| '71 Mach 1 CJ | 13.40/105 | auto | N/A | Sport Car, 1971 |
| '71 Mach 1 SCJ | 13.97/100.22 | auto | N/A | Super Stock, Feb. 1971 |
| '71 Mach 1 SCJ | 14.61/96.8 | auto | N/A | Motor Trend, Jan. 1971 |
'71 Boss 351The amazing thing about the '71 Boss 351 road tests is the middle-block-powered fastback ran as quick as the earlier 428 Cobra Jet Mustangs. Of course, with news already out about the upcoming compression drop for all cars in 1972, the Boss 351's impressive performance was overshadowed by doom and gloom.
It appears the three magazines from Petersen Publishing-Hot Rod, Car Craft, and Sports Car Graphic-were supplied with the same Boss 351 press demonstrator, because the car had been equipped with headers, traction devices, and other tweaks by Bill Stroppe. Sports Car Graphic, which admitted, "We don't push our cars to the precipice for record e.t.'s," reported a 14.7 e.t., while Car Craft thrashed the car to a 13.74. Although we couldn't locate a published Hot Rod test of the Boss 351, Sports Car Graphic reported that its sister magazine "maybe even speed-shifted" the same Boss to a 13.9 quarter-mile.
| 71 Boss 351* | 13.74/104.28 | 4-spd. | 3.91 | Car Craft, March 1971 |
| '71 Boss 351 | 13.80/104 | 4-spd | 3.91 | Hot Car, May 1971 |
| '71 Boss 351* | 13.9/104 | 4-spd. | 3.91 | Hot Rod, N/A |
| '71 Boss 351 | 13.93/100.55 | 4-spd. | 3.91 | Super Stock, March 1971 |
| '71 Boss 351* | 14.7/96.2 | 4-spd. | 3.91 | Sports Car Graphic, March 1971 |
| *Headers |
Then Versus NowFor those of us who grew up with the high-performance Mustangs from 1965-'73, yes, it does hurt to face the fact: The modern crop of muscle Mustangs-the Bullitt, Mach 1, and Cobra-are, for the most part, quicker than our beloved Mustang musclecars. And they do it with the comfort of air conditioning (which you couldn't even get on the Boss Mustangs), great sound systems (Mach 460 with a six-disc CD changer as opposed to an AM/eight-track), tremendous fuel mileage (remember when 14 mpg was considered good?), and they were easy to start (hard to forget those manual choke Holleys).
It didn't take much research to learn that today's high-performance Mustangs out-perform most of yesterday's Mustangs. An '03 Cobra convertible-a heavy ragtop, mind you-ran a 13.12 in a Motor Trend test. That's quicker than any vintage Mustang test we found. The '03 Mach 1 falls right in line with '69-'70 Cobra Jet Mach 1s, and the '01 Bullitt GT out-runs any of the small-blocks from 1965-'70.
Not mentioned below but firmly entrenched into my mindset is the fact that I drove an '03 Mach 1 to a 13.54 e.t. without even thrashing on the car. That's quicker than Hot Rod's "fastest running pure stock in the history of man" test of a '6811/42 Cobra Jet Mustang.
Technology is a wonderful thing.
| '03 Cobra convertible | 13.12/109.58 | 6-spd | 3.55 | Motor Trend |
| '01 Cobra | 13.66/104.97 | 5-spd | 3.27 | Motor Trend |
| '00 Saleen S281 | 13.80/103 | 5-spd | 3.55 | Car & Driver |
| '03 Mach 1 | 13.80/102.5 | 5-spd | 3.55 | Motor Trend |
| '96 Cobra convertible | 13.9.102.1 | 5-spd | 3.27 | Motor Trend |
| '01 Bullitt | 14.07/97.9 | 5-spd | 3.27 | Motor Trend |
| '87 GT 5.0 | 15.13/94.1 | 5-spd | 3.27 | Motor Trend |