Welcome to Thursday Trivia where we offer up a historical automotive trivia question and you try and solve it before seeing the answer after the jump. It’s like a history test, with cars!
This week’s question: Who was the Boss after whom the Boss 302 Mustang was named?
If you think you know the boss answer, make the jump and see if you are correct.
Perhaps no greater cross-town rivalry has existed than that of Ford and Chevrolet, America’s two bread and butter car makers. The rivalry was most evident in the late 1960s when the two companies engaged in a pony car war with Ford’s originator of that term, the Mustang, going big-valve head to big-valve head with Chevy’s competitor, the Camaro.
Of course in every engagement you have defectors, and in the case of the battle of Sixties Detroit, one of those was Larry Shinoda, who, while at GM had designed the performance Z28 package for the Camaro. Upon his arrival at Ford’s design studios, one of Shinoda’s first jobs was the creation of a new high-output edition of the Mustang, one that like the Z28 would be a qualifier for the Trans Am racing series.
Shinoda wasn’t recruited by Ford, but was brought along with another GM defector, with whom the designer had worked for years and who Shinoda liked and respected. It was that new Ford executive after whom the Boss in Shinoda’s Boss 302 was named.
From How Stuff Works:

GM executive Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen, who used performance to revive Pontiac, defected to become president of Ford in early 1968. He brought along stylist Larry Shinoda, whose work included the Z28 that had unseated Mustang as ’68 and ’69 Trans Am champ. The Mach 1 was among their first efforts, but the most-special ’69 and ’70 Mustangs drew on Shinoda’s nickname for Knudsen, “boss.”

The original designs for the “Trans Am” Mustang were far more messy than the final Boss 302. Shinoda’s efforts focused on cleaning up the design and developing its iconic fender to hood striping, which is identifiable to this day. His experience with race car design (remember the Z28) drew Shinoda to simplify the Mustang’s details, eliminating the car’s side scoops and adopting a front spoiler and rear wing.
Powering the new ‘Stang was Ford’s stalwart thin-wall small block, in 302 cid form. The engine received big port heads from the 351 Cleveland and the largest 4bbl carb used on any Ford. The Boss 302 was rated at 290-bhp, but that was very conservative. A Hurst-topped 4-speed made all those ponies available to the very live rear axle. It’s hard to think of a car company today that might venerate a leader so much so as to name a model after them. Maybe Tesla perhaps? Could a future electric from that company be called the Elon?
Image: Hemmings