Classic Rides & Stories : 1970 Boss 302

This college education paid off, big time.

In 1982, when Matt Jennings told his father Chuck he could not sell his 1970 Mustang Boss 302, the then-12-year-old was convincing but it came on one condition: he had to finish college.

Jennings, whose story was told in a Hagerty online post in August 2025, held up his end of the deal and graduated from Valparaiso University in Indiana in 1992.

“At my graduation, Dad didn’t even shake my hand right away. He just gave me the keys to the Boss,” Matt said.

The car needed work though. Around 1973, according to the story, Chuck had pulled the engine out of the Mustang and placed it in his 1962 Ford Falcon wagon dragster. The engine was later pulled out and set aside for repair work.

The car sat unused for a few years until Chuck installed a 289-cubic-inch V8 and put in an automatic transmission to replace the four-speed manual. The car was painted a darker Acapulco Blue and was kept in the family until Chuck removed the engine and put it in storage.

After the family moved to Chicago, they brought the car with them and it sat for about 10 years until Matt claimed it.

“I saved every single nut, bolt, wire and anything else I took out,” Chuck says. “I knew that someday it was going to get restored and kept as a collector car, by me or someone else in the family.”

The car sat for about another decade though until the father and son began working on it in 2018. A few years later, it was completed and joined the family's Ford collection of cars.

The Mustang has 43,000 miles on it. Matt, who lives in Florida, recalls how the car takes him back to his youth whenever he gets behind the wheel.

“The tail broke off the horse badge in the front grille when I was a kid," he said. "There’s still a little rip in the driver’s seat from when dad sat in it with a screwdriver in his back pocket. Every time I drive it, it just takes me back.”

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