As a car fan, which era would you time travel back to? It would be interesting to witness the chaos of the early 20th century when the first cars took to the roads of America, or go back to the late ’40s when hot rods were terrorizing stop lights on a Saturday night. But while there are plenty of moments in automotive history that really stand out, one decade rules above the rest.
We are, of course, talking about the muscle car golden age, or roughly the era between 1964 and 1972. This time frame covers both the arrival of the first muscle car, and ends with emissions regs and gas prices making these cars virtually obsolete overnight. But as they say, the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long.
The Pontiac GTO welcomed in the muscle car era in 1964, the result of three hotshot Pontiac engineers (John DeLorean, Russ Gee, and Bill Collins) sticking a 389 in a 1964 LeMans coupe. The new GTO muscle car was a viral hit at a time when “social media” would have meant a group of people sharing the same newspaper. Virtually every manufacturer in America then scrambled to have their own brawny V8-powered coupes in the showroom, with the public not able to get enough of these newfangled muscle cars. But then, disaster stuck.
The muscle car pretty much died out in the Malaise Era that followed, and the world turned to fast, often turbocharged JDM machines and hot hatches for affordable kicks.
The muscle car wasn’t quite dead yet, however. By the mid-2000s, a new breed of modern muscle car, like the LX Dodge Charger and the S197 Ford Mustang, proved that there was still a taste for old-school looks matched to contemporary hardware. The so-called second golden age began, and once more, Saturday night highways were given the soundtrack of a wrung out V8. Again, other carmakers rushed to join in this new freewheeling muscle car era, with a wealth of interesting (and very fast) models hitting the streets. But just like the first time around, these affordable V8 heroes would be stopped in their tracks, this time by a need to embrace EVs and hybrids, and generally look after the planet a bit better.
But buyers hadn’t lost a taste for the original icons, with cars like the 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge Ram Air IV Convertible fetching almost $700,000 at auction, while 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona Hemis hovered around $1million. The 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429 is also one of the most valuable muscle cars around, with a low-mileage, unrestored example recently selling for $950,000. But what if you could mix the first and second muscle car golden eras together, to create one new car?
If standing in crowded auction houses and trying to win bidding wars is not your thing, there is a solution. Tom Scarpello used to work at Ford and one day asked himself why Ford doesn’t make a new old Mustang. The original ’60s ‘Stang helped to build the company (along with the Model T), and he figured that there would be a market for original cars done in a modern way. So Scarpello founded Revology Cars. The company makes brand new, reimagined classic Mustangs with modern performance, craftsmanship, and reliability. Such is the demand for these cars that Revology has a backlog of orders and has expanded its production facility. It has also added new models, and one of those is a new version of a 1969 Boss Mustang 429.
Unlike a lot of restomd companies that take old examples and jazz them up with new parts, Revology starts the whole thing from scratch. Structural adhesive tech creates continuous joints rather than spot welds, with attention paid to reducing vibrations and noise. The all-new steel body also makes the car more rigid, and the chassis features an aluminum subframe. Even the windshield is polyurethane bonded for better structural rigidity. At the front is a double-wishbone suspension, with a three-link suspension at the rear. Steering is a power hydraulic rack and pinion, and disc brakes all around hide behind classic-style Magnum 500 wheels. Even the steering wheel is an ode to the original Boss version, upgraded with contemporary rim thickness.
In place of the original 429 cubic-inch V8, the new Boss 429 has a supercharged version of Ford’s Coyote 5.0-liter V8. The unit has a high-capacity external oil cooling and a heavy-duty engine cooling package with high-output variable-speed fan. Transmission is either a six-speed manual or a 10-speed automatic transmission. There is also a Boss 302 version, with a high-revving naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V8. The interior is a finely made modern take on the original.
So which would win between the Revology car and the original 1969 Boss Mustang 429? It wouldn’t even be close. In one test in 1969, the 429 reached 60 mph in 7.1 seconds, 100 mph in 13.6 seconds, and covered the quarter mile in 14.09 seconds. When tested, Revology’s Boss 429 rocketed to 60 mph in 4.2 seconds and covered a quarter mile of 12.1 seconds at 122.5 mph – some seriously impressive figures. Looking at the stats, it’s hardly surprising. The original ’60s car had 375 hp — not too bad for the time — but the new supercharged engine pumps out a heady 710 hp, or almost double the OG car. The question is: which would you rather have?
When it comes to price, the comparison gets a lot narrower. Yes, the very best original Boss 429s sell for almost a million bucks, but a lot of good order cars sell for more like $300,000 to $400,000. These cars are rare too, with Ford producing 859 Boss 429 Mustangs for the 1969 model year. The Revology car starts at $395,000, which is likely more than a lot of original examples. The new 302 is a bit cheaper, starting at $375,000.
To put it another way, a new Revology Boss 429 is more expensive than a brand-new Ferrari. A 2026 Ferrari 296 will set you back at least $338,250 — but if you are in the market for a new Boss 429 with modern mechanicals, you probably already have one of those in your garage. When it comes to choosing between the two Mustangs, old and new (again, you can probably afford both to be fair), it is a personal choice. Some would value the chance to lay under their classic ‘Stang at weekends, others would forego all the original parts to know that it is ready to go whenever you are. The fact that there are more classic muscle cars hitting the streets, however, has to be a good thing.
Sources: Revology Cars, Ford
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