John, thanks for the info. Those Ram Air emblems always facsinated me since I saw them on E-bay. So much speculation, so few facts.
When that 68 RAII appeared in HPP, with a reference to those emblems on its hood, that just stirred the pot. Jim Mattison claimed the emblems were "probably" aftermarket. What's strange is that no one seems to know for sure.
My opinion : I find it hard to believe that an aftermarket manufacturer in 1968 would go to the trouble (and expense) to produce a die-cast Ram Air emblem, in the same font and style as a 400 emblem, with mounting posts to fit the 67/68 Firebird hood. Seems like a such a small market, unless of course they were looking at selling these to anyone with a Firebird 400, whether they had Ram Air or not, for the "cool factor". Just plopping "Ram Air" anywhere on your car back in that era was considered cool. I would bet that some guys even used mailbox lettering from an Ace Hardware back then.
It made a bit more sense that Pontiac produced the emblems, and never used them in production. With Ram Air being all the rage in 1967/1968, Pontiac could have easily cast up these emblems for the 68 RAII, but with so few sales, they ended up in the parts bins. For cost effectiveness, Pontiac could have thought about using these emblems for any Firebird 400 owner that wanted to retrofit a Ram Air setup. Think about it; after paying to get a Ram Air setup retrofitted to a regular 67/68 Firebird 400, it would have been a shame to not broadcast the fact you now had Ram Air. Logically, because the Firebird 400's already had holes in the hood for the 400 emblems, a replacment emblem would make perfect sense. It was either that, or have the dealer fill the holes, repaint the hood, and use Ram Air decals. Obviously, not cost effective.
All theories here....but I'd love to know the true story.....