A Boss 351 Invitational
The Muscle Car & Corvette Nationals plays host to an incredible collection of Boss 351 Mustangs
There was a brief moment in deep history when Ford’s sporty Mustang went white hot before it went very dark—and for a long time. Mustang was a hot seller even against the likes of Camaro, Firebird, Barracuda, Challenger, and Javelin/AMX, not to mention corporate cousins Cougar, Torino, and Cyclone. When Semon E. “Bunkie” Knudsen came over from General Motors to run Ford Motor Company, it was his goal to infuse even more adrenaline into the Ford and Mercury divisions.
Knudsen’s objective at the Ford Division was to grow the Mustang name with extraordinary powerplants including the Boss Series ponies. His people birthed the Boss 302 and 429 for 1969-1970, which were among the greatest assets of Ford’s blistering Total Performance program of the 1960s. Although he gets plenty of criticism for this turn of events, making the Mustang the largest it has ever been, Knudsen can be credited with the Mustang’s redesign for 1971. Mustang got a wider track and a much longer wheelbase in anticipation of greater displacements planned at the time.
Ford was planning 500-plus cubic inch engines for the Mustang in the 1970s hence the marque’s dramatic growth. During the product planning phase of the all-new Mustang, Boss 302 was going to be carried over into 1971. In fact, Ford built six 1971 Boss 302 “G” engine code pre-production Mustang units, all of which were eventually changed to 351 Cleveland power (along with the corresponding engine code change in the VIN) when the decision was made to drop the Boss 302. Instead of Boss 302 for 1971, Ford chose to spice up the new 351 Cleveland with a hot mechanical cam, spread-bore induction, and hotter heads calling it Boss 351.
The decision to drop Boss 302 was one of corporate economics. It was cheaper to build a Boss 351 Cleveland instead of a Boss 302 with its own production line, special four-bolt main block, and other unique (and expensive) appointments. The Boss 351 also offered the displacement advantage, especially when pitted against Chevy’s 350ci small-block, Pontiac’s 350 and 400, Chrysler’s 340, and AMC’s 390 and 401.
The Boss 351, along with the big-cube 429 Cobra Jet, would be the Mustang’s last big hurrah with but one exception—the short-lived 351C High Output of 1972, which was a low compression Boss 351 with a new name and same mechanical tappet chatter.
The 1971 Boss 351, as well as the 1972 High Output, are Mustangs to be celebrated. They were the end of an era of hot muscle Mustangs before Ford and the rest of Detroit pulled the plug on power, entering a new era of lame gutless paint and tape pseudo muscle cars in the 1970s with two-barrel carburetors and mag wheels.
