The words Boss and Mustang are often seen together throughout the history of Ford, and sometimes the word Cobra lurks nearby, but how often do you see the word King appear too?

To call a car the Ford King Cobra Boss is a helluva lotta bigging oneself up, but the car did exist, and examples are still out there somewhere.

Built as a prototype in 1970 and sold to Bud Moore Racing in 1971 there were two such examples of this fantastic low-nosed version of the less streamlined standard Torino, and they were clearly meant for business. No less than 429 cubic inches of V8 provided 700bhp – 200 more than the Boss Mustang – to make sure its bite lived up to its bark.

With estimated prices now in excess of $500,000 a piece and the red version recently appearing on ebay with a starting bid of that amount, I hope that they’ll both be given the care they deserve. Or thrashed around ovals, as they were designed to do. Either way, it’s nice to know these aren’t going to be rotting in a barn somehere.