There's an RPO in my driveway

[Moby Vic]

Originally Posted by jaydee

I'm no guru but my research says the RPO was a 4V 351 that got extractors, heat shield and the 780 Holley with choke. Now they may or may not have got an 8 grand tacho and a winged sump, well this one has both of these items. Some mags say this is just a furfee, I don't know, I am sure there are others out there more versed than me on the subject.

I'm sure this isn't the best source, but it's all I have! It's from the booklet that came with my Classic Carlectables RPO83 sedan diecast:

The biggest change on the RPO83 to the normal GT was the fitting of a huge 780cfm (cubic feet per minute) four barrel Holley carburettor and (hidden away under the V-banks) fabricated exhaust extractors. These added 30–40bhp to the existing 300bhp for much improved performance. Other changes included a modified sump with additional baffles and a manual choke. They used most of the bolt-on engine components intended for the Phase IV GT-HO—the "Supercar" killed by political and public pressure before it went into production in 1972.

The RPO83 was indistinguishable externally from the normal GTs, which was a clear indication that Ford was anxious to avoid any hint of the "Supercar" label being attached to the new model. Inside the only way you could pick the GT Special was by the manual choke.

The sump on my diecast doesn't have a T-shape. (Of course I can't check the internal baffling.)

[jaydee]

Cheers Moby. thats the same info I had from an article they did in Australian Muscle Car magazine, which is the bible.

[Bossxr8]

The carbs, extractors and manual choke were supposed to be fitted to every RPO.

It was stuff like the winged sump that, as far as I know, was only fitted to some. It was a bit hit and miss, some got them, others didn't.

Seems to make sense that not all RPO's got the winged sump as Ford had 250 of them to get rid of, and there were a heap of other vehicles that were found to have them, Fairlanes, F100's etc. So they couldn't have used them all on the RPO's cause that would have exhausted their entire stock of them leftover from the Ph4.