Over nine years I had three 71-72 Mustangs, two boss 71s, one each 351&429, and a 72 351-HO.

[Neoconshooter]

I bought the first on leave from a dealer in, or near Skokie, ILL. It was one of two Boss-429s made that model year, as told to me by the dealer, I now suspect he was not truthful, but it had the big valve covers and huge headers, this being august or September of 1970. It was dark/bright blue with silver stripes and signage. It had a four speed and Detroit locker rear end, Poli-glass wide ovals and disk brakes all around and hood locks. Crank windows, manual locks and a pass-through to the trunk where my Malamute lived and drooled on the kids. I drove the car to some fort in New Jersey to ship out to Germany and waited six weeks for the car to show up. Thats when I learned how expensive the insurance and taxes were over there. We made do, drove the car all over Europe to see the sights. The speedo would bury the needle and we were forced to time the car with a stopwatch to see how fast it was. As large as it was, we could take 6-8 of my Platoonies to a concert anywhere in Germany. They bought the gas and tickets, and we supplied the transportation. I loved that car more than you can ever know. Got an offer that was much more than I paid for it and took the money and bought a much more affordable Pinto in the PX! Made do with that pinto for four years, then bought a used Boss 351 and some years later a '72 Mach-I with a "HO" 351 that was quicker, but not nearly as fast as the Boss 351. Best nine years of my life until 1982 when they launched the swoopy Trans-Am. Much lighter, more aero-dynamic and better handling too! And it would fit a B&S'd BBC under the hood!

 

[Idaho Chris]

Welcome to the site!

Interesting story. I'd guess there are not many that can say they traded their '71 429 for a Pinto!

Still have a Mustang?

 

[MikeGriese]

Sadly I know a guy who traded a split window Corvette in on a Ford Capri. Panic selling is just as bad as panic buying...

 

[donkost]

The port might have been at Bayonne NJ. I followed a friend there in the early 1980's. He was in the army and taking a motorcycle to ship overseas to Germany. I had a '79 Trans Am with 400 / 4 speed. Well we hit a soaking rainstorm on the highway but he held on with the bike. ha It was much more easy to jump between hot cars back then when they didn't cost a mortgage as they do now. All kinds of used musclecars were around for like 800 to 1200 or so bucks. Sure you wouldn't get a Hemi anything for that price and there might be a tiny bit of rust and a bump or two, but you could experience these cars simply as used cars when very few wanted them due to "high" gas prices at that time. When I had my '68 GTO the first thing non-car people asked was how is the gas mileage. It was around 8 or 9, but who cares when rumbling around in a beautifully restored musclecar. The '71 429 CJ-R now gets 6.6 the one time I checked.

 

[Neoconshooter]

Welcome to the site!

Interesting story. I'd guess there are not many that can say they traded their '71 429 for a Pinto!

Still have a Mustang?

No, as my fortunes rose and fell, I went through a Porsche 911 and the cost of getting it back into the states, two used 71-72 mustangs, a trio of wrecked Honda Z-Coupe's for the misses, then bought an 82 TransAm. as great as it's handling and aero was, it desperately needed a BBC swap. A left-over brain defect from the 429! Then the weight daemon got me and I bought an aluminum BBC that was damaged by a rod ejection and repaired by a friend in the aircraft maintenance shop who could weld Al like new to go in the '84 T/A. It was rebuilt with a street/strip kit from Summit Racing and machined true by a friend from Hi-school. That 509 weighed 80 pounds less than the lump of iron that came with the car. Then I moved to Park City, Ut to live in and manage the family vacation home. Bonneville got me and I took up the salt with Ram-Jet crate engines in addition to my Road Racing addiction. After that, I went through a string of 14 more Slick F-Bodies with big motors. to now, I had three '97 Camaros, and one each '99 T/A, & T-Bird, '04 Dodge Intrepid, two Honda Insights and a Grand Caravan. You have no idea how nice they can ride. I just started selling it all off two years ago and am down to four, two '97 Z-28S, a Honda Insight and the Pacifica van. I got an offer from someplace in Europe for the Black-97 Z and I am going to keep the white 97 Z with an LS-7 crate motor just for the fun of it. But I owe the last 50+ years of fun to that first 71 Mustang. I grew up with dad's string of small bore sports cars as a kid bought a used '69 Fiat 124 Sport Coupe' for my second car. It had the whole nine yards of iti pedigree and more fun than you could beat with a stick. Looking back, if I could find one cheap, but nothing is cheap anymore!
PS. I forgot, but in the mid to late 70s, the Pikes Peak Hill Climb *** changed the rules from CI/Inch of wheelbase to pounds per CI. Everybody had to switch to small blocks because they made more power per CI! My HO 351 Cleavland became a hot item as there were not that many Fords around Colorado Springs at that time! One. I sold the motor to Leonard Vahsholtz for a 427 side oiler crate motor from H&M and gave him $2,200 to install it in my car. Memories of that 429 came back with a rush and I've been hooked on big inch motors ever since.

 

[Neoconshooter]

Sadly I know a guy who traded a split window Corvette in on a Ford Capri. Panic selling is just as bad as panic buying...

It was never panic selling, but either money troubles from being in the Army, or a better deal, I thought at the time. But back then people traded cars every year or two and you could buy them used cheap! What I'd give for my bank account today and a time machine. I'd have to rent a barn! A big barn.

 

[Neoconshooter]

The port might have been at Bayonne NJ. I followed a friend there in the early 1980's. He was in the army and taking a motorcycle to ship overseas to Germany. I had a '79 Trans Am with 400 / 4 speed. Well we hit a soaking rainstorm on the highway but he held on with the bike. ha It was much more easy to jump between hot cars back then when they didn't cost a mortgage as they do now. All kinds of used musclecars were around for like 800 to 1200 or so bucks. Sure you wouldn't get a Hemi anything for that price and there might be a tiny bit of rust and a bump or two, but you could experience these cars simply as used cars when very few wanted them due to "high" gas prices at that time. When I had my '68 GTO the first thing non-car people asked was how is the gas mileage. It was around 8 or 9, but who cares when rumbling around in a beautifully restored musclecar. The '71 429 CJ-R now gets 6.6 the one time I checked.

Gas used to be 27 cents a gallon in the PX! You bought "Coupons" that could be traded for Liters at any ESSO station in Europe. But the Insurance was the Magnum-cum-Opus killer back then. You could drive on green USAEUR Plates for five bucks, IIRC, but the insurance was more than the cost of the car! No kidding! But if you could pass the German driver's license test, it dropped from $2,540.00/year for liability alone to $240/year for full coverage! Tells you about the state of drivers ed in America!
PS. Out of the ~300,000 soldiers stationed in Germany/Europe who took the test each year, only a dozen or less passed!

 

[Neoconshooter]

The port might have been at Bayonne NJ. I followed a friend there in the early 1980's. He was in the army and taking a motorcycle to ship overseas to Germany. I had a '79 Trans Am with 400 / 4 speed. Well we hit a soaking rainstorm on the highway but he held on with the bike. ha It was much more easy to jump between hot cars back then when they didn't cost a mortgage as they do now. All kinds of used musclecars were around for like 800 to 1200 or so bucks. Sure you wouldn't get a Hemi anything for that price and there might be a tiny bit of rust and a bump or two, but you could experience these cars simply as used cars when very few wanted them due to "high" gas prices at that time. When I had my '68 GTO the first thing non-car people asked was how is the gas mileage. It was around 8 or 9, but who cares when rumbling around in a beautifully restored musclecar. The '71 429 CJ-R now gets 6.6 the one time I checked.

It depends on how you drive them? Heavy use of the right foot kills the mileage, light pedal done correctly gives enough performance to jump ahead of most, 99%, of traffic. Lighter throttle and the cruise control gets great gas milage down the highway. Maybe mid 20s!! It is so much better on the newer cars with six speeds and better aerodynamics! Again, remember my cars were set up for road racing and highway cruising. Not for the strip. My trips to the strip were with all the kids in the car with their tiny helmets and lots of engine noise, tire squealing and some smoke, but more giggles than anything else.

 

[Neoconshooter]

The port might have been at Bayonne NJ. I followed a friend there in the early 1980's. He was in the army and taking a motorcycle to ship overseas to Germany. I had a '79 Trans Am with 400 / 4 speed. Well we hit a soaking rainstorm on the highway but he held on with the bike. ha It was much more easy to jump between hot cars back then when they didn't cost a mortgage as they do now. All kinds of used musclecars were around for like 800 to 1200 or so bucks. Sure you wouldn't get a Hemi anything for that price and there might be a tiny bit of rust and a bump or two, but you could experience these cars simply as used cars when very few wanted them due to "high" gas prices at that time. When I had my '68 GTO the first thing non-car people asked was how is the gas mileage. It was around 8 or 9, but who cares when rumbling around in a beautifully restored musclecar. The '71 429 CJ-R now gets 6.6 the one time I checked.

The port was Bayonne, but I spent three months at a large Army base right next door to a huge Air Force base waiting for orders. I know what you mean about fast cars being out of style and cheap. I paid $2,600 OTD, for the '72 Mach-I HO. a few years later a '71 Boss 351 was only $2,900 and with dealer financing from FMC! A two year old TA that originally sold for $20K was under $9K two and a half years used with 30K Miles. Every two or three years I bought a new to me TA, or after 93 Camaro Z-28 cheap, did a BBC swap, raced the car for a year or two, then sold it to somebody who wanted that speed he had just suffered at some track and gave me twice what I had in it, not counting my time as money. I did that until 2008 when I was diagnosed with the big c and changed my lifestyle.

 

[Neoconshooter]

Welcome to the site!

Interesting story. I'd guess there are not many that can say they traded their '71 429 for a Pinto!

Still have a Mustang?

No, see below to hear the rest of the story?

 

[PoFoMoCo]

It’s funny, most of us all have a common thread missing from our lives… the ones that got away.

 

[Idaho Chris]

No, see below to hear the rest of the story?

Great car history you shared a few posts back. Funny how sometimes periods in our lives are told around what car(s) we had at the time. Thanks!