YouTuber Discovers Why People Love the Second Gen Mustang Boss 302
That Dude In Blue had never driven a Mustang Boss 302, but he comes away seriously impressed afterward.
Most every Ford Mustang fan worth their salt knows what a Boss 302 is. The legendary first-gen model was created out of a desire by the Blue Oval to go Trans Am racing and fight the Chevrolet Camaro both on the race track and city streets. The Mustang Boss 302 went on to become one of the most iconic models in the illustrious pony car’s history, one that spawned a second-gen revival for the 2012 and 2013 model years.
While it made a lot of noise when it arrived early in the previous decade, the second-gen Mustang Boss 302 isn’t a terribly common sight today, and many folks have never even driven one. That shockingly includes long-time Mustang owner and YouTuber David Patterson – otherwise known as That Dude in Blue – who reviews cars on virtually a daily basis. However, Patterson was recently able to right that wrong, and quickly discovered why people love these cars so much.
“The Mustang Boss 302 is an interesting one,” Patterson says. “It’s considered the best-handling live axle Mustang ever created, which is a weird thing to say out loud.” Patterson also makes an interesting connection between the Boss 302 and the modern-day Shelby GT350 and Mach 1, which he believed were influenced by that model.
After going over the details of the car, Patterson gets into the meat of his driving experience. “From 40, there’s so much RPM that you can just chill in third and have the time of your life,” he notes. He points out that while the GT500 of this era was all about power and featured “gearing so long that it’s really hard to enjoy on the street,” that isn’t the case here at all.
“This really is different,” Patterson says. “It is a very fun car for the era. You can see why people really enjoyed this thing because it does feel way more sorted out than the normal GT. You still get that live axle yaw that you have to account for.”
Patterson admits that the second-gen Mustang Boss 302 is no S550 GT350, but that’s not really a fair comparison anyway. After all, it’s nearly a decade old, utilizing an older chassis that’s a far cry from the S550’s. But even after several years, the Boss 302 is still a fun ride that’s quite enjoyable on both the street and track, which is something that not too many cars can claim.
Join the Mustang Source Forums now!
