No Mustang in Australian motor racing folklore is bigger, badder and more fearsome than Alan Moffat’s 1969 Trans-Am beast. The Boss 302-powered weapon is considered by many to be the greatest touring car raced Down Under. During their racing career together from 1969 to 1974, Moffat and the Boss notched up 101 race victories from 151 starts, yet the duo never won an Australian Touring Car Championship title.

Now, the car and the man it is synonymous with are the subject of a stunning new hardcover book, The Boss: The Inside Story of Allan Moffat and his Trans-Am Mustang, by long-time motorsport journalist and historian, David Hassall. The Street Machine team worked alongside David for a time, and were lucky to have him work with Kevin Bartlett on the latter’s final columns for the mag.

David has been writing about motorsport since 1971, and, after a near-fatal brush with Peter Janson’s rallycross Torana at Calder Park, went on to a stellar career that included stints as editor of Auto Action and as the founding editor of Australian Motor Racing & Motorsport News. David’s previous books include The Peter Brock Story, Elfin: The Spirt of Speed, and Holden: the Final Chapter.

The new 450-page book was a five-year labour of love for David, which included extensive interviews with Moffat. All the major players in the car’s extraordinary race career provide first-hand accounts, most for the first time, bringing a richness to the iconic car and driver’s brilliant and often controversial story.

The large-format book uncovers the technical secrets that made the Trans-Am Mustang the most advanced racing sedan of its time, as revealed by engineer Lee Dykstra, who was responsible for the Trans-Am Mustang’s design and construction at Kar-Kraft.

More than two dozen people were interviewed exclusively for the book, including Don Gibb, who organised the groundbreaking Coca-Cola sponsorship, Coke executive David Maxwell, who did the deal, and hard-working AMR mechanics Barry Nelson, Peter Thorn, Ian Lees, John Myers, Lou Mallia and Ray Cutchie.

The Boss also includes chapters outlining Moffat’s rise to fame in Australia and America, revealing in previously unreported detail his early career, peppered with Allan’s own candid recollections.

A race-by-race account of the Mustang’s six-year career from its first race in 1969 to its last in 1975 sets straight the car’s magnificent record.

The imagery in the book is also stunning, with over 600 shots, many previously unpublished.

Pre-orders now available

The Boss: The Inside Story of Allan Moffat and his Trans-Am Mustang is available in two editions (the Platinum edition is limited to just 302 in total and includes the Mustang’s 16-page CAMS logbook) for pre-order in time for Christmas here.