When thinking of Australia, it's usually sunny beaches, kanga-roos, and tall glasses of Foster's that spring to mind. Now the Land Down Under is becoming world renowned as the native habitat of a rare new beast, the Boss 290.
Australia's musclecar history is highly celebrated at a local level. Cars such as the hot hatch Holden Torana A9X and the GTHO Ford Falcon series have aged in spectacular fashion, morphing into local icons as the years wear on. While it's been Holden dominating the modern performance scene in local times, the release of the Boss 290-powered Ford Performance Vehicles GT-P has raised the bar. By creating not only a potent powerplant, but a complete package, the new GT-P is not a musclecar, it's a super car. [Ford Performance Vehicles is the Aussie-equivalent of the U.S. Ford Special Vehicle Team.--Ed.]
From an American perspective, the most fascinating aspect of the FPV GT-P is the Boss 290 powerplant. The name Boss 290 is a throwback to the Boss 302, the special engine fitted into the '69-'70 Mustang. The 290 part of the modern moniker refers to the standard power output of 290 kilowatts, converted to American horsepower, which is 388 ponies.
In basic terms, the Boss 290 is a hybrid version of the American Ford powerplants. FPV has taken the best parts of each V-8 engine com-mercially available in the United States and put them together into one tarmac-chewing weapon. Obviously, there's more to it than that, but this seemingly forms Ford Australia's basic design principle. The motors are hand-constructed in Campbellfield, Victoria, and are currently the only production V-8s built in the Land Down Under.
Measuring 5.4 liters (330 ci), the Boss 290 block is of cast-iron construction. The forged-steel crankshafts undergo a special balancing process before installation, supposedly reducing the stress on the internals. As the engines are handbuilt, fastidious attention is directed at the general engineering of the bottom end compo-nents and their suitability to one another. The pistons are Australian made, and determine a compression ratio of 10.5:1.
The way in which the Aussie 5.4L V-8 differs from those available on a commercial basis in the United States is largely due to the cylinder heads. The 290's heads were originally based on the '00 SVT Cobra R units, using double overhead camshafts per bank. There are some small improvements over the Cobra design, mainly involving the inlet porting. Matched with four valves for each cylinder, the twin-cam setup offers an impressive balance between torque and revs. Subtle tweaks such as hollow camshafts contribute to the 290's rapid throttle response--impressive for a power plant of its size.