Ford's BOSS 302 All Myth or All Legend???

today on unity motorsports garage we're going to take a look at one of forbes most iconic engines the boss 302 we're going to look back in trans am history to find out if the boss 302 was all myth or all legend you be the judge in 1966 and 67 ford dominated trans am series the five leader class that was until penske and the camaro of mark donahue came onto the scene and that started to change the game even though they wasn't factory backed by chevrolet it set in motion the competition between ford and chevrolet that was going to prove the way for the boss 302 cougar's biggest handicap at this early stage is this varying units the mustangs and some other cars have had years of experience on road and track to sort out any minor technical problems as the cars stand on the starting grid cougar team captain dan gurney is asked about the transam's prospects what about the trans-american sedan championship series as a circuit in the united states do you think it'll be successful dan oh i think this is very much the beginning and that's just going to mushroom i think it'll be great racing what do you think the big appeal is more people can identify with the cars and they are racing on road circuits which is what the cars are built to run on and the competition is going to be very close this should be great jones and gurney are on the front row of the 32 car field but the competition is extremely close the first five cars on the grid have run within two seconds per lap of each other in qualifying gurney and mark donahue's camaro roar through the first infield turn together john pinched off in traffic lays back in fifth as the field spreads out the two cougars are running very strongly guernil slipped into second behind donahue parnelli is pushing hard to make up his early loss of position donahue in the blue and gold penske prepared camaro is setting a blistering pace in these early laps jones one of the most competitive drivers in racing today is slowly closing the gap with donahue at this early stage of the race parnelli is clearly turning the fastest lap time in this hard driving field the race is 300 miles long but the drivers are going as if it were a short sprint around the block equipment is bound to suffer under this tremendous pressure [Music] by middle of the 1967 season even though the chevrolet team of pinsky and donny who had their issues the dz 302 engine program was starting to come around they were making a lot more horsepower than the 289 of the ford and mercury team and when chevrolet got back involved putting money behind the camaro teams that meant that ford was going to have to go to the table and design an engine to compete up until the 1968 season ford had been using the 289 but they went and developed a tunnel poor version of a 302 as you can see it followed in the footsteps of the 427 tunnel port and they thought this engine would be the answer it made great power on the dyno but it was plagued by engine problems they could not make the engine live and chevrolet just ran away with the championship in 1968 sending ford back to the drawing board to build an engine that would save face against the dismal performance of the 1968 season thus the 302 boss was born this was going to be the answer using cleveland-style cylinder heads that wasn't slated to come out until 1970 ford created the first clever by putting cleveland cylinder heads on a winter 302 block when comparing the tunnel port to the boss 302 on paper they look very similar but the tunnel port being a sewer port design which means that there's really no short turn radius in the intake port and the valve arrangements being in line contributed to having an engine that was very peaky the valves were shrouded in the chamber and that added all kinds of issues the cleveland style cylinder head on the other hand was a venturi design the canon valve arrangement did away with valve shrouding and that gave more high rpm capability all of this added to the fact that this created a more useful power range with the new cylinder head sorted out ford knew that they needed to fix the bottom end in order to get durability back ford went to a larger connecting rod and went away from the 5 16 rod bolts to a 7 16 rod bolt design with a 4340 forged connecting rod for being out for blood like they were they ran this engine onto dyno at the ford laboratories up to 9 600 rpm to ensure the durability of the boss 302 before it hit the race track so let's see how it fared with the 1969 trans m series underway it was obvious that the competition was going to be hotter than ever you had all manufacturers getting involved in a game amc came to play pontiac and that's just to name a few this was going to be a turning point as trans american was starting to take on a whole new meaning by 1970 the field would include dodges and plymouths [Music] [Music] as you can see the 1969 season came down to ford and chevrolet again with chevrolet coming out on top but the team of bud moore's fords proved that the boss 302 was formidable the durability issues had been solved and that need had the needed power and torque to come off the corners in order to get the job done and get in the winner's circle in california at laguna seca veteran crew chief bud moore whose mustang team was runner-up to the camaros last year looks ahead to the 70 season well i think that uh this year with with more people enjoying seeing the trans am racing on all the road courses and another thing with all the different manufacturers involved such as ford chrysler uh american motors and even chevrolet and all into the game here when you got three or four factory teams running again one another so you're gonna have a lot of good name drivers are driving these cars so some of the top names in the racing world are here to put their reputations on the line carnelly jones and george fulmer tough experienced mustang pilots mark donahue trans am champion last year in a camaro and roger penske team captain are out to do it again with two brand new sunoco javelins talented young peter revson will back up donahue all-american driver dan gurney heads up the barracuda team [Applause] the 1970 trans am championship will be decided here in kent washington on this september 20th the 10th violent sunday in a long long summer driver george former of the mustang team minutes before the race so definitely going down to the wire now the the outcome of the race here at kent uh could decide the uh the championship so it's been a real tight close series all the way through we have good competition from the american motors team so it's a tremendous series but the car is very very close very very competitive [Music] jones pushes on never very far ahead but donna you can't close the gap americans that mustang draws the first blood of the new season it's mustang first javelin second [Applause] [Applause] [Music] who tastes victory number one with the 1970 season coming to a close ford and american motors battled it out to the end with ford coming out on top cornelli jones won the championship ford won the manufacturers championship with american motors coming in second chevrolet coming in third dodge and plymouth coming in fourth and fifth only a few mustangs remain to show the signs of this time because in 1970 four pulled out of racing altogether and only the 1969 and 1970 boss mustangs remain as a true testament of the history of this engine while the 351 cleveland engine would carry on its legacy in drag racing and in nascar boss 302 etched itself in stone and therefore it's not a myth it is a true ford legend [Music]

Channel: Unity MotorSports Garage

Views: 219,064

Keywords: SCCA, Trans Am, Ford BOSS 302, Bud Moore, Tunnel Port 302

Id: C8p2PnWuONI

Length: 11min 5sec (665 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 25 2021