Parnelli Jones is a former race car driver, and a very successful one at that. Although he competed in many series, ranging from IndyCar and NASCAR to midget cars and off-road racing, one of the cars he’s associated with is the Mustang Boss 302 – and this 1970 example that he drove in four races is worth more than a million dollars.
Prepared by Bud Moore, the 5.0-liter engine makes 540 hp, which are sent to the rear wheels via a four-speed manual transmission that wasn’t quite set up for Thunderhill East, where Matt Farah got 20 minutes in it for a video.
Although it may look and sound like a big dumb V8, Farah finds that it’s actually a little different than you might expect. A redline set at almost 9,000 RPM is the first hint that this isn’t just any V8.
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“You think big V8, you don’t think about an engine that needs to be between 5,000 and 8,000 RPM to work efficiently,” he says. “I’m amazed at how much it likes to rev. And how much it has to be revved.”
Some aspects of the drive, though, are a little more like what you might expect from a 50-year-old race car.
“The steering is so heavy and requires so much input. Okay, brakes are alright,” he says, though he later calls them sketchy. “This is not something you can just hop into. Not only because of what it is either but because of its historical significance as well. Extremely intimidating. Extremely intimidating.”
He does report, though, that after a little learning it becomes a little easier to drive. Heel-and-toeing is very easy and although he refers to it as “batshit,” he also calls it a good time.
“Objectively, you wouldn’t call it good,” says Farah. “But to sit in this seat, and to get into the shoes, literally the driving suit of those drivers, those legends – imagine doing an endurance race in something like this. Exhausting! But at the same time, once you get used to it, it’s incredibly rewarding and unbelievably fun.”