Prototype Boss Maverick pic in MCR

Has anyone seen the discussion and pic on the last page of the March 2010 Muscle Car Review?



They listed it as a "never-before-published photo of the never-quite-made-it-to-production Boss Maverick."

Sorry, I haven't figured how to load my home gallery pics as thumbnails so its a pretty small view.

 

It looks like it was a 70 Mav with blackout grill, chin spoiler, Magnum 500s, a hockey stick stripe and the BOSS above the Maverick logo. I think the car shown in the pic was a dark metallic green. Wonder what the drive train would have been...guessing a boss 302/4-spd? Looks like they held off and built the Grabber Mav the next year.

 

Well, in 69 and 70, when it said Boss on the fender, it had a Boss engine under the hood.....so I'd agree, Boss 302, 4-speed.

Can you imagine! If only they had followed through.

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Yeh right. The guys in the Mustang dept. would have a stroke.
A lighter, faster car to compete for Stang sales that were directly linked to the Trans Am series. Not a chance of that happening.
Think of what we would have had if they chose to run the Maverick instead of the Stang in the Trans Am series. Of course then most of us wouldnt be able to afford the Mavs we have right now.

 

Bingo!! Thoughts like this constantly occur to me when I look across the humble past of our cars.

 

Fords mistake is our gain

 

That's true! if they had built a boss maverick our cars would be a whole lot more popular, and they would use bunch of them for clone and tribute cars.

 

"Mustang guys" were Ford guys first and foremost.......just like Chevrolet built high-perf Camaros, Chevelles, Impalas, Corvettes......yeah, having both the Maverick and Mustang in Trans-Am racing might of generated some in-house competition, but I doubt the Maverick could have dominated either the Mustang or Trans-Am...no particular make or model ever really did.....As for the Maverick instead of the Mustang,...Chrysler never had a problem running both Challegers and 'Cudas (Mopar made a factory T/A package for each) Chevy ran Camaros, Corvettes, and,...well,...Trans-Ams! Ford could have run both, Mustangs and Mavericks....it didn't have to be either/or,....and having both involved in Trans-Am would have only increased sales of both, not taken away sales of one or the other

I think what happened to ideas like the "Boss" Maverick was in 70, the Mustang was already 5 years a proven seller with a rep.....the Maverick was new, and Ford was probably already thinking bigger....literally.....remember the "Mid-size" behemoths that started coming out? The Fairlanes became Torinos and started getting larger, the Galaxies and LTD's got HUGE, even the T-Bird was growing into a land yacht. While Chevrolet was making El Caminios based on the mid-size performance Chevelle, Ford made Ranchero's first off the much enlarged Torino, then the Gigantor LTD luxo-liners.

They had the Mustang for performance and racing, the Maverick was economy....it's alot like today....Ford's got the Mustang for performance and racing,.....that seems to be enough for them.......Dodge has the Charger and Challenger (had the Magnum) and even makes a killer SRT8 Jeep....Chevrolet has the Camaro and the Vette....looks like the Firebird/Trans-Am might be making a comeback too.

Performance-wise, Ford's literally been "One trick pony" since the 70's

 

That seemed to work out alright for the Nova, and I don't think it hurt the Camaro too much.

Still, I'm glad Ford left it up to us to bring Mavericks into muscle car territory.

 

I'm thinking that a 70 Mav with Ford's new Boss 302, some minor suspension upgrades and Magnum 500s could wear that prototype stripe and BOSS lettering legitimately...not a Mustang Boss copy...what do you guys think?

 

As far as comparison to Mopars, I think the Maverick would fall more along the lines of the Duster or Demon rather than the Cuda or Challenger. No Trans Am heritage but lots of exposure at the drag strip. There were some neat 340 Dusters around...I remember a guy with a nice Pepto-Pink one across the street when I was a kid.

 

Anyone have a larger picture?

 

I got a scan of the article

 

Thoought about building a street boss for the Grabber but decided to go modern with an injected 5.0. It would be cool if that car were to be found stuck in the corner of a warehouse somewhere!

Pontiac is dead so if it did come back it just wouldn't be the same.