The Ford FE engine family produced the most powerful factory muscle car engine of the 1960s in the 427 cubic inch configuration. The side-oiler design of the later FE engines solved the main bearing lubrication issues of the early design and produced an engine capable of extraordinary sustained power output.

The 427 SOHC — the cammer — was the engine Ford built to beat Chrysler's Hemi at Daytona and was banned by NASCAR before it ever raced. Chrysler challenged the ban and lost. Ford got to build the engine but couldn't use it in NASCAR.

The street-legal SOHC engines that reached the public are among the rarest and most exotic American production engines. Understanding the FE family puts the performance wars of the 1960s in context — every manufacturer was building engines at the absolute limit of what they could get away with.