Rep Power: 664

POWERTRAIN

Engine:

- An SVO Ford 351W Block was stuffed with a Scat crank to push displacement out to 408 ci with Carrillo rods and JE pistons squeezing out a 12:1 compression ratio. A 0.673-inch-lift Comp Cams solid roller with 107-degree lobe separation opens stainless 2.10-inch intake and 1.625-inch exhaust valves in the 225cc Edelbrock Victor heads massaged by Chapman Racing. Cometic gaskets keep the top end sealed. A Yates mechanical fuel pump sucks fuel from a 22-gallon ATL fuel cell to feed a Holley 750-cfm that's been reworked by Dave Lang at Fuel Curve West to flow 960 cfm into the Edelbrock Super Victor intake. A full MSD ignition utilizes a Pro-Billet distributor with dual pickups to control the NASCAR-style dual-ignition system setup.

Power:

- The high-strung small-block churns out a healthy 655 hp at 7,200 rpm with 555 lb-ft of torque and has to be able to for extended periods on the track.

Transmission:

- A Tex Racing T101 is fronted by a Tilton OTBII clutch and flywheel.

Rearend:

- Jeff Huber built a Speedway Engineering NASCAR-inspired full-floater rearend with a Detroit Locker differential and 4.30 gears to handle the abuses of open-track racing.

CHASSIS

Frame:

- The stock '69 Mustang chassis is outfitted with a full road-race chrome-moly steel rollcage, and the original shock towers are reinforced to eliminate flex.

Suspension:

- A Total Control Products coilover suspension with Penske shocks and a Maeco 15/16-inch sway bar keep the nose level around hairpin turns and switchbacks, while Global West leaf springs with mono-ball joints paired with a Maier Racing Panhard rod and Penske shocks take care of the tail.

Brakes:

- Steve never worries about being under-braked, since the Boss runs a full set of 13-inch Brembos with Metal Matrix eight-piston calipers sourced from an '02 IRL/CART car. Custom-built brake ducts route from the headlights to cool the fronts, while the rears are fed from the side vent windows. Steve cast the molds for all the brake vents himself.

Wheels:

- The brakes really dictated what Steve had to use on the Boss. Two-piece PS Engineering wheels with 4.25-inch and 5.5-inch backspacing that measure 17x8 in the front and 17x10 in the rear were the only wheels that would clear the calipers.

Tires:

- The Boss hangs the corners on super-sticky Hoosier tires with R3504 225/45R17s in front and 255/45/R17s on the back.

STYLE

Body:

- The original looks of a Trans-Am Boss are retained with only minor body modifications including subtle fender flares and the shaving of the side marker lights performed by Rocky Paciulli and John Blevins.

Paint:

- Although it's often mistaken for the original color, this yellow hue is actually from an H2 Hummer.

Interior:

- The interior is as Spartan as you'd expect in an all-out effort like this car. Steve is held into the Sparco racing seats by a Simpson five-point harness, and he pilots the Boss with a NASCAR-style steering wheel. The controls for the dual ignition lie just behind the custom aluminum shifter. A full complement of Auto Meter gauges, sans a speedometer, keep Steve abreast of changes under hood.


Have you built the car you dreamed about as a little kid yet? There was probably at least one car that fascinated you back in your younger days that never really got out of your head. For Steve Sclimenti, this '70 Boss 302 Mustang represents the fulfillment of a lifelong dream that began when he was only 7 years old and he got his first glimpse of the infamous Bud Moore yellow Mustangs campaigned by Parnelli Jones and George Follmer in the 1970 Trans-Am series. Coincidentally, it's also the fulfillment of another young man's dream who was called to duty and wasn't able to complete his vision.

Through the years, the Mustang bug stayed with Steve, and he became quite the restoration expert and made a business of it alongside his real job of making molds for the plastic packaging industry. Ever had a ridiculous amount of trouble getting your new electronic toy out of a well-made, impossibly sealed, plastic package? That's the quality stuff Steve designs and creates. Since the early '70s, Steve's probably restored 50 Mustangs, from standard coupes to Boss cars, mostly for friends and clients. Of course he kept a few for himself and his wife, all of which are really nice street machines, but they just weren't the all-out, bad-boy Trans-Am car he'd always wanted. One day when he was pondering beginning yet another restoration project Steve said, "My wife asked me how many street cars I was going to restore before I finally built my race car."

Steve hadn't been completely negligent in beginning his dream car--he had already concocted a plan of what he wanted to build, and he'd even made the first big step by collecting parts for the project, including an ultrarare Gurney-Westlake 302. In retrospect, Steve says he's not really sure what made him wait so long to begin this project other than he felt he was waiting for just the right time and just the right car. Usually that mentality is a great way to ensure that a project never actually happens, but in this case, the stars aligned and the right car to build was within a few miles of his shop in Upland, California.

For a few years, Steve had heard rumors of a Boss Mustang that was owned by an older woman in the area that had already been treated to the beginning stages of the transformation into a road-race car, but he'd never been able verify if the car actually existed. The car sounded like exactly what he was looking for, so he put forth a sincere effort to find it, but he just met dead ends. Steve began to believe it was "just one of those stories." That was until February 2002, when a man who stopped by Steve's shop mentioned he knew of a '70 Boss 302 in the area that had been sitting for many years and was owned by a woman. Steve laughed, quite sure he was hearing the same old line again and told him he'd gladly pay a hundred bucks if the kid could locate the car. The kid agreed and left. He was back within an hour with a handful of photographs, and Steve was happily out a hundred bucks.

Fortunately, the kid knew the woman well enough to arrange a meeting, and Steve was finally able to come face-to-face with the Boss 302 he'd been searching for. The woman was friendly, and Steve learned that about the same time he had first been admiring those Trans-Am photographs in HOT ROD, another young man, her son, was equally struck by the same cars and decided to build one for himself.

He'd gotten as far as stripping the car down and had begun the rollcage installation when he was shipped off to join the Vietnam War effort. He didn't come back. The Boss had sat in the garage ever since, and his mother wasn't interested in selling it. After talking for a while and learning of Steve's experience and intentions for the car, she agreed to sell it to him because she felt he was the only person she'd met who had the same intentions for the car her son had and would finish what he had begun. The Boss went home with Steve for $2,400 to pick up where it had been left off.

Steve's initial plan was to create a period-correct Trans-Am racer in the image of those Bud Moore cars he remembered from his childhood. But, as he began to ponder what he wanted to actually use the car for, it quickly became apparent he would never be satisfied by a car that was constrained by old-style technology and rare, high-dollar parts. Steve really wanted to have the ultimate Boss that he could actually drive hard without fear, so he decided to go full-tilt and create the Boss that could have been had more advanced engineering and parts been available at the time.

Of course, it helps when you've got a desire for top-notch parts if you have a friend who used to work on a NASCAR team and still has excellent parts connections. Steve's friend Jeff Huber, known as the Iceman for his cool demeanor, is an ex- IndyCar driver and had been second in command of the crew for Tide's car in the Winston Cup series. He's the man responsible for the outrageous IRL/CART-sourced Brembo Metal Matrix brakes on all four corners of the Boss. Those massive brakes necessitated the use of 17-inch PS Engineering wheels, as they're the only wheels that would clear the calipers. Steve also certainly could have gotten by with something less exotic than Penske racing shocks, but Jeff advised him they'd be the best addition he could make to the car's suspension. There's was just no cutting corners for this car. Overkill? Perhaps, but had either part been around in 1970, it's a good bet Moore would have equipped his Boss cars with a set.

As for the way-cool Gurney-Westlake engine, Steve used it to set up the engine bay to ensure the engine would fit should he have the desire to use it. But for track abuse, he decided to go with a race-prepped SVO 351W block stroked to 408 ci. If nothing else, he at least knew where replacement parts for the stroker would come from should they be necessary.

Steve had always been a perfectionist on the cars he restored for himself and others, and the construction of the car he had always wanted would be no exception. He certainly knew his way around a Boss, but Steve determined the ideal Trans-Am track setup for his car by asking everyone he could with actual track experience, even other shops that had built cars such as this with competition in mind. When it came time to pick the right suspension setup, Steve was fortunate enough to be in contact with Gary Trout who actually owns two of the original Bud Moore cars. The best advice he could give Steve was to keep the suspension "as simple as possible in all aspects." One of Trout's Trans-Am cars was equipped with a simple Panhard bar while the other used the equally biased Watt's link for rear lateral location; by all accounts, the simplistic panhard bar worked better. Since Steve's Boss was going to see legitimate track time as well, that's the part that got the nod.

Once it was completed, the Boss took its maiden voyage around the Willow Springs raceway with Jeff at the wheel to get his expert opinion on how close the car was to being dialed in. Jeff had previously impressed Bob Bondurant by posting the second fastest lap times ever at the original Sears Point location of his School of High-Performance Driving, so Steve felt confident Jeff would know where the Boss's weak points were pretty quickly. When Jeff brought the Boss back in after a few aggressive laps, Steve was eager to know how close the car was to being dialed in and asked Jeff what he should change. To his surprise, Jeff said in complete seriousness, "Not a thing."

That was good enough for Steve, and the car has retained that original setup to this day.

True to its Trans-Am form, this Boss is no longer street legal, so it's been delegated to track-only fun. Steve was tempted to keep the street legality, but he wanted that raw feeling of a car that's intended for one sole purpose, like the original cars. As far as track time, Steve's new to Trans-Am-style racing, so the Boss is a learning experience for him. So far, he's only been able to take it out a few times a year to club events when work and time permit. If there's one downside to the upgrades Steve made to make this Boss more potent on the track it's that it's no longer eligible for vintage Trans-Am races, as it's not "correct" in any way outside of appearance. Steve doesn't feel too bad about that though, since this Boss was never intended to be competitively raced; it's the achievement of a lifelong dream for him that he can race as hard he feels like going.

In a way, though, this car completed the dreams of two young men: one young man leafing through the pages of HOT ROD magazine dreaming about having a Boss one day, and another who began the Boss' Trans- Am transformation before he was called to duty where he made the ultimate sacrifice. It may have taken 35 years, but Steve finally brought forth the car both young men wanted, infused with trick parts that drivers back in the original yellow Mustangs in the '70 Trans-Am season could have only dreamed of.

 
Rep Power: 664

Pictures

 
Rep Power: 551

OMG show room finish!