Fastest Ford Mustang Part 13 : 2012 Mustang Boss 302

Jim Farley, Ford group vice president of global marketing, did not have to travel to California for the debut of the Mustang Boss 302. Nobody she told you that. He came anyway. "I've been driving my own Mustang right through the last two winters of Michigan to think about this project," he says. "From a business standpoint, the Boss 302 should not have happened. But it happened. My dream for the car was going to make a lot of money for a boy of street racing. You must be a car that ends in YouTube doing something illegal. I've been waiting over 20 years to launch a car like this. "

The decision to resurrect the Boss 302 was in the darkest days of the recession. It's the Ford brave or what? Especially since it is very rare that children are able to match the exploits of the mythical ancestors, like Charlie Sheen can attest.

To earn a Mustang GT motor 32 bonus horses, Ford created a new intake manifold with runners resemble stacks of speed. Different heads were deployed stronger alloy and altered ports-with each head subjected to 2.5 hours of CNC massage. The camshafts offer increased lifting the intake valves are larger, the bearings are the race-spec and baffled pan holds 8.5 quarts of synthetic oil.

The result is 444 horsepower at 7,500 rpm, a compromise between 412 horses Mustang GT and Shelby GT500 550. The Boss V-8-unlike the brutal Shelby's-Indifferent so often overwhelm your frame. In fact, what you first notice, and this is very BMW-ish-is that the engine, transmission and suspension from the Boss draw virtually no attention to the eccentricities of others. The package provides a rewarding sense of unity that inspires confidence.

The V-8 is so vigorous and charismatic than his likeness should be carved on Mount Rushmore. The motor accelerates almost as quickly as you can flex your right foot, feeling like maybe three liters are displaced. What's more, despite everything the cam, which idles as smoothly as a Camry.

Sans traction control, launch the Boss takes some practice, but it has never been so fun practice. Put aside the clutch too revolutions, and you can shoot tramp axis followed by a cloud clusters Pirelli particles only swell in size all the way through the second gear. The trick is to slide the clutch of about 3,500 rpm, then mat the accelerator when the axis says. "Yes, I'm feelin 'seated and relaxed again here" The result is 0-60 mph in 4.3 seconds, 0.3 seconds faster than the GT (or a Camaro SS) and only 0.2 seconds behind the GT500 jackhammer. Once the axle is appeased. . . well, here's the telling statistic: 5 to 60 mph, the head does not lose an inch GT500 and is just 0.1 seconds behind a BMW M3. The kick acceleration launches sunglasses and coins and feathers in the center bin back against a wall of plastic, sounding as if just hit the bottom of a ventilation shaft. Through the quarter-mile, the engine pulls like a mule Tennessee no valleys, no holes-slingshotting Boss 0.4 seconds ahead of the GT and only 1 mph behind the M3.

All this is accompanied by a free resonance mellifluous exhaust note is aural an unlikely confluence of say Lexus IS F and Roush / Yates engine of the Sprint Cup. It's a four-way exhaust two sewer pipes aft and one on each side coming out just ahead of the rear wheels. A restrictor plate on each side pipe provides step by federal law Boss, but the baffles can be unbolted in less time than it takes to read this review. It is fortunate that the rumor is so rich, because the motor is seriously loud at idle.

The suspension of the boss has also benefited from a magnificent labor of love. Compared with the GT, which has stiffer springs, a rear stabilizer bar fatter, new bushings, and 19-inch Pirelli P Zeros that in the rear wheels are mounted on 9.5-inch wide. What's more, each shock offers five settings are adjustable via screwdriver, creating the possibility of a very strange behavior of the chassis at the hands of the owners are very strange. Again, Ford is brave or what? And experiment with dampers is educational, fun and make you feel as team leader of Parnelli Jones.

The electrically assisted steering rack and can be activated modes comfort, standard or sports. We prefer the establishment of standards, including on the track. The other modes did nothing to alter effort. Never mind. Management was always precise, progressive and informative, with unmatched monitoring interstate.

At the front, four-piston caliper Brembos 14-inch vented rotors. The pads are made near the race-spec, but not squeal and brake lines have been tightened to prevent expansion. Along the way, pedal feel was quite hard but sublime-bang-in-line and it was a cinch to modulate the braking right on the threshold of the ABS. Cast? Nothing we are, either during testing or during nine tenths breaking around Laguna Seca.

As a dance partner in the hills, the head eagerly goes all bossa nova, his prodigious power down with surprising smoothness. The chassis was very balanced, usually neutral, leaning toward oversteer power only in the tightest turns. Despite its super-fast transient responses, he never felt nervous. This Mustang is so agile, so sensitive to the delicate entries, which makes the GT500 feels like a FedEx truck. Grasp the head almost always exceeds the value of the driver, so feel free to ignore our side grip figure, recorded on a track of skidding sprinkled with sand. What's more, the shifter of ultra-short was an ally, but its doors are so close that a clumsy upshift second collect five times.

Ford has always treated its Mustangs as blue collar devices Heritage unprepossessing. Thus, the cabin remains austere and rudimentary, despite the faux suede wrapped steering wheel and aluminum molding machine converted. The acres of thick plastic surfaces pebble in particular would be (and have been) rejected as far cheaper, especially in the Ford Focus own machines. The huge gaps between the tops of the rear tires and fenders rolled lips are monstrosities. The steering column does not telescope. And the brake and accelerator pedals should be closer.

The Chief gets $ 40,995 base, and there is only one important option: A Torsen limited-slip differential and Recaro seats (packaged together and that cost $ 1995) plus the TracKey call. If we go to the track, and why not? Then the three are required. In total, 4,000 examples will be assembled, which is not even half of the production of the original head of two years. That sum includes 3,250 base heads and 750 editions of Laguna Seca.

We expected the Boss 302 to be little more than a marketing exercise in nostalgia, a little more brutal, a little faster GT, with attractive graphics but primitive predilections. it is not. Nose to tail, this feels like a whole new horse-well organized, thoroughly massaged, the object of considerable foresight and ambition. As automotive resurrections go, this is a knockout that venerates the original founder, while embarrass objectively and subjectively in every significant measure. What is this, it is the best Mustang ever.