"You could still find 260s in Fairlanes, Falcons, Rancheros and Comets in '65
and '66 until they ran out of them."
If this was the case, I don't know how Ford/Mercury marketed them. According
to the aforementioned series of books by Ray Miller(separate tomes for Falcon,
Mustang, Thunderbird - all excellent sources), as well as the factory sales
folders for the 1965 and 1966 models, the 260 certainly was not listed for these
model years.
Leaving out the Thunderbird which didn't use small block Ford motors, the Falcon
of 1965 offered the option of the 289-2V 200hp motor, the 1965 Ranchero and
Sedan Delivery(essentially Falcons) offered the option of the 2V or 4V (225hp)
289, Mustang, post August 1964 offered three different 289's: 2V 200hp, 4V
225hp,
and the famous 'K' version with 271hp. The bigger 1966 Falcon/Ranchero made
due with just the 200hp version of the 289 as an option. 1966 Mustang carried
over all three versions of the 1965 offerings.
I don't have every single piece of Ford marketing literature for the 1960's,
but the only time I remember Ford or Mercury reversing their listed specs was
for the 1968 Cougar which started using the 302 2V for the base engine. Sometime
after the color brochure was distributed, they issued a single sheet correction,
and one of the corrections was that just the base Cougar would now come standard
with a 195hp 289-2V.
The other question is: If Ford really was overstocked with 260's after issuing
289's for production in their own 1965 cars, did they fill subsequent Rootes
orders with the overstock, or really order the Industrial division to make
a separate batch just for Rootes?
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