More cars that don't exist....

After the last post I had several people ask me about other cars that friends and co-workers claimed to have owned or seen, but weren't sure if they were for real and wanted me to verify or de-bunk the existence of these cars. I'm happy to please, so here's the list.  #1. 428 powered 1968 Mustangs. When GM introduced the Camaro / Firebird in 1967 it stole quite a bit of the Mustangs thunder-and sales. You could get a Camaro with a 396 inch Rat motor and a Firebird with 400 V8 out of the GTO. Needless to say all a 289 inch Mustang would see of those would be the taillights. Ford quickly stuffed the 390 into the Mustang as an option-but it was a truck / station wagon engine not a high-performance one, and in road tests the 396 Camaro and 400 Firebird blew its doors off. Carroll Shelby had stuffed the 428 Police Interceptor into the GT500 in 1967 and was offereing it again for '68, but those were ultra-rare high-dollar conversions. Bob Tasca-owner of Tasca Ford on the east coast and one of the most successful and influential Ford dealers in the country-stuffed a 428 into a Mustang and had great success drag racing it. Like Royal Pontiac-Tasca Ford would do special conversions if customers paid enough and I know he built several 428CJ '68 Mustangs for customers. They'd take a 390 model-"FE" engines are externally identical-and order the solid-lifter Police Interceptor 428 through the parts department and have the service department swap the engines. However I have never seen a factory built version or the build sheet or window sticker on one, and Musclecar Review, Hot Rod, and Hemmings has never verified one. If someone can produce paperwork authenticating one, I'll take their word for it, but I don't think Ford ever built any. However, because of Tasca's efforts, the 428 became a factory option when the Mustang was redesigned for 1969. # 2. 4-speed 1969 Hurst / Olds. In 1968 George Hurst stuffed the 390 hp 455 out of the Toronado into a 442, gave it a special silver and black paint job, a special shift kit and high-stall converter in the TH400 and a Hurst / Dual gate shifter. It was a rocket, and the buff magazines loved it. Only 515 were built, but it did a lot for the 442's street cred. In 1969 906 were built and these were even more radical-they were white and gold and had huge hood scoops and a GTO "Judge" type spoiler on the back. For some reason they lost 10 hp and were rated at 380. All the H / O's were automatics. The buff magazines called them "The Gentlemans" Hot Rod". Rumor has it that the son of the owner of a big Olds dealer in Michigan wanted one, and he wanted a 4-speed in it. Hurst and Oldsmobile wouldn't do a special order-so they got a "Regular" TH400 H / O and had the service department put a Muncie M21 4-speed and clutch assembly in it. If that's true then their may be one of 906 running around with a 4-speed-but again this car has never turned up at Hot August Nights, Barret-Jackson or the Pure Stock Drags and no magazine has ever verified it, so it may be just a rumor. All Hurst / Olds models were automatics, through all the years the package was offered.  # 3. 1969-70 Ram Air V GTO. In 1967-68 Herb Adams and crew were working on a Tunnel-Port 303 inch Pontiac engine to compete in the Trans-Am series. They knew Ford was building a Tunnel-Port 302-( The term "Boss" ring a bell? ) and they wanted to be competitive. They found out that the little 303 actually ran better and made more power with the smaller production RAIV heads. However-when Adams and drag racers Doug Nash and Arnie Beswick put the big heads on the 400 and 428 engines with a hot General Kinetics solid-lifter cam and special valvetrain they were amazed. They were making power levels equal to or better than a 426 Chrysler Hemi and a 427 Chevy Rat Motor. Naturally the engineers wanted to put it into production. John DeLorean-who was president of Pontiac at the time and the GM Brass wouldn't warranty a solid-lifter Pontiac engine. Adams and crew argued that Chevrolet had numerous solid-lifter engines that they warrantied, and that Chrysler was selling Hemi Darts with no warranty at all. To no avail. Except they had enough parts to build about 600 engines and they didn't want to just scrap them. Adams suggested they sell them over the counter to racers. Royal Pontiac swapped an RA V into a Carousel Red Judge that was featured in Hot Rod and other magazines, and Arnie Beswick had great success drag racing an RA V Judge. Doug Nash built 4bbl and dual-quad intakes for the RA V, and Royal Pontiac mechanic Milt Schornak had great success drag racing a 1970 GTO with an RA V, and other influeintial Pontiac tuners like Mickey Thompson and Nunzi Romano could build RA V's for people, and as late as 1972 it was rumored that Pontiac engineers had built a 455 inch RA V GTO and raced it against a 455 inch Stage 2 Buick Skylark trying to force it into production to revive flagging sales, but there was never a factory built version. # 4. Boss 429 Cougar. Ford wanted to homogolate the Boss 429 for Nascar racing to compete with the 426 Chrysler Hemi that was dominating. The rules said you had to build at least 500 cars and sell them to the public before you could race them. Since the Wood Brothers, and Cale Yarborough and A.J. Foyt were racing Torinos and Mercury Cyclones in Nascar I have no Idea why Ford decided to sell the Boss Nine in the Mustang, and I have no Idea why Nascar allowed them to race the engines, because they weren't selling Boss Nine Torinos and Cyclones to the public! Maybe the rule just said the engine had to be sold in any production vehicle, and it didn't have to be a specific model. I don't know. Anyhow that's how the Boss 429 Mustang came into being. But they werent' factory built. Ford would take 428 Mustangs, and ship them to Kar Kraft for the Boss Nine conversion. Even at the high price they were selling them at, Ford lost money on every one. I know a couple of Boss Nine Cougars were built by Kar Kraft for drag racer "Dyno" Don Nicholson, but none were ever sold to the public, and again-I have never seen one, or the build sheet or a window sticker for one, and no magazine or Ford engineer or executive has ever verified one. # 5. 1972 Boss 351 Mustang. The Boss 351 was a one-year only option. 1,806 were built in 1971. They had 11.3:1 compression, a hot solid-lifter cam, and an aluminum high-rise intake with a special 750 cfm Autolite carb. They were only available with a 4-speed and 3.91 or 4.30 gears. They were grossly under-rated at 330 hp. In 1972 the Majority of Mach 1 Mustangs had a 351 CJ that had 7.9:1 compression, a hydraulic cam, and was rated at 266 hp and was available with a 4-speed or an automatic. There was an option called 351HO that had 8.8:1 compression, a solid-lifter cam,was only available with a 4-speed, and was rated at 285 hp. People argue that this was just a de-tuned Boss 351-and their right-but Ford called the package "351 HO" not "Boss" so that's the way it is. Chrysler took the cute little devils with the pitchfork off the Demons because of pressure from christian groups in 1973 and changed the name to "Dart Sport". They still had the 340 V8 and all the other pieces-but they weren't "Demons" anymore. And the '72 "HO" 'Stangs weren't Bosses anymore. Hope that clears things up. Mastermind