It was almost 40 years ago when the American racing legend Parnelli Jones captured the 1970 Trans-Am title in a very special yellow Mustang.->ke428 What made the yellow and black number 15 so special is that it was based on the best handling Mustang of all time, the Boss 302. Complete with hockey stripes and all, the blue oval will offer a special order Ford Racing Boss 302R, a 5.0 Liter thoroughbred with a blacked out deck lid and a familiar paint scheme that will continue the modern Mustang’s road racing efforts that was revitalized back in 2005 with the FR500C.

We were privied to see the new car in person a few weeks ago, however we weren’t allowed to tall you about it until now. As soon as they fired up the all new fuel injected 302 cubic inch V8 we could smell the spent race gas all the way in the back of the room and we knew that this was going to be something special. Starting where the rubber meets the road, the all new Boss 302R wears a set of 275/35 Hoosier racing slicks wrapped around a set of slick BBS 18x10 inch racing wheels. Housed inside the lightweight mesh alloys are a set of Brembo four piston brake calipers up front clamping down onto a set of two piece rotors, because the Ford was designed to be raced in the Koni Challenge series, the Ford Racing Mustang has a set of fully adjustable dampeners from the Netherlands based suspension manufacturer.

A 20 gallon cell resides in the trunk complete with racecar style fuel fillers for fast pit stops and an FIA sanctioned roll cage and fire suppression system inside to safeguard the driver in the even of a worst case scenario. The pilots resides in the sole Recaro race bucket, strapped in with a Sabelt harness and directing the front wheels with a special Sparco/Ford Racing small diameter steering wheel while a Stack type racing gauge cluster provides all the necessary information about the 21st century 5.0 Liter power plant. Perhaps it was an oversight, or it might just be a testament to the 302R’s production car roots, but the Grand-Am spec racecar even has power locks.

Continued with press release after the jump.

Everything on the outside from the deep carbon fiber front splitter to the regulated tow hooks makes the 2010 Ford Racing Boss 302R makes Saleen’s attempt at a retro racing Mustang look like amateur hour in Dearborn. With over 40 hours of seam welding going into each of the 50 examples of the Parnelli Jones tribute car ensures that just like the original Larry Shinoda creation, the new Boss will remain the Mustang to beat. The new car will be offered with two different levels of turn key racer depending on just how serious you are about campaigning your Mustang, however the best part of all is that they are available as a special order item from your local Ford parts counter. The SCCA/NASA sanctioned Ford will go for around $79,000 while those looking to compete in Grand-Am racing will need to pony up closer to $129,000. If you are hesitant to buy into such a risky proposition you can rest easy, the blue oval has promised that there will be 5 shiny examples lined up on the grid at the 24 Hours of Daytona, proving that Ford is confident in racing what they sell.

PRESS RELEASE

FORD RACING UNVEILS THE NEXT GENERATION OF RACING MUSTANG IN THE NEW BOSS 302R

DEARBORN, Mich., Dec. 28, 2009 – Forty years after its namesake became a road racing legend, the BOSS is back on track for 2010 with a new 5.0-liter V-8 engine.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Parnelli Jones’ 1970 Trans-Am championship in a Mustang BOSS 302 prepared by Bud Moore Engineering, Ford Racing is introducing the BOSS 302R, a factory-built race car ready for track days and road racing in a number of Grand-Am, SCCA and NASA classes.

“To keep pace with consumer demand, the Ford team has built modern versions of the most iconic performance Mustangs over the years,” said Jamie Allison, director, Ford North America Motorsports. “From Shelbys to Bullitt, Mach and Cobra Jet, it is now time for BOSS to join the list of America’s most coveted Mustangs. The original BOSS 302 was a championship-winning legend and the new Mustang BOSS 302R will carry on the tradition. The Mustang was born to race from the start, and this new Mustang is bred to win.”

The Mustang BOSS 302R is a serialized off-road-only vehicle ready to race. Each base model will come with a 5.0-liter four-valve engine and a six-speed manual transmission with a roll cage, race seats, safety harness, data acquisition and race dampers/springs, and a Brembo brake and tire package, starting at an MSRP of $79,000.

And, with a special Grand-Am Homologation Package (M-FR500-BOSS R1), it will also be ready to compete in the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series (formerly known as KONI Challenge), starting with the season-opening race in Daytona on Jan. 29, 2010. As of today, five BOSS 302R race cars will be delivered to customers ready to race in Daytona. MSRP of the BOSS 302R1 is $129,000.

The Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge-ready Mustang BOSS 302R will feature a sealed high-output race engine with an upgraded cooling system, a close-ratio six-speed transmission with integral shifter, a seam-welded body, race suspension/KONI dampers and ABS brake tuning, race performance exhaust and a high-speed balance one-piece driveshaft.

The BOSS 302R follows in the very successful footsteps of its most recent road racing predecessor – the Mustang FR500C from Ford Racing. In 2005, when the Mustang FR500C debuted at Daytona, the first car was delivered on Wednesday of that week and won the KONI Challenge race on Friday.

In five years of competition since then, the Mustang FR500C has won three Triple Crown championships of driver, team and manufacturer’s titles in KONI competition including back-to-back (2008 and 2009). The FR500C has also seen success in FIA GT4 competition winning the 2007 and 2008 driver’s championships.

“We expect the BOSS 302R to continue the successful tradition of winning with factory-built production-based race cars from Ford Racing,” said Allison. “The FR500C and FR500S road racing Mustangs, and the Mustang FR500CJ (Cobra Jet) for drag racing have proven to be great cars for our customers, helping teams win races and championships. We believe that the BOSS 302R will provide that same sort of competitive product for our customers with the tradition you can only get from Ford Racing.”

Each Ford Racing factory-built production-based turnkey race car has won its competition debut.

“Racing has long served as a technical proving grounds for production engines,” said Allison. “What’s good enough for the streets is now good enough for the racetrack. The 5.0-liter block and architecture in the Mustang BOSS 302R is the same as the 2011 Mustang GT.”

“We have a great team on the BOSS 302R project,” said Andy Slankard, Ford Racing engineering supervisor and the lead engineer on the BOSS 302R project. “Between our partners at AutoAlliance International, where the Mustang is built, Team Mustang, Multimatic and the entire Ford Racing team, we have once again proven to be a leader in turnkey production-based race cars.”

Available through Ford dealers, a total of 50 BOSS 302R Mustangs will be built by Ford Racing. Delivery is anticipated in the third quarter of 2010.