This isn’t quite the same of that, but a friend of mine owned a ‘64 Fairlane back in the day that had finned drums, a 289 K-code engine, and a modified C4 automatic. It was an adventure every time he needed parts for it, especially for the transmission. After blowing up the tranny using standard C4 parts in it, he converted the car to a 4-speed.
He found out some time after he got rid of it that the car was a homologation special for European stage rally.
I had a 64 Fairlane with a 260 CI and three speed on the column. A few of us were building a “drag” racing car and bought a 289 out of a 63 Fairlane. We took the heads off and realized it was a 260. We needed 3 pistons so we ordered them. They were too big. We went to the Ford dealer and learned that it was a 221. We’d never heard of a 221. The “drag” racer ended up not being very fast.