[moandanna]

Looking for information on the 73 GTO Ram Air. My build sheet says in box 53 RA-4. I saw one site that said 10 were made, this sounds too low. thanks

[moandanna]

Looking for information on the 73 GTO Ram Air. My build sheet says in box 53 RA-4. I saw one site that said 10 were made, this sounds too low. thanks

[Lloyd-TX]

Sort of a "stillborn" option, like the '72 GTO ducktail spoiler deal.

Go here for more info:

1973 A-Body Ram Air System Discussion

[Brian Baker]

NONE were made off the assembly line. The ram-air package never passed federal testing standards for noise.

Many of the parts for the ram-air slipped through the cracks and were available over the parts counter for a brief time however.

A friend of mine purchased a '73 G-A from the original owner (Jack Hoffman of Horicon, WI) back in '96...his car has functional ram-air (check other threads in this section for pictures and info). Mr. Hoffman bought all of his pieces over the parts counter back in '73. The only piece he couldn't get was the air cleaner lid, which he got from a friend who was an engineer at Pontiac at the time.

[scott w]

[Brian Baker]

The yellow and brown electric wires coming out of that lid connect to a solenoid inside the lid that opens the flapper doors, presumably under WOT. The other end of those wires go nowhere on Phil's car. I would presume the factory intended them to go to a kickdown switch on the throttle pedal assembly, similar to the switches used on cars equipped with the th400 automatic. I've yet to see a schematic that showed precisely how that solenoid is activated from those wires,

[moandanna]

Thanks for the info and refernce to earlier threads. Most GM cars were stillborn after 72. Look what they did to the 442 and Hurst/Olds

[Brian Baker]

To each his own. I happen to think some of the A and G bodies they produced from 73-77 were handsome.

[moandanna]

Hey Brian, I like the styles also, I was refering to engine/trans. and gear ratio options. The '73 ram air was dealer installed, so we probably don't know how many.Thanks for the info.

[Brian Baker]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by rsd:
Hey Brian, I like the styles also, I was refering to engine/trans. and gear ratio options. The '73 ram air was dealer installed, so we probably don't know how many.Thanks for the info. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The '73 ram-air WAS NOT dealer installed. Pontiac never released it for sale for aforementioned reasons, however, some of the parts did slip through the cracks and were available over the parts counter for a very brief period. One of those parts that didn't make it over the counter was the air cleaner lid. I have this information from a primary source, Mr. Jack Hoffman of Horicon, WI. The parts that mount to the underside of the hood he was able to get over the counter fairly easily, but he had to get a friend who was an engineer at Pontiac at the time to sneak him a lid out the back door that was just "collecting dust" in a shop somewhere. He tried for over a year to get the lid over the parts counter to no avail.

[Mr_GTO]

I would love to see the PHS docs on that car.

[Brian Baker]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Mr_GTO:
I would love to see the PHS docs on that car. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

It was ordered with the SD-455, ram air, and 4-speed (Phil has the dealer order sheet from the original owner). It wasn't built as such, however. It was built with the 400/4-speed sans ram air, and delivered to the dealer that way. The dealer nor the owner knew of this until it arrived. The owner (Mr. Hoffman) was not pleased, but took delivery of the car anyway, and spent the next 18 months or so assembling the neccessary parts to convert it to a SD-455 with ram air.