'63 K-Code 271hp 289 Fairlane

[tom406]

They are pretty cool cars-there's a very nice red/red one that used to be displayed in Floyd Garrett's museum here that's now here in the Tacoma area.

These estimates of a couple hundred built just seem way too low if you look at how many have survived. The following is a quote attributed to Bob Mannel, known as an authority on '62-65 Fairlanes. He published the most complete and exhaustively researched book about small block Fords that you've ever seen, and kept a registry of K code Fairlanes. This is his quote I found from the mid 2000's.

"The 1 of 76 comes from my K-code Registry. But the 76 figure included scrapped vehicles, VIN only (no car), unknown cars, and non-running or poor condition cars. Registries are not intended to document rarity of cars, but people use them for that purpose, unfortunately. As to 1 of 200 estimated vehicles ever produced by Automobile Quarterly, volume 41 number 1 -- grossly inaccurate. I would put the number closer to 1,350. It seems that estimates are always grossly under actual numbers because estimates always sound better. Also inaccurate is that they were first only offered in the Fairlane Sports Coupe. I know of a 4-door sedan made on the first day of HiPo production. Peak horsepower was at 6 grand. And vacuum secondaries opened demand, not just above 3,500 rpms."

I personally think that '63 and '64 Fairlane K code production was over 1000 each year. Remember, they sold around 5000 427 powered full size cars each of those years, so 1000 people buying hipo Fairlanes doesn't seem like a big stretch.