Rare Firebird

[StealthBird]

That's a great photo of the 303 RAV in the 69 Firebird. Notice the use of an air pump, and also note how the RAV used two long heat riser tubes, one off each exhaust manifold, attached to a factory RAIV baseplate.

The factory 69/70 RAIV cars (both GTO and Firebird) used a long heat riser tube on the driver's side, while the passenger side used the short elbow that attached to the heat crossover on the RAIV two-piece intake manifold. The RAV intake manifold was cast as a one piece, and was designed to run a Holley carb.

Sidenote: The entire 1969 Firebird Ram Air setup, whether RAIII or RAIV, was a complex series of parts that were used for the 1969 Firebird only. The 1968 and 1970 setups were completely different. There were two different baseplates used on the 1969 Ram Air Firebirds, one for the RAIII, the other for the RAIV (or RAV in this case). The RAIII baseplate, which is what most people are used to seeing, looks the RAIV baseplate but with the passenger side "ear" cut off. The reason for this was that the RAIII was available with a/c, the RAIV was not, so the RAIII baseplate had the clearance for the a/c unit.