It's done. We did it. Find someone around you and give them a big hug and a high-five. We've picked an ultimate Muscle Car in our March Muscle Car Madness bracket, and it's the 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429. For those of you without any strong religious convictions, you may wish to try praying to it.
I know this pick is not free from controversy— everyone had their pet favorites, and some felt this thing was sort of Mustang-heavy from the start, but I can't believe that anyone would be actually dissatisfied with this winner as an amazing example of a muscle car.
Sure, there's some who say no Mustang is a muscle car, but rather a "pony car", a distinction I don't think really matters here. Pony car/muscle car is just the motorhead equivalent of Ashkenazi and Sephardic— they're really just variants of the same thing. The Boss 429 is absolutely a muscle car. Made to homologate the 429 engine for NASCAR, the Boss had to be specially made to fit the engine by Kar Kraft. Actual output of 500 HP, beefy "compact" two-door body, classic long hood/short deck proportions with an agressive stance and a big-ass hood scoop– the Boss is the real deal.
Because the Boss 429 was a sort of special edition, less than 900 were made in 1969, so remaining ones are really valuable, and now that it's won this wildly prestigious Jalopnik-community voted title, expect prices to go through the roof. Seriously, this is probably the muscle car equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
Thanks for participating! Without all of you, this would just be a weird set of files on my computer that would eventually be used as part of some restraining order proceedings against me.
March Muscle Car Madness is brought to you by Gumout.