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Incredible to have owned the car for that long! Has it been well-maintained / low mileage over the years, or has it been restored? What is the back story- how you came about purchasing it, the job you had in order to afford the car and the insurance, and so forth. Did you come across any rough patches where you almost sold it over the years.

 
Great that you kept yours also, looks new. I am an original owner also. Not many manage to hold on to them for sure. I to would like to hear your story from the past.

Donkost said something about affording the insurance. That was an old wives tale. Your insurance was the same for any car as long as your record was good. If you had a bad driving record your cost was high no matter what car you had. Or you had what they called assigned risk in N.C.. If your record was so bad that no insurance wanted to cover you at any price the state would assign an insurance company and make them take you. My insurance on a 73 Q code Mach 1 was same as my 6 cylinder maverick. 

I was lucky I could out drive out local law enforcement, lol.

 
David you had a user-friendly insurance company and good overall situation with your unblemished driving record then. Steadily increasing insurance costs are always mentioned as one of the reasons for the end of the original musclecar era. It may not have been the case in '64 or '65 but was a factor by '69 and '70. Insurance companies had data that these more powerful mid-sized cars (many times with substandard brakes) were involved in more accidents. This was along with increasing federal emissions standards, which brought in unleaded fuels and lower compression ratios, etc. All are factors which ganged up to kill that era of unbridled performance. Car manufacturers created models or options which had smaller V8 engines and different names from the usual GTO, 442, etc. in order to avoid the insurance company "hit list". Younger guys who wanted the big block V8 and a manual trans many times paid higher insurance rates. It has been mentioned that some people in that era paid a little more for their monthly insurance payment than their actual car loan. Yes please don't bring up assigned risk insurance. lol I was on that for several years in the 1980's in the state of PA. I got up to 10 points on my license, had to retake my driving test (the state trooper told me to slow down during the test), and go on assigned risk insurance. I paid over $2000 per year for about three years- I would not give in. I ordered from the factory a brand new 1987 Pontiac Firebird Formula 350, which was the year they brought back the slightly detuned Corvette 5.7 L V8 for the Firebird and Camaro. The net hp and torque numbers did not look very impressive but that thing really moved and handled well for the era. It was bright red as well, so I would get picked out of a crowd of cars doing 72 in a 55 zone. Thankfully they weren't around the several times that I took it up to 140. Ah misspent youth... Apologies for what now looks like a thread jack. Hoping to hear more of the back story on the original owner '71 Boss 351.

 
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That third pic with the sun reflecting off of the paint is awesome. I found a little more info in another thread, that the Boss was ordered on Christmas Eve 1970 after coming home from service, and that it has 31000 original miles. Quite a memory to have.

 
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Thank you all for your kind posts......I did in fact purchase it having never seen one or driving one. Over the summer of 1970 I was sitting in the barracks at Fort Jackson S.C.  having come home from Vietnam and a group of us were passing around magazines. The car magazine I was handed showed the prototypes of what the Boss 351 would look like if Ford built it. Then and there I had to have one. When I was discharged Christmas week of 1970 I went to every Ford dealership in my area and nobody had one in the showroom or on the lot so......on Christmas Eve as a present to myself for surviving I went to Sarat Ford in Agawam Ma and ordered one. It was the first time I had even seen a brochure on the vehicle so had to imagine what the color combination would look like. It is numbers matching and does in fact have 31,000 miles on it. Original interior and glass and even the original dealer tag and except for the tires and headers looks exactly as she did when she came off the truck.

 
David you had a user-friendly insurance company and good overall situation with your unblemished driving record then.  Steadily increasing insurance costs are always mentioned as one of the reasons for the end of the original musclecar era.  It may not have been the case in '64 or '65 but was a factor by '69 and '70.  Insurance companies had data that these more powerful mid-sized cars (many times with substandard brakes) were involved in more accidents.  This was along with increasing federal emissions standards, which brought in unleaded fuels and lower compression ratios, etc.  All are factors which ganged up to kill that era of unbridled performance.  Car manufacturers created models or options which had smaller V8 engines and different names from the usual GTO, 442, etc. in order to avoid the insurance company "hit list".  Younger guys who wanted the big block V8 and a manual trans many times paid higher insurance rates.  It has been mentioned that some people in that era paid a little more for their monthly insurance payment than their actual car loan.  Yes please don't bring up assigned risk insurance.  lol  I was on that for several years in the 1980's in the state of PA.  I got up to 10 points on my license, had to retake my driving test (the state trooper told me to slow down during the test), and go on assigned risk insurance.  I paid over $2000 per year for about three years- I would not give in.  I ordered from the factory a brand new 1987 Pontiac Firebird Formula 350, which was the year they brought back the slightly detuned Corvette 5.7 L V8 for the Firebird and Camaro.  The net hp and torque numbers did not look very impressive but that thing really moved and handled well for the era.  It was bright red as well, so I would get picked out of a crowd of cars doing 72 in a 55 zone.  Thankfully they weren't around the several times that I took it up to 140.  Ah misspent youth...  Apologies for what now looks like a thread jack.  Hoping to hear more of the back story on the original owner '71 Boss 351.
What does the insurance on these $50,000 to $70,000 500 to 800 hp. mustangs cost today? If the car cost over 10 times as much is the insurance $20,000 a year? 

My idiot son has three DUI and a new mustang GT straight drive premium package. I never asked the cost. He is an idiot. He was banned from driving in N.C. so he moved to S.C.. I never talk with him.

 
Awesome car and story. I dont know if I could keep a car like that in one piece for so long.

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Sure you could......the longer you have it the more attached you become....have had a number of offers but have not received one I couldn't refuse....

 
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