Here comes the Judge

[StealthBird]

Some great publicity, but not very realistic. The Judge's standard engine (RAIII) was all done by 5700 rpm, the RAIV engine could maybe hit 6200 rpm, in stock trim, at the shift points, but neither engine would sustain those rpm's making a top end run. The Judge's rear wing also caused the nose to lift severely at speeds over 80 mph. By 110 mph, your Judge sat like it had a straight axle in front. This story was probably just a reponse to the fact that the Dodge Daytona and Charger 500 were built for racing, so Steve Malone was just protecting the image of the Judge, and that radical rear wing.

The 69 Trans Am was actually capable of hitting higher speeds than the GTO. Smaller frontal area than the GTO, and the Trans Am sat 1" lower. The engineers put a front spoiler on the Trans Am to prevent the nose from lifting, and to balance the rear wing downforce. Also, the Trans Am's side air extractors pull trapped air from under the hood to further prevent front end lift. The original RAV (303 cid) powerplant that was scheduled to go into the 1969 Trans Am was capable of more revs, but even then, Pontiac estimated a 135 mph top end with 3.90 gears reving to 6200 rpm. In theory, a 3.23 gear with the RAV engine may have pushed the 69 Trans Am to 140-145 mph. With the 400 cube version of the RAV, and a lazy rear gear, 150 mph MAY have been possible, but only in the 69 Trans Am body.

Like I said, just a publicity move to promote the Judge, but a very interesting article nonetheless. Thanks for posting!

[agtw31]

i had a 70 455 Grand Prix that would bury 120 with plenty of pedal left,but after the first bump i slowed down.

[grantprix]

I had a '69 Grand Prix SJ in the early 80's and remember hitting 125 late one night before I got scared and backed off. That car had an optional 2.93 rear gear ratio which helped.

[flyingn]

keep in mind the speedos back then may have been quite a bit off.

[Keith Tedford]

Back in '68 I had a Ram Air 400 Firebird. The engine was balanced and blueprinted, included the Royal Bobcat kit, polyloc nuts, and headers. The rear gears had been changed to more user friendly 3.55s. With that combination the engine was still climbing very well at 130 but laid down right on 133 mph (according to the speedometer). Lifter pump up? Perhaps 150 with 2.56 gears.......or a high cliff. I've heard guys, with much slower cars, claiming much higher top speeds than mine. I'm wondering if Chrysler speedos weren't reading way high on the top end. These guys were always claiming wild top speeds. If memory serves me correctly, GM speedometers were calibrated to be accurate at about 70 mph or there abouts. There is no telling how far off the speedos were at 130. I know one thing, a two mile straight stretch of road gets used up in a hurry at that speed.

[markjohnson]

I don't think that article was a publicity thing at all for Pontiac, but instead it was just an attempt by a newspaper reporter, with a boring life obviously, to try to stir up controversy by making people think that we're surrounded by cars capable of going 150 MPH by drivers of all kinds. Riiiiight. Maybe he even succeeded. All it would take is some insurance executives to read that, do some investigating into horsepower ratings, start raising rates and BAM.......no more musclecars. Waitaminute......that's what happened!

[ORIGLS6]

My '68 Chevelle L35/M21 w/3.55 gears would go well past the 120 mark on the speedo. Now, ..... was it accurate? Who knows. But I also had a '68 Corvette with the 390 HP 427/ 4 spd and a 3:70 rear. That car had serious problems getting over 100 MPH, and when it did it got VERY light in front, ........... and scary!