The Boss Hoss was Paul Stefansky's entry for the 1968 drag racing season. The rare notchback Mustang funny car relied on an injected
Ford SOHC for power.
Funny cars with Mustang Notchback body shells are fairly rare, but Paul Stefansky chose a notchback for his Boss Hoss fuel funny car
Last time around I explored Another Mustang Funny Car Mystery, in which I looked at an under construction car that looked suspiciously like Paul Stefansky’s Notch-back Mustang flopper.
Mustang body came from Lee Iacocca
Thanks to input from Daryl Huffman, we now know the car in question belonged to Tom Stanke and that the bodies on both Stanke’s car and the Boss Hoss came from Ford Styling. Ford used fiberglass mockups to demo the Mustang before the actual metal cars were built. According to Huffman (who knows more than a little about 1960s-era Ford and Mercury funny cars) Stefanky purchased the body shell for the Boss Hoss directly from Lee Iacocca.
If you compare this 1968 Detroit Autorama photo of the Boss Hoss with that of Stanke’s car, you will see that while the body shells are similar, the chassis are very different.
The chassis of the Boss Hoss appears to be a Logghe Brothers ladder frame, or at least a similar design. Power comes from an injected Ford SOHC V-8, the same power-plant used by the dominant Mercury Comets of Don Nicholson and Eddie Schartman in 1968.
I don’t know whether Stefansky ever converted the Boss Hoss to a supercharger, as most of his contempories did during the ’68 season. Stefansky did switch to a blown cammer for the sleek fastback Super Stang he campainged in later years.
The Boss Hoss predated zoom headers
Note that Stefansky’s car, like the other fuel cars of the period, lacked up-swept headers. Zoomie headers, designed to increase down force and increase traction, had yet to become popular.
The Boss Hoss has a full roll-cage. The original 1966 Logghe flip-top cars had dragster-style loop roll bars. At some point, NHRA and other sanctioning bodies mandated that funny cars be equipped with full four-point roll cages. Even before the new rules were enacted, however, many builders and competitors adopted the safer rollcage design. Stefansky was prepared with a complete roll cage.
I saw the Boss Hoss run at least a couple of times. His later ride, the Super Stang, was beautiful, swoopy Mustang fastback. I missed the notchback design, however. In a sea of fastback Mustang funny cars, Stefansky’s Boss Hoss always stood out from the herd.
4 thoughts on “Paul Stefansky’s Boss Hoss Mustang Funny Car”
I met Paul Stefansky at the Shell Motorlab, Dearborn Heights, Mi. He was a mechanic there and he overheard my conversation with the write up man. Paul suggested that I come to his house and he would perform what I wanted done there. I went. Upon my arrival, Paul opened his garage door. I saw a 1957 Ford that I had seen several times at Detroit Dragway and many trophies. This began my relationship with Paul.
A few months later, Paul was hard at work on his first Funny Car, Boss Hoss.
Hi Tom. Yes, at least by July of 1968, at the Super Stock Nationals at NYN, the car was supercharged. DD
Ahhh !!! The good old Shell Motorlab on the corner of Joy Rd. and Beech Daly. That was my first job. I dried cars on the car wash line. I think the pay was $1.00 an hour !!! I believe it was the summer of 65 or 66.
I met Paul Stefansky at the Shell Motorlab, Dearborn Heights, Mi. He was a mechanic there and he overheard my conversation with the write up man. Paul suggested that I come to his house and he would perform what I wanted done there. I went. Upon my arrival, Paul opened his garage door. I saw a 1957 Ford that I had seen several times at Detroit Dragway and many trophies. This began my relationship with Paul.
A few months later, Paul was hard at work on his first Funny Car, Boss Hoss.
Hi Tom. Yes, at least by July of 1968, at the Super Stock Nationals at NYN, the car was supercharged. DD
Ahhh !!! The good old Shell Motorlab on the corner of Joy Rd. and Beech Daly. That was my first job. I dried cars on the car wash line. I think the pay was $1.00 an hour !!!
I believe it was the summer of 65 or 66.