The Infamous ‘Winged’ Sump

There is a whole controversy of comment and conspiracy about the infamous winged sump, and what it was fitted to. To the best of my knowledge it was originally designed by Ford to be fitted to the XA Phase4, as an attempt to help some of the oiling problems that cropped up when Ford racers began racing the XA Falcons under Group C rules. With the allowance of bigger, and hence grippier, tyres it was found that the oil in the sump was sloshing about too much, and the pump pickup was being exposed. As a solution, and also to get more oil into the sump, Ford came up with the winged sump, as shown.