Bunkie Knudsen – Pulpaddict

‘69 BOSS 302 ROAD & TRACK MUSTANG

Ford’s new Boss, Bunkie Knudsen, fast-tracked the long-awaited ‘69 BOSS 302 ROAD & TRACK MUSTANG, Dearborn’s Z/28 Camaro challenger.

‘69 BOSS 302 ROAD & TRACK MUSTANG

Mustangs had been on two-year restyling cycles, and there were major changes in 1969. Overall length was increased by almost four inches and width by approximately one-quarter inch. Curb weight was up by 140 pounds. Leading the charge was a portfolio of Mustangs, ranging from the Boss 302, above, photo by Stuart Schorr, to the R-Code 428 Cobra Jet Ram Air and Boss 429 models. Finally, the Z/28 Camaro would have a serious competitor on the street and in Trans-Am Road racing.

A serious performance car, the ‘69 BOSS 302 ROAD & TRACK MUSTANG was not available with automatic transmission or air conditioning. Its imposing front spoiler was dealer-installed to avoid damage during shipping. The fiberglass rear wing and backlight louvers were optional. Because of its standard F-60 tires, special fender/wheel well contours were required. Ford engineers, working at Kar-Kraft, designed the Boss 302’s HD suspension. Boss 302 Mustangs, priced at approximately $3,500, went on sale in April of 1969, and Ford dealers sold 1,628.

The Boss 302 Mustang showcased the new 302-inch small-block with four-bolt mains, forged steel crank and rods, .524-inch solid-lifter cam, new “Cleveland” canted-valve, big-port heads, and a manually-choked 780-cfm Holley on a high-rise alloy manifold. A factory-installed rev-limiter was set at 6,150 rpm. Like the CJ engine, Ford under-rated the Boss 302 at 290 horsepower at 5,800 rpm to avoid insurance company surcharges for 300-horsepower-and-up cars. There was also a drag strip classification advantage. Stock Boss 302 Mustangs with 3.91 Traction-Lok gears were often quicker and faster than larger-engine Mustangs. Back in the day, well-tuned Boss 302s accelerated to 60 mph in the low sevens with quarter-mile times of high-nineties in the low-mid fourteens.

‘69 BOSS 302 ROAD & TRACK MUSTANG Ford’s 1969 seven-car Trans-Am “fleet” was race-prepped by Lee Dykstra’s group at Kar-Kraft, then divided up among its factory teams. Three went to Shelby Racing in Torrance, CA, three to Bud Moore Engineering in Spartanburg, SC, and the remaining car to consummate racer, Smokey Yunick, in Daytona Beach, FL. Bunkie had a long-standing relationship with Smokey, dating back to his Chevrolet days. It was finished and painted with Smokey Yunick’s gold-trimmed black Best Damn Garage in Town livery at Kar-Kraft. For some unexplained reason, it ended up not being raced.

Engines for the seven M-Code Trans-Am Mustangs were developed as part of the Boss 302 “Cleveland” engine program. Ford Engine & Foundry personnel, working in leased space at Kar-Kraft, developed the new small-block that showcased canted-valve, big-port heads. The Boss 302 program development group included Ford’s legendary racing engine engineer, Moses “Mose” Nowland.

“We assembled the race-ready Boss 302 engines for the factory teams at Triple-E (Engine & Foundry Division’s Engine-Electrical-Engineering facility) in Dearborn, adjacent to the Henry Ford Museum. That’s where we built prototype engines for future production and race engines for motorsports teams,” added Nowland, who retired as Senior Motorsport Engineer in 2012. He passed away in 2021.

The blueprinted and balanced Boss 302 Trans-Am engine utilized a cross-drilled, forged steel Indy engine crankshaft, .615-inch lift solid cam, GT40-style forged steel rods, headers, and aluminum intake manifold with individual runners and a pair of Holley Dominator four-barrels. Dyno-tested output was 475-plus horsepower at 9,000 rpm. All race engines were assembled with O-ringed cylinder blocks for dry-deck, gasket-less sealing. The process utilized gas-filled stainless-steel O-rings around the cylinders and Viton rubber rings around water and oil passage openings.

Moore’s Mustangs proved to be faster and more reliable than Shelby’s. It was rumored at the time that Shelby either modified or replaced the Ford-supplied engines. Parnelli Jones won at Michigan International Speedway and Donneybrook, and George Follmer took the win at Bridgehampton. Sam Posey won at Lime Rock, posting the only win for Shelby racing. When SCCA championship points were tallied, Ford unfortunately finished second to Chevrolet…again!

In 1969, I changed the Hi-Performance CARS magazine annual award from Top Performance Car of the Year to Top Performance Manufacturer of the Year, for the first and only time, to honor Ford Division and the ‘69 BOSS 302 ROAD & TRACK MUSTANG. When I presented it to General Manager John Naughton, I said, “The Division deserved the award for its attitudes toward and achievements in the high-performance field. In addition, for its great new engines, drag racing options, specialty cars, and its continued support of racing.”

For details on the ‘69 BOSS 302 ROAD & TRACK MUSTANG, and complete 1969-1969 ½ Mustang lineup including sales brochures, road tests, and Fact Sheets, please visit Over-Drive magazine @

https://over-drive-magazine.com/2023/11/10/1969-ford-mustang-fact-sheet/

’65 CHEVELLE SS396 BIG-BLOCK Z16!

Chevrolet’s entry in the Supercar Sweepstakes – ’65 CHEVELLE SS396 BIG-BLOCK Z16! – is a rare, fast collectible.

Chevrolet had been slow to bring a high-performance midsize car to market. Toward the end of the 1965 model year, they revealed the potent Z16 Chevelle Malibu SS396, powered by an all-new Mark IV 396 big-block. While somewhat boxy, it was the most powerful car in the Supercar Sweepstakes. But there was a problem. Chevrolet General Manager Bunkie Knudsen’s foray into the market dominated by Pontiac was hardly noticed. Because of its late entry in August, production of the ’65 CHEVELLE SS396 BIG-BLOCK Z16! was limited to 200 plus a single convertible. Since the SS396 was built around a beefy convertible chassis fitted with big-car brakes and front and rear stabilizer bars, it would have been a simple matter to produce convertibles. But time was not on Chevy’s side.

There was a small Z16 press event at GM’s Mesa Proving Ground in February 1965. The word was that the big-block coupe was fast, but visually paled by comparison to the GTO. Since so few were produced, only key dealers were given opportunities to place orders and Z16s sold out quickly. A number of GM executives drove Z16s as did celebrities like Dan Blocker, Hoss Cartright on TV’s Bonanza. Chevrolet loaned Blocker a yellow Z16 coupe. Performance feedback from Mesa indicated that the Chevrolet Engineering prepared Z16 could sprint to 60 mph in the low 6.0s with quarter mile times of mid-high-14s at close to 100 mph.The Z16’s all-new, big-block displaced 396 cubic inches and rated at 375 horsepower at 5.600 rpm and a whopping 420 pound-feet of torque at 3,600 rpm. It showcased an HD block, heads with canted valves, forged steel crank and rods, 11-to-1 pistons and an aluminum intake manifold with a big Holley four-barrel. It was a one-year-only RPO L37 hydraulic-lifter engine unique to the Z16. Full size Chevys could be optioned with 325 or 425 horsepower Mark IV engines. The death knell had sounded for the outdated 409 engines yet 340 and 400 horsepower versions were still available.For everything you’ve always wanted to know about the ’65 Chevelle and the rare ’65 CHEVELLE SS396 BIG-BLOCK Z16! – complete specifications and factory press release – please visit Over-Drive magazine @ https://over-drive-magazine.com/2023/09/21/1965-chevrolet-mid-size-cars-fact-sheet/

CHEVY 427 MARK II MYSTERY MOTOR

Unlike the Z11, the CHEVY 427 MARK II MYSTERY MOTOR was not available in a car, or to the public. You had to have serious NASCAR cred to get one of the 20 built.

In the 1960s, Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen always seemed to be one step ahead of GM Chairman Fred Donner’s anti-racing missives. While running Pontiac, he had supported the Super-Duty Group that later, after he left, managed to get 421 Catalina Lightweights to drag racers before the axe fell. Then he moved on to Chevrolet in 1961 and supported the RPO Z11 drag racing and clandestine NASCAR 427 Mystery Motor projects. Both pure racing programs survived even though GM was officially out of racing. In the case of the Mystery Motor, everything was conducted through Chevrolet’s backdoor.

Except for cooperating with Ray Brock for a story in the May 1963 HOT ROD, Chevrolet PR did not issue any photos, information nor discuss the Mark II 427 with media. As far as Chevrolet was concerned, the engine did not exist. The Mystery Motor rattled the troops at Daytona, generated reams of misinformation and became a cult engine. Its real function was that of a “bridge” between the old school W-Series 348-409 and the next-gen 1965 Mark IV big-block.The CHEVY 427 MARK II MYSTERY MOTOR makes use of the same bore/stroke block – 4.31-inch bore and 3.65-inch stroke – as the Z11 engine. But that’s where the similarity ends. Unlike W-Series engines with combustion chambers in the cylinders, the Mark II NASCAR engine utilizes canted and staggered-valve (Porcupine) heads with conventional chambers. This style head debuted in production 396-427 Mark IV big-block engines, affectionately dubbed “Rat Motors” by enthusiasts!

Although developed primarily as a NASCAR race engine, Chevrolet did produce a singular variant for street applications. Most likely the Mark II in street trim, displayed for many years at GM’s Tonawanda, NY engine plant, left, with GM engineer, Ken Kayser, was built to justify the expenses of building a racing-only engine. It is possible that at some point the project was referenced internally as RPO Code Z33. That would have been done only to disguise the 427 as an optional production engine so as not to attract unwanted attention. Interestingly, the Mark II engine was not produced at Tonawanda, the facility best known for Mark IV 396-427-454 engines.

Richard “Dick” Keinath, one of the industry’s top engine engineers, had the lead role in designing and developing the Mark II engine. The program started in 1960, before Bunkie Knudsen arrived and wrapped up in November 1962. To keep it off the radar, Mark II development, and testing by pro drivers in NASCAR racecars, was conducted at GM’s Winter Proving Ground in Mesa, AZ rather than in Milford, MI.

Part of the mystery surrounding the Mark II engine can be attributed to its planned public debut on February 24, 1963 at the Daytona 500. The first couple of engines were shipped to Smokey Yunick for use in Chevys being prepared for the 500. Junior Johnson and Johnny Rutherford were two high-profile racers originally slated to run this engine.However, Mark II 427s were in two Z06 Corvettes competing in the 250-mile American Challenge Cup, at Daytona on February 16! This was a race for sports cars and one-offs, not NASCAR stockers. Few people at the time realized that two of the split-window Sting Rays in the Challenge Cup had Mark IIs under their hoods. They were actually the first big-block Corvettes.

For the complete story on the CHEVY 427 MARK II MYSTERY MOTOR, check out DAY ONE, https://www.amazon.com/Day-One-Automotive-Journalists-Muscle-Car/dp/0760352364/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493561421&sr=1-1&keywords=Day One by Martyn L. Schorr

The CHEVY 427 MARK II MYSTERY MOTOR is exposed in OVER-DRIVE magazine @ https://over-drive-magazine.com/2022/08/19/1963-chevrolet-mystery-motor/