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1970
was another successful year for Mustang's performance image. Parnelli Jones and George
Fulmer drove their Boss 302s in dominating fashion for the S.C.C.A Trans Am racing
series. Drag racers enjoyed the Boss 429 with it's twisted hemi racing heads. Originally
designed by Ford for NASCAR racing, it featured 570 horsepower with 420 foot-pounds
of torque from the factory. Kar Kraft, a small assembly line in Brighton,
Michigan, modified these limited production super cars and installed the potent Boss
engine.Technology evolved rapidly. Bunkie Knudsen deserves more scrutiny as to the
reason of his dismissal in August of '70. Turmoil in Ford's upper ranks scaled back
75 % on factory motorsports racing sponsorships.
Tumble weeds blew across the finish line at Fords test tracks.
Meanwhile the beautiful 1970 Mustangs received minor, (but noticeable) refinements,
making it easy to distinguish from the previous year's model. Sales were tapering
off and Ford was tooling up to modify the mighty Mach 1 Mustang for it's metamorphosis
as it merged majestically into massive muscle-car market mania. Mmm.
Engine selections remained the same as '69 but with two very important differences.The
old 390 fe engine was dropped from the lineup. The new race-bred ''Cleveland 351''
was added.
Although just introduced in 1969 the ''351 Windsor'' was a light weight
extension of the dependable 221-302 cid V-8s, in 1970 the heavy weight canted valve
''Cleveland'' 351 with it's huge valves and ports, joined the lineup and was
interchanged indiscriminately on the assembly line while advertised specifications
rated them virtually identical to its Canuck counterpart. How could that be? Both
styles of 4V and 2V engines even used the same engine codes in the vehicle identification
number.''M'' designated 351 4V while an ''H'' code stood for a two barrel 351.
Auto makers were feeling opposition by many to the horsepower wars that were
getting out of hand.
When the 1970 production had ended and figures tallied, Mustang had sold a total
of 190,727 units. This figure was down by over 100,000 from 1969.
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