TUNNEL PORT RA V

StealthBird · #1 09-02-2005, 06:26 AM

Steve, it was probably me that stated that the RAV car from Drag Racing Magazine was red with white stripes. I based this on a comment in the article that the car had a 350HO in it before the RAV transplant. The Super Stock Magazine issue had this 69 Firebird 350HO on the cover (in color), and this appears to be the same car as the RAV version. It was red with white stripes, white accents on the hood, lower rear quarter panels, and tail panel. The test of the 350HO car was before the RAV test.

It appears the car was built as a 350HO, not a 400, based on the fact that it did not have the Firebird 400 chrome grille trim surrounds, and the Firebird 400 only Pontiac arrowhead emblem on the front bumper. It appears that the ROYAL lettering on the door changed slightly between these two tests. But the miscellaneous contingency stickers over the rear wheelwells, and a few more on the fenders, are in the exact same positions between the two versions of this car, and the paint job is exactly the same (minus the 400 hood on the RAV test). Therefore, I'm pretty sure these were the same cars.

Personally, I like the 69 Firebird 455HO PMD Engineering Test Car. That was Carousel Red with 455 emblems.

Steve_Hoog · #2 09-02-2005, 07:29 AM

Mike

The reason the lettering changed was because Ace would only allow a certain variation of the team name to be carried over to George's efforts, so I was told.

But yes I do remember now that it was you.

I would love to see color photos of both the cars you are talking about, I only have b/w copies of the magazine articles.

DaJudge · #3 09-03-2005, 04:10 AM

Here's a link to another article that I scanned. It from the Oct 69 Motor Trend. Thanks for the link Steve

http://www.empgmc.com/race/rav/Page61.jpg

KS Pontiac · #4 09-03-2005, 05:13 PM

Cool article Mike, what ever happened to the car that you got with the article? And why won't you answer any emails?

DaJudge · #5 09-07-2005, 04:18 AM

Hi Dave sorry for not returning the e-mails. The car is in safe hands as I traded it for a car that I felt was more desirable... at least to me. The TA is in the hands of a collector and the article and paperwork you gave me went with the car. I scanned them in for my own future reference. Send me a pm with your phone number so that we can catch up. Best regards Mike

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