Ford knew that if it brought back the BOSS 302 moniker, it would have to do it right. That meant a track-ready, naturally aspirated muscle machine that looks and feels like a BOSS. And we’ve got to say, from the looks of it, Ford has gotten the new BOSS 302 right. 444 horsepower from a naturally aspirated 5.0 engine, a stiff track-tuned suspension and aggressive looks have already made this an instant classic.

As of late though, Ford has been sandbagging its horsepower numbers, leaving a number of us wondering aloud; how much horsepower does the 2012 BOSS 302 really make? Inside Line put the 2012 BOSS 302 Laguna Seca Edition to the test, and the results might surprise you; 416 rear-wheel horsepower and 355 ft-lbs of torque. Wow.

If you figure a 15% drivetrain loss, that would put that BOSS 302 Mustang Laguna Seca Edition at around 478 horsepower at the flywheel. That is almost 40 horsepower more than Ford advertises it as, though the peak torque was down to just 355 ft-lbs. Now we’ve seen Inside Line do dyno tests before with what we might call “exaggerated” results, so naturally we are a bit skeptical here.

At the same time, we know Ford put a lot of time and money into making the BOSS a worthy successor to the original. What’s more, the 5.0 liter V8 engine manages to rev all the way up to 7,550 RPM and makes power all the way to redline, and maybe even beyond. That is ridiculous for a big V8 engine like this. Check out the Inside Line page for more details on this new take on a classic muscle machine.