NASCAR leadership and France, in particular, were philosophically opposed to the 427 Cammer. His goal was to rid the sport of special racing engines because they created “non-stock cars.” Ford was not quick to take no for an answer from NASCAR, and many at Ford thought that their company was being treated unfairly. The Cammer engine was the only big-block in Ford’s arsenal capable of competing with the Hemi. It had a complex top end and timing chain setup, but it was essentially a reworked FE 427 2-valve hemi head.
Ford did not give up easily and tried to have the engine approved for the 1966 season. After several years of concerted efforts, NASCAR approved it for competition, but assessed such a severe carburetion restriction and huge weight penalty that the engine was rendered uncompetitive. Ford gave up trying to race the Cammer in NASCAR, but the engine dominated many experimental and factory classes in NHRA drag racing.
By 1967, the handwriting was on the wall. If Ford was going to be competitive and win on the tracks, especially Daytona, it needed a new engine design. Moreover, all of the players needed to agree on the rules. After several heated meetings, almost everyone agreed on the rules, the first of which was no engine size larger than 7 liters (430 ci).
Fran Hernandez, developer and manager of the Mercury Comet racing program, became the production manager for the Boss 429 program. (Photo Courtesy Fran Hernandez Collection)
Over the years, a large and loyal fan base developed a tremendous interest because of its unique race history and rarity. The Boss 429 was only produced during a two-year period and in limited numbers. They are considered highly collectible today and the value of the remaining cars has consistently gone up yearly. As a street machine, they were difficult to tune and expensive to maintain. It was not unheard of for a new owner to pull out the exotic Boss engine and replace it with a 427 or 428 that was more suited to run on the street. Today, collectors are trying to match the available Boss 429 engines with the cars in which they were originally fitted at the Kar-Kraft facility some 46 years ago.
This strong and growing interest from collectors has produced impressive auction prices. Several of the cars have sold at the Barrett-Jackson auction in the last few years, bringing as much as $575,000. Some have been restored to an extremely high level and many have been modified for racing. I will explain how to identify and verify that a Boss 429 is the real thing and not a copy.
The Boss 429 engine has been used for a number of high-performance applications from NASCAR to drag racing to road tracks. It was a marketing stroke of genius to put this huge newly designed engine into an already exciting muscle car. The public took notice and bought the Boss 429 cars. They also bought other Mustang models; 1969 and 1970 were banner sales years.
FRAN HERNANDEZ AND FORD TOTAL PERFORMANCE
Francisco “Fran” A. Hernandez was one of the unsung heroes of this era. Born in 1922, Fran served a stint in the Navy during the World War II. When the war was over, he returned to Southern California, where he turned his passion for hot rodding into a full-time career. He became a machine shop owner with Fred Offenhauser and a foreman for Edelbrock Equipment. Fran was one of the first to use nitromethane in 4-cylinder engines. He was racing and winning with a 1932 Ford Coupe. He also worked for Bill Stroppe, who was building race cars, and Peter DePaolo, an Indy 500 racer. Fran became involved with Ford Motor Company racing through this connection.
He later got a job with the Electric Auto-Lite Company (later known as Autolite), which Ford eventually purchased. It didn’t take his new company long to recognize his real talent. In 1960, Fran became known as the Man from Mercury after creating a performance-racing program for Ford’s Lincoln-Mercury division. At this time, Mercury was involved in NASCAR racing, but it wasn’t doing well, and in 1965, it stopped backing full-size stock cars.
“The full-size Mercury is too big for success in that kind of racing. It’s like driving a school bus,” said Fran. “There’s no sense in going racing if you can’t win. You’re just wasting money. To race the Comet, under present rules, we’d have to have a 405-ci engine, and we don’t build one.” Therefore, it went drag racing with the Comet. Ford later sponsored the Comet Cyclone Funny Cars driven by Ed Schartman and Ron Leslie.
In 1964, as head of the Performance and Evaluation Department, Hernandez promoted the Mercury Comet by creating a 100,000-mile endurance run. The follow-up was the development of the Comet Cyclone GT for drag racing. Looking for more promotional opportunities, Hernandez built five 1964 Comets for the East African Safari race, which covered 3,000 miles of rough roads. This was a first for any American automaker and the publicity was tremendous. Fewer than 15 percent of the vehicles entered finished the race. “One of the Comets finished in 21st place,” said Hernandez. “Not bad for a first try.” He followed this event with another endurance run from Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America to Fairbanks, Alaska.
When it came to promoting the Mercury competition cars, Fran Hernandez was a visionary. He was a smart engineer and a top car builder, but he also knew where the future was when it came to marketing and car sales.
“In just a short time, half the population of the country will be 25 and under. The drag strip is the best place to show them the potential of our vehicle and our engine,” he said, “We’re not thinking so much of sales today and tomorrow, as sales in the future.” This was 1966.
“He was a great engineer,” said mechanic Bud Moore, whose South Carolina team, Bud Moore Engineering, built NASCAR racecars. “He understood what the drivers wanted. He was a real big help to us because he knew what needed to be done. It was a great honor to have him working with us.”
THE BOSS PROJECT AND VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION
The iconic Boss 429 Mustang has survived the test of time and is more popular and more valuable today than ever. With the value constantly climbing, these cars have become a good investment for collectors.
By the end of 1967, having performed very well on the racetracks of Europe, and winning the World Manufacturers’ Championship, Ford, under Henry Ford II’s direction, had achieved its goal of beating Ferrari. Therefore, Ford disbanded the European racing effort and shifted its attention to the home front, which meant NASCAR. The times were changing, as were the NASCAR rules.
Ford felt that it was time for some personnel changes, so Leo Beebe was promoted out and Jacque Passino was put in charge of Ford Performance. This was a good move because Passino was well known in the Holman-Moody camp, which had worked closely with Ford in the not-too-distant past.
Next came the big move. Henry Ford II convinced Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen of Chevrolet to come over and become president of the Ford Motor Company. Long before coming to Ford, Knudsen had established himself as a staunch advocate of high-performance cars, stating that racing was an essential part of marketing cars. As general manager of the Pontiac division, Knudsen, along with John DeLorean, Jim Wangers, and others, was behind the development and creation of the 1964 Pontiac GTO, which is considered the first muscle car. This precipitated the muscle car movement in the early 1960s. Knudsen was also a dyed-in-the-wool NASCAR fan, and is credited pushing the Boss 429 NASCAR engine forward. Knudsen’s favorite saying was, “Build what you race, and race what you build.”
From the beginning, this was a very special, almost secret project. Ford developed this fantastic new engine and it was going into the newly designed Mustang. The idea