- BODY: Auto World
- WHEELS & TIRES: Road Race Replicas
There are now a grand total of 4 of these Auto World 1970 Mustang fastbacks in my fleet, because, well…I love Mustang fastbacks. Of the 4, this one was the first one I bought; this is one of my oldest cars, dating back to March of 2020, when the “scamdemic” was just reaching full-bore and our lives were being dismantled before our very eyes. And your humble blogger, like every other “good citizen,” was concerned for everyone’s well being and played along hoping we could all somehow get through it; it would be a couple of years before it became clear how much we’d all been had, so even as things seemed like they were collapsing, I have happy memories of those early days of 2020, because I was happy to have found a new hobby that I could spend my time and effort on alone at home while following all the rules.
Contrast all that with a car built when the lives of Americans weren’t crushed by rules: when a young, middle class man or woman could take his hard-earned money into a Ford dealership and drive away in a 300 horsepower sports car that looked like a million bucks and sounded like the voice of God! The Boss 302 needs no introduction; a car this famous can’t benefit by any pontificating by yours truly, because really, it speaks for itself: with it’s grabber yellow paint and wild black stripes complete with the louvers on the back window, this is car that needs no explanations or apologies. It was a handful, though, to get it to perform; this body is large and heavy and not terribly well balanced, so the 3 other versions of it in my collections have been disappointing performers in spite of their great looks. But not this one; for some reason I’ve never been able to explain, this one holds the road like a car half its size, and although its showing its age from hard racing mileage, its fast, too! The ubiquitous American “Bullet” wheels from Road Race Replicas dressed it up just right, and clearance required the use of the low profile tires which brought the moly trac mag closer to the rail for screaming performance at high speeds.
“Havoc” is a battle-hardened veteran at Drag City, having been racing since the days of the Mk. II track. SoCal born and bred Jason “Mr. Menace” Monroe has been racing cars in one way or another since his teens, and now approaching the half-century mark he shows no signs of slowing down. Oddly, “Mr. Menace” was a die-hard Chevy fan but always had a shine for the ’70 Boss 302, so when this one became available to him at a good price in 1979 he picked it up and just tinkered with it for several years, driving it on the street from time to time until he decided to take it down to the frame in 1981 and build it back up as a Trans Am wolf in…well, wolf’s clothing, since a bright yellow and black Boss is hardly a subtle car! Equiped with a bevy of performance options as almost all Boss 302’s were, the semi-hemi headed, 4-speed, posi-traction Boss lives up to its name, and as the 1985 season kicks off she’s still out there kicking butt and taking names. Monroe hasn’t ever won a full tournament, but he’s got a trophy room that most other racers @ DC can only dream of: tournament win or no, every other driver at the track would love to win this often and look this good doing it!
