One Of Nine None

Ford never built a 1971 Boss 429 convertible, but Kirt Fryer drives one.

- Jerry Heasley

What kind of crazy person pulls the super-rare 429 Cobra Jet big-block out of a 1971 Mustang convertible, and installs a Boss 429? “I’m not sure because I was not that person,” Kirt Fryer says. Kirt does own the car, which was getting loads of attention at the Mid-America Ford & Shelby Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mustang people had to realize this 1971 model was a modified, especially with eight Hilborn fuel-injection stacks on top of the engine, the wild interior with exotic carbon fiber, and 17-inch American Racing wheels. Fryer is a Tulsa area local who is well known in the Mustang world as a connoisseur of performance 1971-1973 Mustangs. That explains why he can quickly spout off production figures for Ford’s last model year of the big-block Mustang convertible. Ford built nine of them with the four-speed transmission and 23 with the automatic—for a total of 32. Perhaps this is why Fryer just couldn’t pass up this 1971 model, one of the nine four-speed cars, in a trade with another 1971-1973 guru and collector, Mickey Grafia, of Louisiana.

Both men knew the provenance. Drew Alcazar, today of Russo & Steele Collector Automobile Auctions, but formerly the owner of Concours Restorations in Rancho Cucamonga, California, had found and done a ground-up restoration of this Mustang rarity many years ago.