Paul Walker’s Boss 429 Mustang Could Set A Record At Auction

The Ford Mustang of the 1960s and early 70s are cool cars, but the Boss 429 Mustang is one of the rarest and most desirable muscle cars of that entire era. Only 1,359 of these big-block behemoths were built between 1969 and 1970, and one has finally come up for auction, just a few days after the world bid farewell to Gale Halderman. This one is even more special: it used to belong to the late Paul Walker, he of the Fast and Furious franchise who was also an avid collector.

The Boss 429 was Ford’s way to homologate the enormous 429-cubic-inch V8 (that’s seven liters of displacement, folks) for NASCAR racing. In fact, it was so big it wouldn’t fit in the engine compartment of a Mustang, so the Boss 429 cars were farmed out to Kar Kraft of Dearborn, Michigan, who also helped develop the GT40 that won Le Mans. They basically shoehorned the engine in, while moving the battery to the trunk for balance, flaring out the front fenders to accommodate larger tires and adding a sway bar at the rear and a manually operated hood scoop, among other changes.

Officially, the cars developed 375hp at 5,200rpm and 450lb ft (610Nm) of torque at 3,400rpm, though it’s widely believed that Ford kept those figures low so owners could actually afford car insurance.

Mecum Auctions has this pristine 1969 Fastback in Raven Black with just 14,575 miles on the clock for its Indianapolis event on June 23-28, with original sheetmetal and numbers-matching engine and four-speed manual Toploader gearbox. There is no indication as to when Walker, who passed away in 2013 in a car crash, owned or sold it. But just in January, a collection of 21 of Walker’s cars, trucks and motorcycles sold at auction for $2,333,450; considering a Boss 429 in even reasonable condition can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars on its own, look to this one to possibly set a record for this fast and furious Mustang.

*Images courtesy of Mecum Auctions