Cars We Remember; Favorite racecars and the Ford Torino Talladega Boss 429

Q: Greg, I saw you on the Internet show DragList Live recently and really enjoyed your interview. First, I’d like to know more about Don Prudhomme’s great seasons and second, a list of your 10 favorite race cars of all-time. I really enjoyed your stories on DragList, especially the one about Don Prudhomme making his crewman get out from under his funny car to take a photo for a fan, and also the lesson learned about the loss of your good friend street racing. 

Also, how about your thoughts on another engine that was suspect as to NASCAR production mandates and consumer availability, namely the Boss 429 Ford that competed in 1969 NASCAR season in Ford Torino trim. Thanks, John S., Westbury, Connecticut.

A: John, I’m happy to do so. Let’s start with Don Prudhomme, and then we’ll move on to the Boss 429 and my 10 favorite racecars.

For the sake of space, if any of my readers have a Facebook account, please go to my page and you can watch the interview in its entirety or you can go to the draglist.com homepage, click on podcast and it’s the first video on the list. You can watch the entire show on your computer or even your smart phone. This will allow me extra space for this column. 

I want to thank Bill Pratt (DragList founder) and his partner on the show, John Bockelman, a noted guitarist and artist, for having me as a guest on the show. 

As for Prudhomme, back in 1975 and 1976, when there were only eight yearly NHRA national events, he won an astounding 13 of 16 NHRA Funny Car races in his ARMY sponsored Chevy Monza Funny Car. In 1975 he won six of eight nationals, while in 1976 he won an amazing seven of eight. He accomplished the “first ever in the 5’s” when he went 5.987 at the Ontario, Canada NHRA World Finals in 1975 in his Chevrolet Monza funny car. This domination back then was unheard of as there were many great funny cars competing in the 1970s.  

As for the legality of the 1969 Ford Talladega Boss 429, and the rumor that Ford didn’t really produce enough of them to be accepted by NASCAR as an official racecar, it’s just not true. In looking back, I again must mention that the mystery 427 Chevy engine that ran at Daytona in 1963 did not meet the 50 needed to be produced for NASCAR legal status, this all thanks to the shenanigans by the Chevy car owners. Clearly NASCAR officials were fooled into believing that 50 were produced when less than 20 existed. (This story is on the Internet and on my homepage and Facebook, too.)

Additionally, in 1969-70, the winged Plymouth Superbird and Dodge Daytona cars were other notable racecars that Chrysler made sure were legal. Thousands of consumer-available Superbirds were built, and more than the NASCAR mandates at the time. The Plymouths were probably the only real “showroom legal” racecars, and in 1970 I remember seeing them on the boulevards cruising around. Available with either a 440 wedge or 426 Hemi, they were the real deal. 

Unlike the winged MOPARS, the 1969 Ford Torino Talladega was pretty much only available to the top race teams, because if you ordered one at the Ford dealership you were “shown” and asked to order a similar model with a different engine, namely a 428 Cobra Jet and not the 429 Boss. If you insisted, Ford did sell them, as they had to produce 750 of them as per NASCAR rules. 

We could write for hours on this subject, but we don’t have the space. Bottom line? Ford did what it had to, produce a few more Boss 429s than they had to, and won big races, 29 of them to be specific. 

I got to see a real Torino Talladega at a Watkins Glenn nostalgia event not long ago, and the owner had it out on the track in full race mode. (See photos of the Boss 429.) 

Getting to my 10 favorite racecar list, please remember this is my opinion and I know readers who disagree and tell me I missed many good racecars will probably hit my email hard. The following list is not in any specific order, but here they are and the list goes back to the 1960 decade. Clearly, younger readers will have a completely different list, so please remember I’m a baby-boomer, thus the age of the cars on my list.

1. Richard Petty’s 1970 Plymouth Superbird No. 43; 2. Jungle Jim Liberman’s Chevy II and Nova Funny Cars, 1966 to 1969; 3. Zora Arkus Duntov’s 1963 Corvette Grand Sport; 4. Jim Hall’s Chaparral sports cars (pick any year from 1961 to 1970); 5. Carroll Shelby 427 Ford Cobra (1965-1967); 6. Tiny Lund’s Daytona 500 winning Wood Brothers No. 21 1963 Ford; 7. Dan Gurney Eagle Indycars, 1965 to 2000; 8. Junior Johnson’s 1963 Chevy Impala Mystery Motor 427; 9. Don Garlits’ first rear-engined Swamp Rat XIV, 1971; 10. Don Prudhomme’s Monza ARMY funny car, 1975-76.

Honorable Mentions: Doug Wolfgang driven Weikert’s Livestock No. 29 sprint car, 1985; Tommy Ivo’s four-engine “Showboat” Buick dragster, 1961; Fabulous Hudson Hornets, 1951-1952; Smokey Yunick 1966 Chevelle NASCAR stock car; Karl Kiekhaefer’s 1956 Chrysler 300 NASCAR stock car. 

There you have it John, hope this answers your questions.

(Greg Zyla is a syndicated auto columnist who welcomes reader input on collector cars, auto nostalgia and motorsports at greg@gregzyla.com.)