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1971 Mustang Boss 351 Is the Bad Boy Ford of the Week

Just a few years after the introduction of the Mustang to the market, Ford and other specialists close to the Blue Oval were already hard at work coming up with incredibly powerful versions of the stock machine. Among the most extreme such builds were the Bosses.
1971 Ford Mustang Boss 351 19 photos
Photo: Mecum
1971 Ford Mustang Boss 3511971 Ford Mustang Boss 3511971 Ford Mustang Boss 3511971 Ford Mustang Boss 3511971 Ford Mustang Boss 3511971 Ford Mustang Boss 3511971 Ford Mustang Boss 3511971 Ford Mustang Boss 3511971 Ford Mustang Boss 3511971 Ford Mustang Boss 3511971 Ford Mustang Boss 3511971 Ford Mustang Boss 3511971 Ford Mustang Boss 3511971 Ford Mustang Boss 3511971 Ford Mustang Boss 3511971 Ford Mustang Boss 3511971 Ford Mustang Boss 3511971 Ford Mustang Boss 351
Introduced by Ford in 1969 in 302 and 429 guises, the Boss was meant to help the Blue Oval be better positioned in the fight with the Chevrolet Camaro and its variants. In 1971, the range was expanded with the introduction of the Boss 351.

In the first year of production, just a little over 1,800 Boss 351s were produced, and one of them is pictured in the gallery above.

Awaiting to be sold during the Mecum auction in Indianapolis in May, this Mustang is an accurate and complete restoration of the original, conducted by the Mustang Club of America and completed not long ago.

The restoration work supposedly took three years, and aimed at returning the car to its former glory, down to the Boss 351 decals on the fender and decklid, or the Raven Black paint.

The hardware that gives the car its name, the Boss Cleveland engine, is, as its name says, 351 ci (5.8 liters) in displacement, and linked to a four-speed transmission, it develops 330 hp and 380 lb-ft of torque. That’s enough to give it an acceleration time of under six seconds and quarter-mile time of roughly 13 seconds.

The seller of the restored car says this particular model is one of just 20 made in 1971 that are specced this way: it comes with Magnum 500 wheels, Goodyear Polyglas GT tires, power steering, power front disc brakes and front and rear spoilers.

There is no estimate as to how much the 1971 Ford Mustang Boss 351 will fetch at the said auction. Full details on the Boss 351 can be found at this link.
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Editor's note: The Indianapolis auction has been postponed to June on account of the coronavirus pandemic.

About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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