14 MUSTANGMONTHLY.COM
Reggie Verret still
has the 1970 Boss
302 he bought new,
and he won’t sell it—
no matter whatRARE FINDS
QReggie Verret is keeping the 1970 Boss 302 he ordered brand new from Terry Bone Motors in
his hometown of Homer, Louisiana, right after he went to the service in October of 1969.While stationed there, not knowing
whether he was going to Vietnam or
not, Reggie recalled he and two of his
buddies enjoyed a weekend pass.
He says, “You could go 150-mile
radius without getting into trouble.
We ended up in Baton Rouge, which
is 600 or 700 miles from the post.”
In a futile rush to get back to the bar-
racks on time, Reggie was doing about
130 mph between Houston and San
Antonio, when he “saw shiny metal on
the other side of the highway.” Reggie
slowed down to 60 mph, but it was too
late. A state trooper, “a big fella with
a cigar in his mouth,” pulled him over
and wrote a ticket for 90 mph, a break
for the soldiers.
Reggie got back to the post and one
of his buddies was covering for him,HILE WE WERE IN BATON
ROUGE, LOUISIANA, TO COVER
THE MUSTANGS CONSUMED
BY TREES (mustang-360.com/
features/1904-ponys-in-the-trees),
Thad Landaiche took us to see a 1970
Boss 302 that he had noticed in the
backyard of the car’s original owner,
Vietnam veteran Reginald “Reggie”
Verret. Thad told us how he had
knocked on Reggie’s door, hoping
he might make a deal. Like the rest
of us, Thad is always looking for a
buyable barn find, especially from an
original owner.
Unfortunately, the car wasn’t for
sale. In fact, Reggie showed us a foun-
dation for a garage he was planning
to build where he could restore this
car. (Recent floods had thwarted this
effort.) He was happy to show us his
1970 Boss 302 and tell us what it was
like to buy one brand new.
He says, “I went in the service in
October of 1969. I saw the Boss 302,
yellow, like mine, on the cover of
MotorTrend.” Reggie had to be refer-
ring to the famous March 1969 issue
with a full-bleed rear photo of a Bright
Yellow 1969 Boss 302. This striking
cover probably inspired other buyersto not just buy a Boss 302, but to get
one in this color, which proved to be
the most popular for 1969 (649 of
1,628) and 1970 (1,454 of 7,014).
Reggie continues, “I got drafted,
and while I was in the service, we or-
dered the Boss 302. It came, and I was
in the barracks when my wife and my
homeboy came up to Fort Polk [near
Leesville, Louisiana] to bring the car.”
Reggie had been telling all the guys in
the barracks that he had a car just like
the one on the cover of MotorTrend,
but they didn’t believe him. “I was in-
side when a couple of guys ran into
the barracks to tell me a lady and
somebody else were in a Boss 302
just like the one I said I had. I went
outside and had to give everybody in
the barracks, which was almost 100
guys, a ride in the car.”
Reggie was reliving this moment.
We could understand why he still had
the car, even though it was in his back-
yard under a cover that Thad helped
him remove for us to see. A huge fiber-
glass Corvette L88 hoodscoop was a big
surprise. “Somebody stole the louvers
off the back window,” Reggie says.
The ’70 Boss appeared to have
seen plenty of hot-rodding. The
front wheelwells had been radiused
for larger tires. Verret finished basic
training and went to Fort Sam Hous-
ton in San Antonio to train as a medic.Jerry Heasley TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHY
QReggie parked the Boss about 20 years ago. The car still
wears the marks of its street racing and drag racing days.