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Have read that the 1968 Mustang had the 427 FE engine as an option in the first half of the model year, before Ford brought out the 428 CJ. Has any enthusiast magazine ever found a 427 Mustang?
Have read that the 1968 Mustang had the 427 FE engine as an option in the first half of the model year, before Ford brought out the 428 CJ. Has any enthusiast magazine ever found a 427 Mustang?
According to Kevin Marti "The Marti Report" no "W" code Mustangs were ever built and sold to the public. Supposedly the 427 was listed in the sales literature and a maintenance schedule for the 427 was in the manual in '68, or so I have read. Now some say Bob Tasca of Tasca Ford could get cars special ordered from the factory (kind of like COPO in GM) and he "MAY" have ordered a special built 427 factory Mustang but it never got the "W" code. I have also read that Ford did manufacture a few as test platforms, but they never went to market. Imagine if one ever surfaced. Just think of the money it would go for. Maybe Tasca has one hidden away and it will be his grand kids - grand kids retirement nest egg Good topic!
According to Kevin Marti "The Marti Report" no "W" code Mustangs were ever built and sold to the public. Supposedly the 427 was listed in the sales literature and a maintenance schedule for the 427 was in the manual in '68, or so I have read. Now some say Bob Tasca of Tasca Ford could get cars special ordered from the factory (kind of like COPO in GM) and he "MAY" have ordered a special built 427 factory Mustang but it never got the "W" code. I have also read that Ford did manufacture a few as test platforms, but they never went to market. Imagine if one ever surfaced. Just think of the money it would go for. Maybe Tasca has one hidden away and it will be his grand kids - grand kids retirement nest egg Good topic!
Bob Tasca would also build cars from Ford's parts bin. He's the first one to put a 428 in a Mustang and got Ford interested in building them at the factory. That's where the CJ cars came from. It was his success in drag racing one that piqued Ford's interest.
The 427 was the biggest engine available through the first half of the '68 model year (or so I thought). Then Ford introduced the 428 CJ at the halfway point, and the rest is history.
The 427 was the biggest engine available through the first half of the '68 model year (or so I thought). Then Ford introduced the 428 CJ at the halfway point, and the rest is history.
Yes, but the mystery remains. Did Ford ever "OFFICIALLY" recognize building a W code 427 Mustang?
1968 - The "W" engine was offered as an option in sales literature for Comet, Fairlane, Galaxies, Mercury, Cougar, Mustang & the Shelby Mustang GT 500. The W code 427 was the standard engine in the 1968 Mercury Cougar GT/E. In mid year, the W code was replaced in production by the 428 CJ. No other examples of this engine actually being installed have been found.
This engine, the infamous 427, was featured as an option on many cars such as the Shelby Mustangs in 1967 and 1968, but no examples have been located from the factory. The engine was dealer installed.
Looks like, as folks were saying, none were ever factory built. Those that do exist from the Shelby's were all non-factory installs. There are also at least a couple known dealer installed 427's into 1968 Mustangs from Holman Moody and perhaps Tasca, but none of them have the "W" VIN code. It seems the "hope" of finding one basically lies with finding a test mule car that had one. However, a test mule wouldn't exactly be the same as a "factory install" and also most likely wouldn't have the "W" VIN, instead carrying a "S" VIN as it would have most likely started out as a 390 that then got the engine swapped. Even if one was found, proving provenance would be next to impossible, since Ford says there were never any built with that VIN code.
I think what keeps the rumor alive is that it was listed as an option and there were maintenance schedules for it. On top of that, there were "W" code 427's produced in the Mustang plants. They were called Mercury Cougar GTE's and since the Cougar was pretty much an exact twin of the Mustang, I think it keeps the rumors alive.
This reminds me of the supposedly true story of the 4 1969 Trans Am convertibles that were built. The story goes that 3 were known, and the 4th was found in a yard, in not too horrible shape, so was fished out and restored.
I have never seen a 427 powered Mustang, in real life or in any magazine articles, and given that I have been looking at cars and car rags since the early 70's, if they existed, I think I would have seen something. Excepting of course the engine swap cars that Goat refers to.
One would have to console himself with a good 428 CJ. Which is not a bad consolation prize at all, really...
I grew up in the Bay Area of Northern California. My first car was an orange 65" Mustang 289 Hipo. Later on, I owned AC Cobra CSX 2083, red 289 w/4 webers. I sold it in 1989 for $165K. When I was young, all my friends were Ford addicts. I stilll am. In the 70's I had a friend Layne Statner who owned a Black 69' Mach-1 with a 428 SCJ. It had "Diablo Valley Speed and Custom" on one quarter panel. Layn knew everything about the Mustangs from 69-70. He once told me that there were 6-7 R code Mustangs that came with a 427 FE. They were either black or red. All had red factory harnesses and and built in roll-bars.
(Layn's 428 SCJ came with a factory roll bar as well). There was something about the gearing on the 427's but I can't remember what the specifics were. He always talked about a friend who had a red one. There were only a few, and they came from the factory. I always wonder why nobody ever talks about them. This is not a fantasy, they were/are real. No BS. 6-7 427 FEs. Tom
Location: Butler County Ohio and Winters in Florida
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I have not, I think I have been on the prowl for about 35 years here in Tampa Bay, always on the Look Out
for Muscle Cars.
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Good topic!
69 Mustang w/427 FE
