'69 Shelby that came new with Boss 302

It is pictured in the new Boss 302 book by Donald Farr (a great book, by the way!)

Farr says one prototype car with that engine was requested by Shelby but then doesn't say why the engine wasn't offered in place or in addition to the other small block in production. It seems like it the high winding small block would have made for a zingier package or by then was the Shelby Mustang too overweight for it for a hotter engine to make much of a differance? Or was the non-offering of the Boss engine in the Shelby another example of Knudsen's revenge on Shelby?
Also did they dislike each other for years or only after Shelby wrote a public letter challenging Knudsen to make available some special part on Chevys that Chevy was claiming was production but wasn't (I forget the part--maybe a transaxle or alloy block? )

Or it could be that, since 1000 Boss 302s had to be made for it to qualify as a production model vehicle, that's the simplest explanation--of Ford had made the same engine available in a Shelby that could have diluted Boss sales enough to cause Ford to fall short of its goal.

 

You are right. The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that auto companies try to discourage employees from buying test parts, or even complete cars for legal reasons, i.e. if the parts fail then they might be liable, or the cars might not meet all the laws since they were just prototypes; and or mules (Chevy got in trouble for this when someone tried to sell some '83 Corvettes at a major car auction. Officially Chevrolet skipped that year Corvette so any 1983 Corvette is a test car not certified for sale).

My question is: why would it need to be disguised? Surely Shelby himself was not going to come back and demand the car back from Ford? Farr even says Shelby left Ford in 1969, so at that point he could probably have cared less what happened to some engineering/marketing proposal.

The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that auto companies try to discourage employees from buying test parts (Toyota drills holes in the parts before they go in the dumpster) , or even try to avoid selling complete cars for legal reasons, i.e. if the parts fail then they might be liable, or the cars might not meet all the laws since they were just prototypes; and or mules (Chevy got in trouble for this when someone tried to sell some '83 Corvettes at a major car auction. Officially Chevrolet skipped that year Corvette so any 1983 Corvette is a test car not certified for sale).

Or else on a more personal level maybe the engineer who got lucky was worried other employees who would have liked to bid on the car would be jealous that he alone succeeded so he downplayed the uniqueness of the car by rebodying it so that he could drive it to work and no one would know it was once Shelby-bodied.
In the one of the new books there's a story on Shinoda's Boss prototype that got sold as a regular car and was only recognized later as the first Boss.

I wonder who recognized the '69 Shelby Boss 302's historical significance and if they got a real deal on the car as a result of buying it "blind" i.e. hoping that it was what is is, a one off prototype. Is the car on display now at a car-related business?

Additional note: I don't have a registry but according to Heasley's article in Mustang Monthly, it's in that tome. Heasley says:" The car carries a Boss and Shelby VIN, 9F02G482244-the G denotes the Boss 302 engine; the consecutive unit numbers beginning with 48 were designated as Shelbys. From the car's inception, it was an executive order, with DSO number 9999. The car is listed in the Shelby American World Registry with its G-code VIN conspicuous among the M-code (351) and R-code (428 Cobra Jet) numbers.

Read more: http://www.mustangmonthly.com/featuredvehicles/mump_0803_1969_gt350_shelby_mustang/viewall.html#ixzz2DMLXj4fZ"