| The "FE" term seems to have first shown up in published Ford literature in 1970, a year which coincides with the birth of the 351 Cleveland engine family.
I suspect Ford marketing was dealing with a confused public, as up to this point no one seems to have identified clear-cut names for any of the engine families, having settled on things like "Small-6", "Big-6", "Small V-8", "Ford-Mercury Big V8", "Mercury-Lincoln Big V8", and Ford-Mercury-Lincoln Big V8" to differentiate the families.
The addition of the Cleveland family seems to have created interest inside Ford marketing to reorganize engine identification using technically founded and easy-to-describe "family" designations.
In Ford's 1970 performance parts catalog Muscle Parts Story Supplement #1, which was the follow up to the 1969 Muscle Parts catalog (with the psychedellic bumpersticker), they introduced to the public the formal designations for all of their recent engine families. On page 4 they tell a story of the family tree, page 5 lists, possibly released to the public for the first time ever, the MEL, the FE, the 335, the 385, etc., families.
At no time do they explain what any of the names mean, however they do get clever on page 29 and state: ' "FE" is more than just the chemical symbol for iron...it symbolizes the best in Detroit iron.' Apparently, this snappy slogan has caused some folk to believe Ford intended that "FE" means "iron". Sorry, having fun with words isn't enough to get me to believe this was the intended meaning of the acronym.
A few other folk believe that FE means "Ford Engine", but in this same catalog it frequently states "FE engine", suggesting the writers were repeatedly saying "Ford Engine Engine". Some "Ford Engine" believers claim it is correct because FT means Ford Truck and therefore FE must mean Ford Engine. These people need to buy a clue, because if this was the case it would be known as the FC, or Ford Car engine.
"Ford Edsel" is the only logical meaning. Since the acronym seems to have been publically introduced in 1970, and the catalog's text claims "an engine family is a group of engines which has evolved from one basic design", this suggests the name comes from the root origins of the motor. Since both the MEL and the FE were born in 1958, it's logical that the designation of these two acronyms might have similar roots. MEL clearly stands for Mercury Edsel Lincoln, and FE for Ford Edsel, both acronyms representing the only vehicles they were found in back in their first year of 1958.
If anyone knows the meaning of 335 or 385, I'd like to hear it. I suspect it was the project names used for the two families during engine development, but I just don't know.
Shoe. |