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BOSS!
Ford’s Corporate Trans-Am Twins from 1970
Author

Will Smith
Words & Photography
Ford’s Unique Vehicles to Reclaim SCCA Trans-Am Series Crown
In 1969 and 1970, Ford produced a pair of unique vehicles designed with only one purpose in mind: to take back the SCCA Trans-Am series crown from Chevrolet. After stunning success with the ’65-’67 Mustangs, Ford lost the title to Chevy’s Camaro in 1968, and many felt that the car’s “tunnel port” engine was the culprit. Ford drastically rethought its engine program and came up with a legendary solution.
The Boss 302 Engine: A Legendary Solution
The tunnel port displaced 302 cubic inches and had some advanced thinking, but the engine was unreliable, and the problem seemed to be in the heads. Someone at Ford came up with the idea of installing the canted-valve heads from the yet-to-be-released 351 Cleveland engine on the tunnel-port block, and Ford designer Larry Shinoda named the engine and the car it powered the Boss 302. Unlike the tunnel port, this motor was a winner, putting out 470 reliable hp in race trim. In 1970 it brought the Trans-Am title back to Ford.
Boss 302 and Cougar Eliminator: Not Your Typical Muscle Cars
The car that delivered the title was also named the Boss 302, and its Mercury stablemate was known as the Cougar Eliminator. These were not typical muscle cars; they had, for the time, stiff springs and big sway bars to help them get around the curves. But they were expensive and saw limited production, making them popular and desirable today. Here’s a look at restored versions of each car—time capsules from the glory days of production-based Trans-Am racing, perhaps in itself the high point of the muscle car era.
Eliminator: The Factory Cougar with a Small Motor and Big Attitude
Sonny Morgan’s Quest for a Vintage Cougar
Sonny Morgan knows a thing or two about high-end cars. As the owner of several car dealerships in the Dallas, Texas, area, he deals in Aston Martins every day. But perhaps surprisingly, it’s not a modern DB9 or even a classic DB5 that sparks his interest. If you really want to get Morgan excited, talk to him about a Mercury. He decided he wanted a vintage Cougar once he became a Lincoln-Mercury dealer, but he didn’t want just any old Cougar to display on the showroom floor. Morgan really knows his cars, and for him it was a ’70 Cougar Eliminator or nothing. He didn’t want a 351 or even a 428—the only engine he was interested in was a Boss 302.
Finding the Perfect ’70 Cougar Eliminator
Since he knew exactly what he was looking for, Morgan turned to the Cougar Club of America for help. The ’70 Eliminator was a low-volume car, and fewer still had the Boss motor, so finding one isn’t always easy. Fortunately, that club located a car for Morgan in upstate New York, and unlike the fruit of many car searches, this one was hardly a wreck—rather, it had finished second at the 2000 Carlisle Nationals. Morgan liked what he saw, so he bought the car and took it home.
Restoration Journey of the Eliminator
His new Eliminator was in good shape, but it wasn’t perfect. There was a scratch in the blue paint, and during sanding in preparation for touchup paint the owner discovered that the car was actually yellow. This surprise made the owner curious to know the exact condition of his car, prompting him to begin a ground-up restoration.
John Eagle Lincoln-Mercury Restoration
So where do you take a ’70 Cougar Eliminator for restoration? To a Lincoln-Mercury dealer, of course, or at least that’s what you do when you own such a dealership. John Eagle Lincoln-Mercury in Dallas performed the work, including taking the body down to the bare metal. Beneath the paint the body itself was in very good shape, and not much bodywork was necessary. Considering where the car came from, the lack of any rust was a pleasant surprise, so the process was straightforward, comprising little other than preparation for the new coat of paint. The paint is a BASF recreation of the original Competition Yellow, topped by the black stripes that identify this cat as an Eliminator.
Unique Features of the Cougar Eliminator
Other touches unique to that model include the rear decklid spoiler, which made the decklid too heavy for the stock springs, so Mercury added a prop rod to prevent it from knocking people out as they loaded the trunk. The chin spoiler and hoodscoop are also Eliminator touches, and the famous “electric shaver” hidden headlights are painted black rather than left in their natural chrome. Like all ’70 Cougars, it has the sequential turn signals, activated (long before complicated electronics and LED lights make such a feat less complicated) by a camshaft-like switch with lobes that light up the individual bulbs in rapid succession.
Rebuilding the Boss 302 Motor
The restoration also involved rebuilding the Boss 302 motor. For those unfamiliar with the motor, the Boss is hardly a standard 302—as the name implies, its primary purpose was to power the Boss 302 Mustang in Trans-Am competition, which it did with great success. Though advertised at only 290 hp, actual output was likely considerably higher, and 350 hp doesn’t seem like an unrealistic number. If you don’t believe us, just ask anyone who owns one. Features of the Boss 302 motor include four-bolt mains, forged connecting rods and pistons and 10.5:1 compression. The cam is a mechanical lifter piece, and the intake is a high-rise aluminum design topped with a special 780cfm Holley Boss carb. On Morgan’s Boss 302, MSD ignition and Hooker Competition long-tube headers provide upgrades from the standard equipment. The transmission is a four-speed manual Top Loader, giving Morgan the pleasure of doing all the shifting to get the most out of the 302.
Suspension and Wheels
The dealership refurbished the suspension in the same manner as the engine. The rearend is the stock 9-inch unit fitted with 3.50 gears and a Trac-Lok differential. Stock-style leaf springs suspend the rearend, with factory coils doing the same in front. Adjustable KYB shocks control compression and rebound on all four corners. Likewise, the front and rear wheels are identical 14×7-inch Fords with a gunmetal face, chrome lip and, of course, the Cougar center cap. Restoration though this may be, Morgan had no real desire to run bias-ply tires on the car, opting instead for a set of 225/70R14 BFGoodrich T/A radials. This Eliminator features front disc brakes and rear drums, pretty standard fare for the time, even among performance vehicles.
Preserving the Authentic Interior
The interior of Morgan’s Cougar is faithful to the way in which it left the factory. Black vinyl covers the factory seats, and much of the interior is original and unrestored. The dash, instruments and Rim Blow wood steering wheel are the ones the factory installed, and they’re still in topnotch condition. The shifter is a Hurst, which seems to be the only way to select gears on a muscle car four-speed. Given the rest of the restoration, don’t expect to find a booming CD sound system inside the Mercury, but it does have an awfully nice Ford eight-track tape player to send out the best sounds of the era.
Completion of the Restoration
It took John Eagle Lincoln-Mercury 10 months to restore this Cougar to its original condition, and the result is one of the most beautifully restored Mercurys we’ve ever seen. Although you don’t have to be a Cougar expert to recognize that this car is something special, Morgan is, and that much is obvious as you speak to him. His enthusiasm for the car is as strong now as it was when he first decided he wanted one of these cars someday, and to see him drive it is to see a classic car owner who knows firsthand how fun and driveable these old cars really are.

Tim Hinch’s ’70 Boss 302 Restoration

The Origin Story: A Car with a Unique Past
Virtually all of the feature cars we shoot have a story to tell. Sometimes an owner spends years hunting down and restoring his very first car, or building the car he always wanted in high school. Rarely do we find a car without a story, and the older the car is, the more likely it is to have one (or more). We’ve heard a lot of good stories about a lot of good cars, but the story of Tim Hinch’s 1970 Boss 302 is definitely one of a kind.
The Original Owner’s Plan: From Wife’s Car to Dream Car
The man who originally bought this car new from the dealership bought it for his wife, who had wanted a new car for some time. He soon gave in to her demand, but with the caveat that he got to pick the car. He chose this Boss, since it was really what he wanted, and he thought that sooner or later his wife would want a car again and he could then keep the Boss for himself. So he bought the car and gave it to his wife, but after the newness wore off the car she complained that it was something of a pain to live with—the clutch was hard, the engine was finicky and it didn’t have air conditioning. Rather than give up his dream car, her husband took the car back to the dealer and had them remove the Boss engine and four-speed and replace them with a standard 302 and a C4. He wrapped up the original engine and transmission and kept them safe, waiting for the day to reinstall them.
The Car Changes Hands: A New Chapter
Some 50,000 miles later, it was once again time to buy the wife a new car. But her husband had no complaints: He got his Boss, and buying a new Escort seemed like a pretty good tradeoff. Unfortunately, before he got a chance to complete his plan the couple got divorced, and the original owner had to sell the car to a friend, who kept it for three years before deciding to sell it. Hinch responded to the “for sale” ad, selling his ’65 fastback to finance his new purchase.
Bringing Out the Full Potential: Gateway Classic Mustang
As a driver the car was in good shape, but to bring out the Boss’ full potential Hinch took the car to Gateway Classic Mustang (573/732-3541) in Bourbon, Missouri. The car’s new owner wanted his car to be better than good, so he asked Jason and Lonny Childress and the rest of the Gateway crew to completely rebuild it. They began by stripping the car and rebuilding the suspension using stock-style components. This is an original Drag Pack car, so it left the factory with 4.30 rear gears, which now turn alongside a Detroit Locker differential in the 9-inch housing. All of the suspension components—brakes, bushings, control arms and more—are stock, as are the original Boss wheels, which ride on BFGoodrich Radial T/A tires.
Engine Restoration: Maintaining Originality with Modern Touches
While the rest of the car was at Gateway, the owner sent the engine to Austin Netteler at A&K Machine Shop in DeSoto, Missouri. The engine was in great shape, and Netteler didn’t even need to overbore the engine during the rebuild. Most of the engine internals are stock, with the original forged steel crank, stock rods and forged TRW pistons. A Comp camshaft activates the heads’ stainless steel valves, and air enters the engine through a Demon 750cfm carb on the factory aluminum dual plane manifold. From the outside, the engine appears original, with the correct Boss finned aluminum valve covers, chromed air cleaner lid and Ford Engine Blue paint on all the steel and iron components. All of the correct decals and markings are there, too. This is a Concours-quality restoration, and the builders went to great lengths to preserve the factory appearance. The transmission is the original Ford four-speed Top Loader paired with a Hayes clutch for pedal feel and performance.
Body and Paint: Aiming for Perfection
Like the rest of the car, the body was in good shape when Gateway got it, but good wasn’t good enough. Lonny Childress replaced the lower 3 inches of the quarter panels, but aside from that and a few small spots around the trunk, the car was straight and nearly ready for paint. After the typical paint prep time, Lonny sprayed the car in DuPont Bright Yellow. The hood bulge, upper decklid and spoiler wear the Boss’ characteristic flat black for contrast, and the Boss window louvers and stripe package complete it.
Interior Restoration: Preserving Factory Authenticity
The car’s interior recreates the factory equipment, with black vinyl upholstery covering the stock high-back buckets in front and the bench in back. The original instruments remain in their woodgrain cluster, and the factory steering wheel is there as well. Even the Hurst shifter is a factory item, an example of Ford using an aftermarket supplier to make the Boss 302 into a truly great car. There’s still no air conditioning, as Ford didn’t offer it, and an aftermarket unit would void the car’s original appearance.
Achievements and Legacy
Tim Hinch and Gateway Classic Mustang wanted to transform this Boss 302 into a national show-quality car, and they succeeded. After its completion, it earned the 2004 Award of Excellence at the Mustang’s 40th anniversary show in Nashville and then picked up a Bronze in the Concours Trailered Class at the 2005 Mustang Club of America Nationals in Kansas City. Of course, it routinely cleans up at smaller local shows, and it’s one of numerous fine Fords still in Hinch’s collection, which includes an ’82 Mustang GT, an ’89 Saleen and a ’54 F-100. In 2005, the owner even got Trans-Am legend Bud Moore, a man well familiar with the Boss 302, to sign the car. The Boss 302 now exists as a great example of a car built for a single reason—winning races within a very structured, production-based rulebook. These cars did exactly what Ford designed them to do, earning driver and manufacturer titles in 1970, and Hinch’s car serves as a stunning reminder of one of the greatest pages in Ford’s history.
