probably didn’t understand at the time, but it was birthing a new era of hot Ford performance in its 428 that would make it a winner in NHRA Super Stock competition. One lone Ford dealer in Providence, Rhode Island, Bob Tasca, who was an avid drag racer, wondered about the potential of Ford’s long-stroke 428 in NHRA Super Stock competition. Ford’s 390 High Performance V-8 for 1967–1968 was decidedly lame; Tasca believed that it was an embarrassment to Ford’s legacy of high-performance race cars. Tasca saw the Mustang’s 390 Hi-Po as nothing more than a Galaxie 390 with a modest cylinder head upgrade, which impressed no one.
Of all the FE Series big-blocks produced, the 390 is most common. This is the 390 High Performance GT V-8 in a 1967 Mustang. Although Ford identified these as 390 High Performance V-8s, they were little more than Galaxie 390s with improved GT heads. They lacked the aggressiveness of the early 1961–1962 390 High Performance V-8. You can make a big difference in the 390 High Performance V-8 with a hot roller cam.
Tasca went to the Ford parts bin, grabbed a handful of 427 parts, and went to work building a high-performance 428 with 427 Low Riser heads and induction, hotter cam, and Holley carburetion. Then he went racing. The results were so impressive that Tasca decided to present the idea to Ford Corporate in Dearborn, Michigan. Tasca’s 1967 Mustang with a high-performance 428 so impressed Ford management that it decided to press this engine into production for midyear 1968. Ford began with 50 standard 1968 Mustang fastbacks built in December of 1967 with the new FE Series 428 Cobra Jet built specifically for NHRA Super Stock drag racing.
The 390 High Performance V-8 didn’t change much for 1968. This one is fitted with Ford’s Thermactor injection pump system (arrows), which infused fresh air into the exhaust ports to reduce emissions. Thermactor parts are very hard to come by these days. Many were removed and thrown away back in the day.
They rolled off the Dearborn, Michigan, assembly line bone stock and were delivered to veteran NHRA Super Stock drag racers who would turn them into stunning performers as a bold threat to drag racers everywhere. In January 1968 at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, California, Ford unveiled these Wimbledon White 1968½ Cobra Jet Mustangs in NHRA Super Stock competition. No one was laughing in the chilly Southern California air. Avid Ford campaigners rolled out their Cobra Jet fastbacks and awed the crowd with lightning-quick pony cars. The key to performance was the 428’s long stroke and a complement of 427 components. Mustang got its respect back.
The production 428 Cobra Jet arrived on April 1, 1968, with a thicker, heavier block and beefy main webs for strength. On top were little more than 427 Medium Riser heads, even though Ford called them Cobra Jet heads. All 1968 Cobra Jet engines were basically the same in Fords, Mercurys, and Shelbys with Ram-Air.
For 1969–1970, there were two FE Series Cobra Jet engines available: Cobra Jet and Super Cobra Jet. The Super Cobra Jet was more an all-out drag racing package with C7AE-B Le Mans rods and a small counterweight to counterbalance additional rod weight. The Super Cobra Jet’s bottom end was electronically dynamically balanced for added measure to minimize destructive vibration. Super Cobra Jet units were also fitted with an external oil cooler and drag race gearing (3.91:1 or 4.30:1).
You can build your own Cobra Jet FE with off-the-shelf parts from the Ford parts bin or the aftermarket and make huge sums of power like Bob Tasca did a half-century ago. A 390 or 428 block can be fitted with a Scat stroker kit to achieve 430 to 450 ci with incredible stroke and the resulting torque. What’s more, your big-cube FE stroker won’t have to rev high to get good time slips because it’s all about torque.
Thunderbolt: NHRA World Beater
Ford went after the rest of Detroit muscle aggressively in NHRA Super Stock competition in the early 1960s with its lightweight 427 Galaxies. Despite Ford’s best efforts, it couldn’t catch General Motors and Chrysler with the lightweight fiberglass-bodied Galaxie super cars. This was when Ford went to work conceiving the smaller, lighter-weight Fairlane coupled with 427 FE power. It had to build at least 100 production 1964 Fairlanes to qualify for NHRA Super Stock competition. Ford built 49 4-speed cars and 51 with automatics.
Ford began to develop the Thunderbolt using a 1963 Fairlane development mule coupled with a 427-ci FE High Riser. Dearborn Steel Tubing built these cars, which rolled off the Dearborn, Michigan, assembly line as “K” serial numbered 289 High Performance intermediates. This has been confirmed with Ford documentation that includes all 100 vehicle identification numbers. These cars were shipped to Dearborn Steel Tubing and surgically modified to accommodate the rotund 427 big-block. Body structures were welded along the seams to provide strength.
Thunderbolt Fairlanes had all of the lightweight fiberglass body components including front bumper, Plexiglas side windows, and Econoline Van bucket seats. These cars were completely gutted including the deletion of radio, heater, window mechanicals, sun visors, and anything else that wasn’t welded to the body. The 1964 Thunderbolt received structural modifications and suspension improvements that made them better able to tolerate the 427’s brutal torque. High-beam headlamps were deleted to make way for cold-air induction.
The Thunderbolt remains the 427 FE’s greatest calling card because it quickly became a clear demonstration of power, less weight, and the ability to trek the quarter-mile in short order. Although replica Thunderbolts are out there, only 100 of these cars were produced as “K” serialized 289 High Performance Fairlanes. They remain among the most highly valued muscle cars of the mid-20th Century.
Easily the most legendary 427 outside of Le Mans was Ford’s limited-production lightweight 1964 Thunderbolt Fairlane sedan. The 427 Thunderbolt Fairlane stood drag racing on its ear when these beasts rolled into the staging lanes of dragstrips from coast to coast.
FT Series
The FE Series big-block has a tougher fraternal twin brother known as the FT big-block, which is a heavy-duty mill engineered for medium- and heavy-duty truck use. Displacing 330, 359, 360, 389, and 391, the FT was the definitive low-revving workhorse. The beauty of the FT is its interchangeability with the FE, including its steel crankshaft and heavy-duty block with thicker main webs and cylinder walls. The downside to the FT block is the weight penalty. Blocks and cranks are heavier.
The 428 FE big-block, introduced in 1966 in the 7-Liter Galaxies, found its way into the 1967 Shelby GT500. Not all 1967 Shelbys had the 428-8V. Some had dealer-installed 427-8Vs.
Another 1967 Shelby GT500 with a 428-8V and black wrinkled Cobra Le Mans valvecovers.
The 335-horse 428 Cobra Jet FE was introduced on April 1, 1968, with Ram-Air, which became optional in 1969–1970. The Cobra Jet gave the Mustang a renewed performance image in the wake of the rather lame 325-horse 390 High Performance V-8 in 1967.
The MEL
The MEL (Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln) big-block, produced from 1958 to 1967,
