Show Horse

Auto World 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429 MCACN

1:18 | $100

Auto World is really getting the most out of its partnership with the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN) show, which, in just a few years, has risen to become one of the premier shows for classic Detroit performance cars. This Mustang is a great example why. 1969 was the first year for the mighty Boss 429—named for the brand-new big-block 429-cubic-inch engine Ford designed from the ground up to do battle with Mopar’s 426 Hemi on NASCAR tracks. How it ended up in the Mustang (which didn’t even race in NASCAR) instead of the NASCARlegal full-size Torino is a story unto itself, but it boils down to marketing.

The special 429 was given huge aluminum cylinder heads with giant valves, cavernous ports, and hemispherical combustion chambers like its rival (but crimped on the sides, which has earned it the unofficial nickname “Semi-Hemi”). All of which made tons of high-rpm power needed on NASCAR’s superspeedways, but it did so at the expense of low- and midrange torque, especially with a streetable cam. That torque deficiency would be especially galling in the heavy Torino. NASCAR rules specified that Ford needed to sell 500 Torinos and 500 429 engines to make them legal to race, but nowhere did it say they had to be sold together! The Ford marketing team figured it would be easier to sell the engines if installed in their smaller, lighter performance flagship the Mustang, so they created a special edition and dubbed it the Boss 429. The only problem was that those giant heads didn’t fit in the Mustang’s narrow engine bay. So Ford paid custom house Kar-Kraft to chop and cut the Mustang’s front suspension until it could cram the 429 into place. In the end, 857 customers ponied up for a Boss 429, and nowadays it is, by far, the most valuable ’69 Mustang for collectors.

Which brings us back to the model, a replica of one of the award-winning Boss 429s at the 2014 MCACN show—which was that year’s special feature class. All 12 factory colors were represented at the show, but this color—Black Jade—is one of the rarer and prettier shades, and Auto World has done a lovely job replicating it in 1:18, along with the deluxe woodgrain interior and beastly 429.