1/9/2024 0 Comments 1963 ford falcon futura 260 v8![]() ![]() New to the Fairlane in 1962, it would be the basis of not only the Falcon Sprint, but highly modifi ed versions also powered the Ford GT prototypes in their fi rst attempt at Le Mans in ’63 and the revolutionary Lotus-Ford Indy 500 cars that almost won that year. The key to transforming the Falcon into the Sprint was Ford’s 260-ci V8. Comparatively small yet spacious enough for four adults and their paraphernalia, it’s a nearly-ideal specialty vehicle.”Ĭar and Driver later tested a production Sprint convertible with a 4-speed and saw “0-to-60 mph in less than 11 seconds consistently, and quarter-mile times were right in the high seventeens and low eighteens.” Pretty good for a pre-muscle car in 1963. They wrote: “With the appealing performance offered by the Fairlane V8 and the luxurious appointments of the Futura body style, the car becomes an aesthetically satisfying entity. “The Falcon Sprint, brilliantly designed to bring a new level of Rally-proven V8 performance to the compact field” modestly proclaimed a full-page ad in the April 5, 1963, issue of Life magazine.įord had hinted at the direction it was going to take when it allowed Car Life magazine to test an upscale Falcon Futura prototype, powered by the 260-ci V8 out of the mid-sized Fairlane, at Ford’s Romeo proving ground in the fall of 1962. ![]() The introduction coincided with the Sprint’s Monte Carlo exploits. The turbocharged Corvair Monza Spyder and Oldsmobile F-85 Jetfi re started it in 1962, and Ford jumped in with the introduction of the Sprint in February 1963. While the concept of an American-made compact car had been around for a few years, the concept of a performance compact was new. Ford was busy moving its “Total Performance” message beyond stock car and drag racing, and the new Falcon Sprint in the showrooms and the Holman-Moody-prepared cars in the Monte Carlo Rally were a big part of that program. What was Ford’s popular-but-dull family-mover doing in the famous Monte Carlo Rally? Winning, actually - eight Falcons started, eight fi nished, with Ljungfeldt earning a class victory, setting some records along the way. “We got a clue when we drove the new 164-hp Falcon Sprint V8 with 4-speed stick… More of the message came through as we listened to eyewitness reports of Swedish rally driver Bo Ljungfeldt’s record-breaking drives over Alpine black ice in the special sections of the Monte Carlo Rally at the wheel of the more powerful 235-hp Falcon V8.” “The pussy cat is now a tiger.” That’s what Jim Whipple, writing in the June 1963 issue of Popular Mechanics, said of the 1963 Ford Falcon Sprint. This 1963 Ford Falcon Sprint convertible, Lot 50.2, sold for $30,800, including buyer’s premium, at the Barrett-Jackson Auction at Scottsdale, AZ, on January 15, 2012.
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