Let’s get one thing out of the way: This is the best Mustang ever built. Which makes it one of the best muscle cars ever built, which makes it one of the best cars ever built, period. Which means you should probably go out and buy one, even though it costs $41,000 — a big chunk of change for a Mustang.

For a normal person, the ordinary, 412-hp Mustang GT has absolutely nothing wrong with it. It’s a $30,500 brawler that handles better than anything with a live rear axle has a right to. Best of all, it recalls that awesome time your dad hit up the ‘74 U.S. Grand Prix at Watkins Glen and got lost in the track’s world-famous Bog before drinking his weight in Schlitz and helping a rowdy mob set a Greyhound bus on fire.

OK, maybe your dad didn’t do that. But it would’ve been awesome if he did, right?

The 2012 Mustang Boss 302 offers a similar call-back to the past. It’s based on the Mustang GT, albeit with a razor-sharp, track-oriented suspension; a 7500-rpm (!), 444-hp 5.0-liter V-8; a shorter (3.73:1) limited-slip rear-axle; and various aerodynamic bits aimed at increasing high-speed grip. The front brakes are 14-inch units borrowed from Ford’s 550-hp Shelby GT500. Oh, and there’s a killer, Annie-get-your-bell-bottoms graphics package meant to recall Ford’s 1969–1970 Boss 302 Trans-Am racing special. Ask your dealer nicely, you can get a red ignition key, dubbed TracKey, that unlocks aggressive throttle programming and a blissfully lumpy old-school idle.

One more thing: It has side pipes — exhausts that exit under the rocker panels. Gurgle.

A classy pile of parts does not a great car make, but somehow, that list adds up to magic. The engine is an unstoppable corker, charging to its sky-high redline in one seamless, furious blast. The suspension tuning is spot-on; there is no more neutral or controllable 400-plus-hp car on the market. Gone is the plush body roll of the Mustang GT; absent is the nose-heavy, thick-witted behavior of the $49,500 GT500. Point it at a corner, any corner, and the Boss just inhales the landscape and goes. There are performance cars costing twice this much that don’t ride as well or handle as predictably. Most of them aren’t half as much fun.

Here’s the catch: Only a few thousand Boss 302s will be made. You want one? Get in line behind me. And stay the hell away from the Bog, OK?

WIRED Plucks every red-blooded American heartstring you’ve got. Will shame more expensive iron on street or track. Yet one more sign of Ford’s renaissance.

TIRED Limited run. Brake pedal can grow eerily spongy after track use. Graphics package virtually begs police to arrest you.

The original Boss

2012 Mustang Boss 302 photos by Sam Smith/Wired