In the mid 50's ford was looking to capitalize on the horsepower wars and was not happy with the options that were available to them namely the stromberg carburetors which most everyone was using and the anemic carters of the day. Ford talked Holley into designing a carburetor for them which became the 4100. Holley also benefitted from this arangement with Ford no doubt fronting some to most of the design buget, Holley then used that information to create the venerable 4150 and 4160 carbs and ultimately those same designs found their way into the 4500 all of which basically made them what they are today.
Ford then had Autolite produce the carbs until the gas crisis of the late 60's when Ford once again went to another carburetor companie (Rochester) to design the next evolution of FOrd four barrells (the 4300).
Holley also benefitted from the close working relationship as most all high performance vehicles got a Holley instead of a FORD carburetor, along with special applications all the way to thru the 80's.
Once Autolite quit being the name in 1970 then They were made under the Motorcraft emblem.
Bill White
White Automotive
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
HAVE A NICE DAY!!!!