Regarding the possibility of an 'incorrect' engine being used by a
manufacturer, I can't say about Sunbeam, but Shelby used a lot of 428
engines in the late 427 Cobras. The 427 was hard to get and expensive so
they dropped in the 428 instead on many models. The 427 is a more
powerful engine at the limit but not many people could drive them to
their limit. From my understanding many purchasers were unaware of the
substitution, so I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a switch on the
basis of 'they wouldn't dare'. The dealer installation theory seems most
likely to me, if a dealer had found a bad engine (perhaps during a
demonstration), a 289 would have been a quick, easy, and equitable
solution.
Weird things happen to cars on the way to the end buyer; the Tiger I
have was the second that the original owner bought. He saw the first get
dropped from a crane while being unloaded in Spain: who knows what they
might have tried to pull if he hadn't seen it drop.
|