1969 Trans Am Convert Clone

[JIM]

The most important part of the 69 Trans Am was the its road gripping suspension. the special 1" sway bar on the front, mated to special springs and shocks front and rear. A 3:55 HD 10 bolt Posi, rounded out the back end and a special varible ratio steering box, enabled it to turn like on rails. These were truely a blast to drive. The Camaro doesn't even come close in the ride and handleing dept. There were also a few built with a Blue vinyl top, and even more wierd, one with a green interior, and a couple in red, . Black was also avaiable, so they are not all blue inside. This summer I looked at a yellow 69 bird race car for sale , it had a real rear spoiler, a aftermarket hotrod hood on the out side. Upon closer inspection it had disc, A/C P/S multileaf, and what was originally a blue interior dyed black. It was a 50 50 blue int car with real spoiler. PHS docs confirmed it was a very optioned Firebird in the right colors, so the Hunt goes on!.

Jim

[StealthBird]

One correction, Pontiac actually did use the term RAII in 1968. It was used quite boldly in their ad for the 1968 Firebird, with a title "Announcing Pontiac's new RAII..."

Quick rundown of the Ram Air engines, for those non-Pontiac guys...

Ram Air was first offered as an over the counter kit in mid-year 1965 for the tri-power. The kit had the pan, seal, and instructions on how to cut the hood scoop open.

Popularity grew, and Pontiac added Ram Air to the option list in 1966. The kit was delivered in the trunks of GTO's, and had to be installed by the dealer. One of the stranger stories with this setup was that apparently these kits were removed by some inspection workers, thinking that line workers were smuggling parts out of the factory.

In 1967, Pontiac introduced their "Ram Air" engine, which had 4.33 gears out back as standard equipment. Very rare cars. The old high output 400 was dubbed 400 HO.

In 1968, the Ram Air engine continued, as well as the 400 HO. At mid-year, Pontiac released a round exhaust port version of their Ram Air package, and called it Ram Air II. The old 1967 engine was now referred to as Ram Air I.

For 1969, a new engine with redesigned round port heads, aluminum intake, wild cam, and 1.65 rocker arms came out. The original prototype used a funky Ram Air baseplate, and drew air from both hood scoops, as well as air from two large 4" tubes coming off the bottom of the baseplate and running up through the core support. This meant there were 4 ways to get air, and they called it Ram Air 4. Pontiac Engineers decided the air cleaner was too much (although it showed up in a few road tests), and the stylists like the roman numeral designation IV (they said it looked better on the hood scoop), hence Ram Air IV. The Ram Air II was gone.

The old 400 HO was still there, and was marketed as such in the brochures. It was to be the standard 69 Judge and Trans Am engine, and optional on the GTO and Firebird.

In 1970, things remained essentially unchanged. The term "Ram Air" had become so popular, and was so synonomous with Pontiac performance, that the 400 HO was now being called Ram Air III. This actually worked well, as 400 HO didn't signify that it was one step below the Ram Air IV.

All these engines went pretty well.

A lot of people in 1969 wondered why Pontiac went from RAII to RAIV, but it really wasn't a jump in series, it was a simply a better sounding name than Ram Air III.

[yellowjudge]

Da Judge, hit nail on head! I'll expound just alittle. Most all TAs had the ralleys & decor(they are listed as option, & well show on PHS) Judges had them as standard equipment.
I have a 69 raiv TA,100% #s match. It is done to concours level. No console, or ralleys just poverty caps, stack tach & gauges, close ratio 4spd . They are great cars, & ex. rare

[442w30]

[ QUOTE ]

In 1968, the Ram Air engine continued, as well as the 400 HO. At mid-year, Pontiac released a round exhaust port version of their Ram Air package, and called it Ram Air II. The old 1967 engine was now referred to as Ram Air I.


[/ QUOTE ]

Mike's right, but I'd like to clarify two things: the quote above . . . the RAII replaced the RAI mid-year. They did not run concurrently. Also, through 1965-68, Ram Air was available as an accessory package on the GTO's lesser engines. The 1968 GTO that Hot Rod tested has this even though it was the standard 400/350 engine. Further proof is that the car did not get 4.33 gears (for some reason, Ram Air Firebirds received 3.90s instead.)

Here's the engine roster for 1967-69, excluding the 2bbl. engines:

1967
400/335
400HO/360
400RA/360

1968
400/350
400HO/360
400RA/360
400RAII/366

1969
400/350
400RAIII/366 (no relation to the RAII, despite similar rating.)
400RAIV/370

[StealthBird]

Great info! I also have that Hot Rod test, and it's very vague as to what that GTO actually had under the hood. I think there was as much confusion back in 1968 as there is today! Imagine in consecutive model years, Pontiac went from a 389 (66), to a 400 (67), to a mid-year RAII (68) with round port heads, to a RAIV (69), to a 455 (70), then a 455 HO (71/72), then an SD455 (73). Talk about yer quick engine development. Nowadays, manufacturers keep the same engine for years, maybe tweaking the computer here and there and marketing it as a selling point.

The Ram Air setup was available as a seperate option without ordering the Ram Air engine. I believe the 1969 Firebird option list has a code for Ram Air Inlet, which allowed a buyer to get a Ram Air setup without getting the RAIII or RAIV option.

Pontiacs are too confusing. I'm going back to Buick.

[Steve_Hoog]

Notice specific reference to RAIII. Granted parts cataloging does not indicate what was on the original order sheets, however it is a GM publication. Whether GM referred to RAIII at point A or B, is not so much relevant to the fact that GM did reference RAIII.

Notice also 67 listing for Ramair, not just a matter of a pan in the trunk? I would imagine this meant cam in engine from assembly line.

GM is not an exact science, explore the facts with caution.

[StealthBird]

Steve, yep, as I stated above, Pontiac started calling the 400 HO the Ram Air III in 1970 in their internal documents, but not on the window stickers or on the order forms. Pontiac also never had hood scoop decals that said "Ram Air III", they simply said "Ram Air".

And yes, the 1967 Ram Air engine (later known as Ram Air 1) was a different animal than just getting the Ram Air option on a 1967 GTO. The 1967 Ram Air engine included the Ram Air setup, but also a different cam, better valvesprings, and 4.33 gears. They were sort of the shotgun version of a GTO, designed for dragstrip duty and street racing.

Cool cars.

[Jeff H]

Sounds like the Drag Pack combination on the Fords.

[Steve_Hoog]

Mike

Wasn't directing that at you, yours was just the last post to reply from. My bad.

[StealthBird]

Steve, no problem! I realized you were commenting on other posts.

Back to the T/A clone topic, another odd thing about the 69 Trans Am's were the grilles. The standard 69 Firebird used silver/gray grilles, the Firebird 400's used the same silver/gray grilles, but had a unique chrome trim surrounding each grille, while the Trans Am (built off the Firebird 400) did NOT use the chrome 400 grille surrounds. They simply blacked out the grille.

Other discrepancies are the front bumper arrowhead emblem, which all Trans Am's and Firebird 400's had (but many promo photos show Trans Am's without the emblem), and depending on the build date, sometimes the blue stripes on the rear deck went under the spoiler (leaving the spoiler white), and sometimes the stripes went over the spoiler.