[Excaliber]

There is little doubt that Shelby first used the 427 emblem to denote the MOTOR now housed in the all new designed Cobra. Like the NASCAR guys had '427' prominently displayed on the hood of their race cars at the time. It was Ford's crowning achievment and a nod on their behalf. Now of course as time went on Shelby used some 428's to keep cost under control, and what a can of worms THAT opened with current buyers who THOUGHT they were getting a 427 cid legend under the hood.

But yes, you could make a strong case for the 427 representing the body style, as then and today we typically separate the two basic styles between 289 small block and 427 big block car styles. The early '289' cars came with a 260, and then there were slab side, FIA and other variations on the 'small block' Cobra theme. As there would be with the big block car's, er, the 427 Cobras (competition, SC, street, 428, etc.).

Note the early cars were NOT "289" Cobra's, they were "Powered by Ford" Cobra's. When the next generation came about, which utilized the 427, I doubt anyone envisioned that at some point in the future they would come with a 428. The car was named after it's motor I tell ya, a 427, which quickly evoloved into a 'model' name as well.

So what to run? When I had my Excalibur with a 302 I was faced with the same delima. Myself, I chose to go with "Powered by Ford" for that car.