He hasn't changed, sold a car recently he didn't own.

Yeah, he's the type of guy that makes you fantasize that you have Hell's Angels on speed dial.

Gee Tony, between this post and mine on the L89 Camaro we should rename this thread "Night of the Living Dead". ! Thought these characters and their shady cars were buried long ago.

But they never die...

The Burnished Brown COPO was a complete fake. Had you concluded the deal you would have lost about $200K.

Back to our regularyl scheduled program.

I don't know about you guys, but I am really digging this car. Seems every one of these I run across is auto trans, but finally.... a four speed.

I agree; this car needs to be done. Cheaper than an L78, and if you build it right, you can get comparable numbers (ymmv). JMHO.

Very cool car, no doubt. I'm very confused why the Firebird had four different 400 engines available in the Firebird in 1968. Is the 400HO not as hot as the Ram Air I?

I was wondering The same thing ...same HP, and torque..but different cam specs

-When you ordered a 400 Firebird, you got the base 400 at 330 horses with the #16 casting heads.

-Then you could order a 400 HO which used the high-flow exhaust manifolds from the next-rung-up 400 Ram Air engine and the hotter cam for the manual trans car. Everything else stayed the same as base 400. Closed air cleaner, closed hood scoops.

-Then the 400 Ram Air Engine had the special exhaust manifolds, and different heads, casting 31, with swirl polished valves and special valve springs, for higher RPM operation. And, of course, the foam air cleaner element that mated to OPEN hood scoops.

-In April 1968, came the first "round port" Pontiac engine. The nasty b#*ch Ram Air II (even though Pontiac never used Ram Air I as a designator for their 400 Ram Air - until much later) This was a very special engine with completely re-engineered heads with round exhaust ports, forged aluminum pistons (versus cast of the other 400s), special crank, special 4-bolt block, re-balanced Armasteel crank etc. Foam element air cleaner, open hood scoops. The lousy 5hp difference at 340 was a joke - it was much more.
A beast in a Firebird.

So, it took until 1968 1/2 for Pontiac to finally build an equivalent to the L78 thats been around since 1965. I bet the stock rods were the weak link.

1968 ram air firebirds
 

Also add that the 68 RAI Firebird had four bolt main cap 400 block!