289 "hi-po": 1963 Fairlane 500

Ford's success story of 1962 was the Fairlane - re-invented, re-sized, and priced within reach of hundreds of thousands of new-car buyers... 297,000 new-car buyers, in fact. For 1963, Fairlane wasn't changed much, but there was an important new body style in the line-up - a 2-door hardtop model, complete with the Thunderbird-inspired roof-line that helped propel the Galaxie to success. Buyers could choose the Fairlane 500 "pillarless" with a bench seat or buckets. The latter was dubbed the Sports Coupe, a carry-over moniker from the year before when it was "pillared."

Our 1963 (3) Fairlane 500 was built at Dearborn (F), and it's the bench seat version, (body series 43), powered by the mighty Challenger High Performance 289 V-8 (K), being the 148,116th Ford scheduled to come off Dearborn's line that year. Body style code 65A tells the data plate viewer that it's the Fairlane 500 2-door hardtop with bench seats. Unmistakably Rangoon Red (J), with a red all-vinyl interior (35), its planned build date was May 5, 1963 (05E). A Ford dealer in the Philadelphia Ordering District (23) took the honors of being the delivery point. The 3.89:1 (8) rear end is teamed with a 4-speed manual transmission (5), two items that were de rigueur with the hi-po 289. An original gunslinger!

3F43K248116 is one of 41,641 of body style 65A built for 1963, a number that represents almost 1/7th of Fairlane production, and the third-most popular of the entire line. The hardtop was the choice for buyers who wanted an upscale, slightly sporty car that wouldn't wreak havoc with their budget. Typical options like the Challenger 260 V-8, Ford-O-Matic, and an AM radio pushed the sticker price all the way up to about $2,800. The commonly-seen Fairlane 500 of 1963 was not considered "Plain Jane," not by a long shot. It was the sensible, stylish alternative to a bigger car, with the extra room and comfot that the "compacts" couldn't offer, delivering surprisingly responsive performance at a surprisingly low price. Literally, one could buy two well-equipped Fairlanes for the price of one comparably-equipped Thunderbird. But 3F43K248116 is anything but typical.

The Challenger High Performance 289 V-8 had a hefty price tag ($424.80, or almost 19% of the base price of the car), but with that hefty price tag came a set of rather impressive (and hefty) specs. For starters, how about 271 horsepower (at 6,000 rpm) and 312 lbs-ft of torque (at 3,400 rpm). Then add a 10.5:1 compression ratio teamed with the high-performance solid lifter cam, free-flow exhaust manifolds, and a Holley 4160 (at 480 cfm) atop an aluminum intake. The gold valve covers and gold air cleaner completed the picture. The K-code was not offered on station wagons or with Ford-O-Matic, and, as Ford so aptly stated in its Buyer's digest, it "...is not for the timid-minded." Some experts say that the K-code couldn't outrun the GM and Mopar competition, but none the less, its performance was startling, and nothing short of impressive.

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