In the Ford empire, it has to have a different engine code from the normal for an engine to be considered a sports variant. Z, L or T code are the VIN letters for the 170, 200 or 250. There was, unbelievably, absolutely no stove "hot" six cylinder American engines in the Mustang from 1964 to 2009. In the 1981 Mercury Capri, there was a reputed 2v or Variable Venturi carb version on the 85 or 94 hp B code engine in mid 1981 with 95 hp, but no evidence that any ever got sold, probably a miss print in a Car and Driver magazine.
With the exception of the year when the Mustang II got only a V6, Ford always had a bigger vee-eight option. No step up options, no small hp gains via carb swaps or exhast changes. There were not even any high compression versions except for a few "Special" municipal Fords which got seperate 3 and 4 exhast ports and high compression heads. In other countries like Australia, there were L1 and L2 and T1 and T2 versions of the 200 and 250 engines, variously with high compression 9.2:1 ratios in the L2 and T2 versions. The 2V Austrailian Falcon 250 got a different engine code.
The Sprints existance was due to non availibility of the 260 and 289 V8 engine combo, and it was a trim based gap filler like the California Special.
(Ford was in total performance mode, and the American 170/200/250 engines were excluded from the Shelby influenced fray of small and big block options. In 1960, Holman Moody had made inroads to growing ballistic triple carb 144 and 170 sixes, but all Ford could see after the Le Mans years was small block supremacy. For a year in 1969, there was a planned 2V or Mechanical injection head for the 250, as the then competitons manager promised a kit along the lines of the Holman Moody Hilbourn system, but it never turned up. Right at that time, as a consequence of Dearborn turning its back on the lightweight six cylinder Stang, the Mustang line grew increasingly out of touch with a market that started buying Capris, Colts, Celicas and Datsun 240Z's. In 1981, Edsel Ford II commented that the Datsun 240 Z was the car Ford should have made. It made one in 1963, the Cougar II, a two place coupe 260V8 glass back.
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And a revised XP63 Cobra II
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The mid engined Mach 2 and Super Cobra were other examples of Fords latent skills. The burgeoning Ghia based De Tomaso offerings were tacit evedience that Ford had shifted its focus to far to the Cobra V8 concept of LDI...Lets Drop In a bigger engine. The doomsday book era of gas crunch scares and the Japanese brought the Dearborn guys back in a screaming halt when a large percentage of the Fox Mustangs ended up using Ford of Europe econo engines, light duty Type B diffs, gearboxes, wheel stud patterns, steering systems and even tires).
In Australia and Argentina, it was a totally different story, sixes got impressive step up options via high compression, and then 2 bbl carb options, but those nations were far more six cylinder focused than the V8 US, and still are today.
Because of Dearborns cold shoulder to in line six performance, FordSix will always be here for us.
