to buy it, I sure as hell could afford to ” Beat the Hell” out of it. And I would
Key word…..“If”.
Keep the dream alive and
I’ll keep on laughing.
If you would like to stop by and laugh at this penniless dreamer sometime Ekim, my address is 3192 County Road W. Knapp WI.
Great thread! These comments & stories are what I love to read on this site!! Love the unusual cars too but stories on the comments are the best
We had a Boss 351 in our family as a kid, my Dad worked for a company owned by Ford& he could lease cars at an amazing price. Wow that thing was fast, glad I survived it!!!
LD71😄