Jack Grice sent me this. Posted on FB by Ray Parrish.
I cleaned up the image a bit.
This is the SuperCat on the hauler.
Jack Grice sent me this. Posted on FB by Ray Parrish.
I cleaned up the image a bit.
This is the SuperCat on the hauler.
(Tom Tate just pointed out that the headline I wrote was ‘Maverick’. It should be ‘Mustang’… Thanks Tom!)
Bill Jameson’s daughter sent this to me today. Bill is on the left.
Looks like some serious wrenching. Love these shots.
Now I need to gather up all the photos that I have with Bill in them and send them along.
Digging through the archives and found some 8mm and Super 8mm film. I had it moved to DVD and this was the first video. I almost fell off the couch!
Poor quality but probably the only video in existence of this vehicle running at the time.
This film was taken after the car was sold to Drake Viscome as the car is painted up in the ‘Vindicator’ livery.
Here it is:
This image comes from a scrapbook that we had. Shows the 1965 Comet Cyclone named the ‘Chargin’ Cyclone’ launching off the line at the old Detroit Dragway. Pretty cool shot of the car.
Charging indeed…
Here are a couple more pictures of the Boss 429 Mustange ride from 1969. Taken from the Todd Wingerter collection. Sent to me by Daryl Huffman.
I decided I would get a few articles from the time period that talk about the Boss 429 and the 351 Cleveland. They are interesting reads especially when compared with what is said today. Check out this one from the January 1970 edition of “Car Craft”
Page 36 | CAR CRAFT | JANUARY 1970
Ford’s Boss 429, Blue Crescent, Shotgun Motor, Twisted Hemi, call it what you like. Many people are calling it a stone. Going in we decided to discard all the poor reports we had received on the Boss 429 engine and try to approach it from a fair and impartial standpoint, to give the engine, and Ford, an even chance.
In the following pages we have evaluated the Boss 429 from four different standpoints: as a totally stock “out of the box” showroom new product; as a slightly modified street and strip dual purpose performer; in several all-out fully drag strip-prepared cars; and, finally, on Crane Engineering’s dynamometer. In addition, for your edification, we are including the big inch aluminum block offshoot of the Boss 429, the 494. After conducting the four-pronged test we have concluded, as have others, that the Boss 429 engine fails in its present form when applied to the street performance situation. While the engine may be dominating the NASCAR Grand National Stock Car circuit down south, it seems to lack when tested on the drag strip. Although an industrious few – like Dave Lyall, Wayne Gapp, and the guys at Foulger Ford – have made semi-respectable showings with the engine, the Boss 429, to date, is a loser in the drag car bailiwick. The purpose of the text that follows is to tell you the reasons the Boss 429 has fared and failed, and to suggest how the situation, which is a lot bigger than the Boss 429, might be alleviated.
The answer, lies in Ford Motor Company’s approach to the whole performance car market.
Originally, the Boss 429 was developed with NASCAR (Grand National Stock Car) racing as the primary application, but as with the SOHC Ford engine, a secondary outlet for the equipment was found in drag racing. In order to legalize the Boss 429 engine for NASCAR use, 500 of the engines had to be built and offered in an available car, thus the Boss 429 Mustang was born. Because the engine was designed strictly for the NASCAR circuit, it is tailored to operate at high rpm’s. This fact can be quickly verified by checking the size of the intake and exhaust ports. They are enormous, and are generally inefficient’ at low rpm ranges.
As is common with many of Detroit’s “crash” programs, the 429 design engineers had a very limited time (in this instance only three months) to transform their NASCAR Stocker engine to a street performance car package. Although the engine was not originally designed or intended for street use, the engineers waded into the job. During the transformation from race engine to street motor, certain compromises had to be made for production and warranty reasons. For example, a single four-barrel 735 cfm carb was chosen, which is street-able, but not exactly a performance induction system for an engine of this size. Also, a massive weight valve train
was used in the street version of the Boss, which, together with the 1969 hydraulic camshaft, resulted in a performance peak of 5400 rpm. Anything close to the 5500 rpm from the engine was inviting valve float. Remember that the engine was primarily designed for high rpm operation, but because of the cost of the lightweight valves was prohibitive for production use, heavy valves were used and thus the street engine was not capable of the needed high rpm’s and another inherent problem was created. Although Ford put a 370 horsepower figure on the street version of the Boss 429 engine, the NHRA re-factored it to SS/D, which didn’t help Ford’s chances at the drags.
But the key to all of Ford’s problems with the performance cars and the thing that really put the blocks to the Boss 429 Mustang was that corporation’s Product Acceptability Standard (P.A.S.). The edict handed down from the higher-ups at Ford says that any car made and sold by the company must start when the engine is hot, start in cold weather, idle, run in traffic in fourth gear, and run smoothly at 20, 60 and 80 mph, just like a Lincoln Continental. In addition, the P.A.S. demands that the engine compartment, passenger compartment, and overall noise levels must not exceed a certain maximum. Then there’s always the performance car’s friend, the emission regulations, which are getting tighter every year. Put it all together and you can see that the Ford engineers had to do the impossible: build a production car that starts and behaves as docile as a Thunderbird, yet runs like Wayne Gapp’s injected gas Funny car. They managed to meet the P.A.S., thus the Boss 429 doesn’t make it as a muscular performer.
In comparison, the 429’s drag strip competitors, especially Plymouth and Dodge, don’t have the rigid acceptability standards that serve to strangle performance. A Road Runner or Hemi Barracuda will idle a bit rougher and stumble a bit in fourth gear when you try to lug it around in traffic at 20 mph. However, step on the throttle of a 383 Dodge or Plymouth and you’ll blow any stock Boss 429 Mustang directly into the weeds. Even the 340 Darts and Dusters, let alone Chevy’s Z-28, may give the Boss a tough row to hoe. While the Chrysler and General Motors products do have certain standards they must live up to, they don’t choke their performance cars to the point where acceleration is drastically hampered. Until Ford Motor Compony loosens their Product Acceptability Standard for their performance cars, they will continue to take a back seat to General Motors and Chrysler Corporation in performance. The emission laws are one insurmountable obstacle, but there is no government legislation that says a Boss 429 (or Cobra Jet) must ride like a Lincoln. We want to see Ford improve their position and penetration in the Muscle Car market, but the higher-ups at Ford think a competitive car is one that can spin street tires on wet pavement. Until they start making and selling cars that can hold their own against the competition on the nation’s drag strips, Ford will miss their due shore of the performance pie.
Ford’s factory-backed drag racers haven’t tried the Boss 429 because they were (1) unable to get parts from Ford (Montgomery & Robinson), or because (2) they wanted to see someone else make it work first. Kalitta has had limited success at the toll of much parts breakage, but two Ford employees, dyno operator Dave Lyall and design engineer Waye Gapp, have made the best drag strip showings with the Boss 429 to date. Gapp has a gas injected Funny which has run a strong 9.02-152. Lyall has two cars. The first is an NHRA SS/D Mustang which has run 11.24-124, but sincy you need 10.8’s on the 11.00 class e.t. record to be competitive, Dave feels the engine should be refactored to a lower class. Lyall’s other car is a gutted 3000-pound heads-up Super Stocker with glass fenders, doors, etc. The heads-up engine has a stock strock NASCAR crank, M/T aluminum rods and 13.4:1 pistons, polished ports, a Cran or Holman & Moody flat tappete cam, lightened rockers, and home-built dual four-barrel induction system. The car has turned 10.21-134.92 which is great for a Boss 429, but hardly enough on a circuit that requires 9.8’s to win. Gapp and Lyall are both doing a commendable job of exploring the engine’s potential, but unless Ford makes the parts available and the “names” try Boss 429’s in place of their ‘cammers’ the drag strip prognosis for the Boss 429 engine is, at best, bleak
Above – Wayne Gapp’s injected gas funny has run low nines.
Below – Dave Lyall and his respectable low-ten Boss 429.
This is a picture provided by Daryl Huffman.
This picture shows, on the left, Wayne Gapp and on the right Bill Jameson. The vehicle is in a fabricators shop for the work on the intake for the injected gas Boss 429.
AHRA Gas Funny car action from Super Stock Magazine, September 1968
Wayne Gapp’s Michigan Cougar won the S/SI money when “Buckeye” fouled.
…Then it was time for AHRA’s biggest attraction, the gas funny cars. The 2400-pounders would go at it heads up for a $1500 prize kitty.The circuit, which is overwhelmingly hemi-dominated had just completed a hectic ten-day racing schedule all over the eastern half of the country; the men and machines were tired, but they put on a great show.
First round action included the elimination of George Weiler’s “Mr. Violent” Camaro by Tom Sneden in the Bob Banning Dodge Charger, currentl the quickest and fastest car of the lot. Pee Wee Wallace dropped Al Joniec’s tired SOHC Mustang, 9.94 to 9.93, Tom Smith, in the “Virginia Twister” gasser lost to Buck Phillips ’68 ‘Cuda and Wayne Gapp’s Cougar SOHC nailed the second Buckeye car. Dan Smoker dropped Jim Lake’s Barracuda, and the “Flintstone Flyer” of Dave Koffel drew a bye run.
Then it was Sneden over Wallace, 9.74 to 9.86, Gapp over Buckeye at 9.89. Dan Smoke and Dave Koffel diced the whole way down, with the Virginia car of Smoker coming out on top at 9.87.
To make a complete semifinal, the Buckeye Barracuda, Earl Phillips driving, was reinstated for having the lowest ET of the second round losers. With this done, Smoker and Phillips met and the “Baltimore Bandit” won out, 9.80-139 to Smoker’s losing 9.82-141.50. In the other match, Tom Sneden fouled out against Gapp with the strongest run of the event, 9.68-142.40 to winner Gapp’s much slower 9.88 and 139.10. In the final for the money, the Inkster, Michigan, cammer ran a 9.91-138.24 against the Baltimore Barracuda’s red light 9.89-139.10.
Here’s the cover from the Issue.
Found this in files. This is the cover of the program for the 1967 Super Stock Nationals. I dig the artwork
The Super Cat Cougar was one of the featured cars in the program.
Good image of the Mustang flopper.