It seems very interesting that the 289 was available (at least to Ford) in
the 1963 model year, yet Rootes did not use the 289 until their 1967 model
year. To my knowledge the 260 stopped being used after the 1964 model year
(a few 1964-1/2 Mustangs were built with 260's supposedly to exhaust the
existing supply). I have Ray Miller's definitive book "Falcon" and he
indicates that in the 1965 model year only the 289 was available.
The 1965 Falcon and the 1965 Tiger were introduced at about the same time
and in their line up (Ford's) the 289 was the only small block V-8 Ford
offered. So, that leaves one to ponder why the 260 was used by Rootes two
years beyond Ford's production car use. And for that matter why they didn't
opt to, or were allowed to use the 289 in their race cars.
While there has been much reasonable speculation two things remain clear.
The 289 had already been in production through two (some may say one and a
half) model years before the first Tigers were sold. And while Ford had
ceased using the 260, Rootes used the 260 for two additional model years
after Ford had stopped.
I think the 1966 model Tigers with 260's are the "head scratcher." But
anyway, it all makes for good Tiger chat and I always glean something from
the discussions.
Tom Witt ("Monday morning quarterbacking" the 260/289 issue)
Subject: Re: [Tigers] More cubes for Tiger
> It's too easy to speculate about all of this. We don't know the
> correct answers and apparently no one asked the people who do know for a
> first hand account.
>
> According to Bob Mannel's book:
> The 289 was first cast in Dec 1962; this is part of the 1963 Ford model
> year
> The Fairlane 289 HiPo was introduced in Dec 1962
>
> I believe both of these engines were still in the development stage;
> some of the internal parts were not up to racing standards. I believe it
> took most of the next year to sort things out but it is not totally clear
> when these improvements actually happened.
>
> I also believe that FoMoCo was calling the shots about who got which
> engine and when. Ford was supporting multiple racing teams including
> Shelby American and Ford carried a very big stick. Ford wanted to
> dominate
> at the race track.
>
> Ron Fraser
>
> -----Original Message-----
> On Behalf Of rande
> Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 7:13 AM
> Subject: [Tigers] More cubes for Tiger
>
>
> Shelby gets blamed for a few things, rightly or wrongly, concerning the
> Tiger race car performance, but I think he's probably in the clear
> concerning why Rootes decided to buy 260's.
>
> My hunch is that Ford made them a compelling offer for the 260, so that
> Ford
> could spread out production costs before switching entirely over to the
> 289.
> As far as availability, you could have a 1963 Ford Galaxie with a C motor
> (289-2V), so it's not that they weren't making them in 1964. The K motor
> (289-4V 271hp) wasn't available in production for Mustang until the Fall
> 1964, and it probably would have tipped the cost of a Tiger very close to
> Corvette(I remember a close-out 1964 Sting Ray coupe in a showroom for
> $3500). And finally, as Michael King mentioned, there was the
> dealer-available option,over the counter or dealer-installed of 245hp if
> 164hp didn't do enough for an owner.
>
> Also, in a couple of books written about early Cobra's, there was mention
> of
> Cobra 260 owners bringing their cars back to Ol'Shel to swap for 289's. I
> wonder how many Tiger owners thought to do the same thing when they
> learned
> what Cobra owners were doing?
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