Forgotten ‘Boss 351’ V10 Mustang Prototype
With a one-off, 351 cubic inch aluminum DOHC V10, it was faster than the Terminator – but we never got to drive it.
Back in 2002, Ford was hard at work on the Mustang. A decade prior, they had been scrambling to develop a quick-fix replacement for the planned front wheel drive Mustang that eventually became the Probe.
Ten years later, Ford engineers were working on the S197 to replace the New Edge Mustang. The Special Vehicle Team was also hard at work sending the New Edge out with a bang in the form of the Terminator.
However, there was another project in the works at that time that’s largely been forgotten. A top-secret skunk works within Ford was hard at work developing a successor to the legendary Boss 351. However, this time, there would be two more cylinders added to the equation.
According to Rare Cars on YouTube, this monster V10 wasn’t merely the warmed-over Triton found in the Super Duty trucks. Instead, it was based on the aluminum DOHC Modular V8 found in the SVT Cobra and Mach 1.
Built in Secret
Since the engineering budget was pretty strained by other projects, this was essentially completed after hours as a passion project. The cams and crank were custom billet items, but the heads and block were more or less modified from cut-and-spliced 2000 Cobra R bits.
The engine electronics are also a hodgepodge of existing parts. Neither the existing DOHC V8 or Triton V10 ECUs could run the new DOHC V10. Unfortunately, a new ECU was out of the budget. Instead, engineers figured out how to make it work with a pair of the aforementioned Triton ECUs, with each running an individual bank of cylinders.
The result was 426 horsepower at 6,500 RPM and 400 lb/ft at 5,000 RPM. Those were respectable numbers for a naturally-aspirated engine in the early 2000s. With further development and forced induction, who knows where the project could have ended up.
Once complete, the new V10 was stuffed into an old Cobra R development mule and presented to management. Not much is known about how the car handled, but with Cobra R underpinnings, it probably did fine, even with some extra weight up front.
What we do know is that the V10 Cobra ran 11s in the quarter. That’s pretty impressive for a hodgepodge of parts put together with next to no money at all. In fact, it was faster than the Terminator.
Ford execs were quite impressed. In fact, they even commissioned a larger-displacement V10 to be built. For reasons unknown, however, the project never bore fruit beyond this initial prototype. Oh, what could have been.
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