Lethal Performance 2012 Boss 302 - From 'Sauce Bauce' to Vortech-blown!
One of our favorite posters we released featuring our Boss 302 and the beautiful Jessica Barton (who happens to be a badass driver herself).
Specialty Ford models are typically from the SVT camp (I mean, they are the Special Vehicle Team...) but one of the most popular special models of the Mustang in the S197 platform is the Boss 302. Ahh yes, that Mustang that came with a special red key. But, we already had a 2011 Mustang GT, why would we need another Coyote? Because Steve Turner said so, former editor of 5.0 Magazine (RIP) and current editor for Racepages magazine.
"While chatting with Jared about the aforementioned cars, he asked what they should do next. Since we were in the midst of our expansive Boss coverage, I whimsically suggested that Lethal pick up a Boss and have a go at it."
- Steve Turner, 5.0 Magazine
He really twisted our arm eh?
"It's all your fault, Steve! ... Seriously, when the Boss was first released, we never really paid too much attention to it. As time went on, it grew on us. The more and more we thought about it, the hype kept on growing. We finally said let's do it, and we went on our search. That poor thing had no idea what we had in store for it as I drove it off the lot. It was time again to completely beat the crap out of yet another new Mustang."
- Jared
Our 2012 Boss was actually the only Lethal car we DIDN'T get from Weikert Ford (Sorry, Philip!). It's also the only Lethal project car not outfitted with a Whipple supercharger (we'll tell you why shortly...). We found the car at a dealership up north at the end of May 2011 and drove it back home. Those few hundred miles were just about all she had before we decided to ride over to Palm Beach International Raceway, who was hosting Formula Drift that weekend. Who is one of the top drivers at that event? Vaughn Gittin, Jr. baby! We let Vaughn take our brand new car out on the drift course to see what he could do.
Check out the video of Vaughn Gittin, Jr. drifting our 2012 Boss 302!
Now that the car was throughly broken in it was time for some go-fast-goodies. While we definitely planned on adding boost, we first wanted to do some testing with basic bolt ons (oh, and some nitrous...). We installed our Lethal Performance Off-Road H-pipe on the car with a JLT Performance cold air intake kit first, all tuned by Lund Racing. Bone stock the car put down 381 rwhp and 343 rwtq. With the bolt ons and tune, the car picked up 30rwhp and 18rtwq, for a total of 411 rwhp and 361rwtq.
Next it was time to hit the giggle gas. This was ALSO Steve Turner's fault, by the way. Someone should really do something about him, haha!
"The basics, such as an intake, tune, and exhaust, are the essentials for Mustang owners, so it's a great starting point. I didn't even think about the nitrous until this crazy editor from 5.0 Mustang & Super Fords magazine suggested it, but it turned out to be a great idea."
- Jared
So, with the insistence of Mr. Turner, we installed a 175 shot from our friends over at Zex and let 'er rip. With the nitrous the car made 590rwhp and 675rwtq, giving peak gains of 270rwhp and 675rwtq. Bravo, Steve, excellent idea! At the time, there was a YouTube channel called Epic Meal Time (ok sidenote: they still make videos!) who made some pretty insane concoctions. One of the main guys on the show was nicknamed the "Sauce Boss" and so it was only fitting that we name our own Boss 302 the 'Sauce Bauce' (yeah, spelled all weird like that; didn't want to infringe on any pesky copywrights, you know...).
Dyno numbers are cool and all, but we also took the Boss out to the track to see what kind of 1/4 mile times she could put down. We became the first Boss 302 to run 10s, with Jeremy Martorella piloting it to a 10.64 @ 124mph, shifting at 7800rpms.
Watch our 10.64 @124mph run at Palm Beach International Raceway!
Now that we'd seen what the car could do on spray, it was time for boost. One of the most prominent features of the Boss 302 is it's coveted intake manifold. We didn't want to part ways with it by throwing a Whipple Supercharger on top, so we turned to our friends over at Vortech Superchargers. We installed one of the JT-trim Vortech superchargers with a competition air inlet upgrade and one of their fuel pump boosters. (We also took this time to install a Driveshaft Shop 1-piece driveshaft)
On the dyno, the Vortech kit made 839rwhp and 631rwtq, an additional 429rwhp and 309 rwtq over just the intake & H-pipe. We then decided to take the car up to Mustang Week in 2012 in Myrtle Beach. It was wicked hot, but Jeremy clicked off a new best of 10.31 @ 132mph.
We sold the car not too long after that to make room for our 2013 Shelby GT500, but it still remains one of our faves! Click here to see what the new owner has done with it!
Want to read more about our Boss 302? Check the links below:
CLICK HERE to read Jared's account of his experience drifting the Boss 302 with Vaughn Gittin, Jr.
CLICK HERE to read about our bolt ons & nitrous install & dyno as told by Steve Turner himself!
CLICK HERE to read about our Vortech supercharger install
Have any questions or want to build your own badass Boss 302? Give us a shout!
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