Re: 1970 gto judge ram air IV
Hi everyone. I received a call about this debate and thought I could give some information.
In 1961, I graduated from GMI and went to work for the R&D dept. of PMD. In 1963, I was a single 25 year old car nut with a great job and bought the best car I could. It was a 421 SD Catalina HT and yes I did drive it on the street once in a while. I still have the car, but in 64 I had to replace the aluminum ex. manifolds with steel and I also replaced the fenders with steel. I also own a 68 RAII GTO and a 70 RaIV T/A. No I did not buy these new.
Enough about my cars, throughout the 60s I worked in both the design and testing in numerous engine programs. I did work with the Ram Air V program. So a few points, at the time we did not call it the RAV. It was an exercise to build the best Pontiac engine period. To the upper management, It was a complete failure. The 303 design had a HP and Torque curve that was completely wrong for the Trans Am circuit. Remember this was for the racing circuit not the car. The 366 engine was a mess and the 400 did not perform anywhere near what we thought it could do. We looked at everything from Cubic inch to multiple fuel induction systems. I never heard until reading it years later the RAVI RAVII RAVIII ect. At the time, I pushed to remove the downward exhaust ports but the design parameters called for it to remain somewhat Pontiac in outward appearance.
As far as engineering having this secret back room, It was an R&D dept with the concept being anything goes. Yes we do some crazy stuff but remember this was a job with the idea being future marketable merchandise. To the best of my recollection we never brought a car from the assembly line into R&D to install a motor to be sold to the general public. We had better things to do and we might have had to listen to the UAW.
Bill Knafel I always knew of his cars and his dealership. This was only because I was and still is a huge Pontiac person. I do not remember his dealership involved in any official component testing. I cannot think of a reason we would. We had everything at our disposal and numerous close dealers if need be. I do not know if he ever received R&D components.
If memory serves me right, the only dealer I visited in that area over the RAV program was a dealership named Ray Faros. I could be off on the spelling? I remember they were having a problem with a crate motor they installed.
Well I could go on but thanks for letting me ramble.
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11-16-2003, 05:26 AM
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