1963 Hotrodding The Ford V8

[all american boy]

This booklet is on the way to us.


It is the 'sister book' to Ford Performance Handbook also 1963.


Funny thing though.This one has the 427 as Fords top performance engine


and Handbook has the 406.


The 406 was only out a year or two and then they came out with 427.


Check out the naming of the engines in booklet.


Falcon 260, Fairlane 289 and Galaxie 427.


That sure lays it out.


Of course that makes most hot rodders want to swap the 289 into the



Falcon right away.


Have seen a few articles saying a 289 Falcon is a 'Challenger'.


Surprised Chrysler could get the Challenger name away from Ford.


Challenger was what Mickey Thompson called his 407 mph record land speed car in '63.


Interesting little booklet.

[rotorwrench]

Shelby started out with the 260 but jumped straight into the 289 as soon as Ford let them out the door. I really liked the 1963.5 Falcon Futura Sprint 2dr hardtops. The only thing I would have done was beef up the body underneath. They were stronger for the V8 but they could have been better. There's not a lot of difference between the first V8 Mustangs and the Falcon Sprint V8 suspension set up. The V8 bodies on the Mustangs had a better torque box set up than those 63.5 Falcon Sprints but they had learned a lot in a year about what not to do.

All the FE engines were good. I like the 390 better than the 427. The 427 is good for higher operation and maintenance bills and is bad to the bone but the humble little 390 is too. The Ford 406 and Mercury 410 were a lot alike. They are a good in between displacement. The 406 had a 4 1/8" bore with the same stroke as the 390 & 427 and the 410 had the same bore as a 390 but the stroke of the 428. It's amazing that a medium block went all the way from a 330 to a 428. It sort of reminds me of the Pontiac V8 of the mid 60s. Available in any size you want.

[slumlord44]

The Handbook only went to the 406 because the 427 didn't come out until mid year when the 63 1/2 Fastbacks came out early fastbacks had the 406.

[all american boy]

The 406 and 427 were halfway Super Stock engines.


Buy the car,do some work on it and then take it to the drag strip.


Read this article on the Chrysler Max Wedge engines and it's a little clearer



and more organized how the Super Stock cars were made.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Wedge


It shows Ford had to play catchup.


I took note of the 427's 11 to 1 compression and said 'Boy.That's high!'.


Check out the 12.5 to 1 and 13.5 of the Max Wedge engines!


Yours truly used to stop buy and see the Max Wedge King of Southern



California and talk to him in the 80's.


Close as I came is he wanted me buy a Max Wedge roller car.No drive train


for $600.I was not interested.


I knew of Max Wedge engines a little.Just that you saw the intakes at the



swap meet for cheap and that was about it.


Hindsight is 20 20.Ouch!


Onward and upward!

[all american boy]

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Took another look through this Hotrodding the Ford V8.


Introduction says it is the companion book for Ford Performance Handbook.


Says to get Handbook to hop up your engine.


This Hotrodding has 289 section for reworking it.They call it the Fairlane 289.


Shows you Shelby modifications.Shelby of Venice California in 1963.


Later on they moved to El Segundo then who knows where.


The thing was they were interested in 289 for their Cobra and sold same



modified parts for extra money.


Something tells me the parts were pricey from Shelby and not really meant


for your garden variety hot rodder.


Hot rodder would just take his parts to local speed shop/machine shop and


have them modded like the article and call it good.


Think Shelby stuff was for sports car racers.Which was very big in '63.


There were road race tracks all over Southern California.


Can't wait to read to read 427 Galaxie motor hop up chapter and see who



they show hopping it up.Holman & Moody?