72 MUSTANGMONTHLY.COM
QOnce Bill applied his touches to the Mustang, this was the end result.
The Mustang had the look, performance, and attitude of a street killer.HEN BILL LASATER WENT TO
LOOK AT A 1969 MACH 1 IN 1981,
he had visions of what it would be like
tearing around the streets of Eldon,
Illinois, and tackling the quarter-
mile at nearby Mid America Raceway
(Wentzville, Missouri) and Kansas
City International Raceway (Kansas
City, Missouri). Bill had been no
stranger to performance cars, having
owned a myriad of Fords, including a
built 1966 Fairlane XL with a 390, a
1956 Ford two-door sedan, a handful
of Rancheros, a 1961 Thunderbird,
and a pair of 1971 Mopars (Road
Runner and Charger).
Eldon had a solid performance
scene with a group calling themselves
the Eliminators Street Racers in town,
and Bill was in dire need of a car that
would make its mark in the club. He
spotted a 1969 Mach 1 at a local gas
station and stopped in to chat with
the owner. He expressed interest in
potentially buying the car if it was
for sale, but at the time it wasn’t. Bill
handed off his phone number in hopes
that one day it would be, and lo and
behold, his phone rang a few months
later. When Bill arrived to look over
the car, he knew that he was staring
at the blueprint for bringing that goalto fruition. At $1,500, the car was too
good of a deal to pass up.
Interestingly though, while ex-
amining the car another odd thought
came into his head. He noticed that
there was a spot in the trunk to mount
a battery, and under the hood those
shock towers looked familiar. The car
showed signs of a previous bad wreck
that had been cheaply repaired. Could
he just have accidentally stumbled
upon a rare Boss 429?
After getting the car home Bill dug
into the Mustang, and his suspicions
were confirmed while building the
car for racing. On the fender apron
was the original VIN stamped into
the fender apron showing the familiar
“Z” in the fifth position. As cool as
that was, this was still the early 1980s,
and the Boss 429 rage that would
develop less than a decade later wasn’t
in swing yet. So, Bill pushed on with
building himself a fast Mustang.The Crimson Rose
Wearing Candyapple Red paint,
Bill began thinking of names for his
new Mustang. His old Fairlane ran
under the nickname Grape Ape (guess
the color?), so it only seemed natural
to reference the color in the name—it
became Crimson. Needing a touch
more for the moniker, Bill added his
mother’s name (Rosemary) to comeup with Crimson Rose. With a name
intact, it was time to build the car.
Bill settled on using a 428 SCJ
engine he had, mating it to a C6 and
adding a set of stump-pulling 4.57s
out back. The interior remained
virtually untouched—still wearing its
original black attire. Crimson Rose
was written on the rear quarter-panel
in gold paint with a black outline. To
top off the look, Bill added a Cougar
Eliminator hoodscoop.
After almost a decade of racing
the car, Bill found himself in the
crosshairs of what nearly 50 percent
of married couples end up going
through—getting a divorce. And like
similar horror stories that have the big
“D” involved, some things must
go. Unfortunately, Bill had to unload
the Mustang.
The silver lining in it, though, was
it was the early 1990s, and Boss 429
popularity was beginning to apex in
what would be one of many spikes
in value for these cars. Bill sold the
car, noting its Boss 429 heritage, to a
reseller in Indiana. After a few years
he reconnected with the reseller, who
noted it took a while to sell the Boss- The new owner, he was told, was
a doctor living in Illinois. Bill success-
fully contacted the new owner—who
was uninterested in connecting with
him regarding the car.
Unmasking the
Crimson RoseMISSING MUSTANGS TEXT Wes Eisenschenk • PHOTOGRAPHY Courtesy of Bill Lasater