The Village Hemorrhoid

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

1969 Pontiac Custom One Of A Kind Firebird/Trans Am Ram Air Convertible - 'Phantom Menace'

In 1967, Pontiac, the “performance division” of General Motors, set free a new muscle car: the Firebird. The first generation lasted for three model years, with 1969 marking the last iteration of the original Firebird. However, 1969 also marked the debut of the Trans Am special package offered for the ‘Bird.
The first version of the Trans Am lived in 1969 only (as the second generation debuted in 1970, together with the standard Firebird, and spanned eleven years). The 1969 Firebird Tran Am only produced 689 cars.
Out of the 689 examples, 681 had solid metal sheets over the driver and passengers. The remaining eight are some of the rarest and sought-after end-of-the-rainbow V8 treasure chests in the automotive universe. There are only 10 1969 Trans Am’s and each of those cars came with the Ram Air 400 engine.
Colloquially, the power plant is dubbed “Ram Air III,” but GM official literature never coined that name.
And one dedicated enthusiast took it one step further and wrenched out what Pontiac missed out on, a Ram Air IV convertible Firebird “Trans Am” phantom. It can’t be considered a tribute since its homage namesake does not exist.
But call it what you will; the car is one striking appearance. Correct in most visual aspects, white with blue stripes, the car takes a keen connoisseur scrutiny to tell the difference between the originals and this very well-executed honorary custom.
The car is based on a 1969 Firebird Californian convertible with only 32,000 original miles and a list of authentic gear in it: “a four-speed manual transmission, power steering, power front disk brakes, power windows, power top, power trunk, power rear antenna, tilt wheel, center console, folding rear seat, factory gauges with tachometer, and factory air conditioning.“
However, the heart of the matter, the V8 piston keystone, has a different story. It is period correct, a 1968 400-CID (6.6-liter) block over-bored and stroked to a 462 displacement (7.6 liters), with Ram Air IV heads (mildly ported).