The original plan was to have a low budget Ram Air setup for the 1969 Firebird and LeMans 350 H.O.s. Pontiac wanted to cash in on the Ram Air mystique, which really connected with high-performance buyers, but did not want to use the dual scooped hood. The dual scooped hood was the most identifiable part of the Firebird 400 or GTO model, and they didn't want to water down the image of their flagship performance cars.
The plan was to offer an alternative Ram Air setup using a hollow passenger side hood tach nacelle. The air cleaner used was a standard single snorkel that was rotated around so the snorkel was facing the heater box. A defroster duct was connected between the nacelle and air cleaner. In the brochure mentioned above, the 1969 Firebird has a hood tach (drivers side) and the Ram Air nacelle (passenger side), while the LeMans just has the Ram Air, no hood tach.
Royal Pontiac tested their 1969 Firebird 350 H.O. (pre-production, fully blueprinted and prepped by Royal) using this setup. Unfortunately, they found that the hood tach nacelle Ram Air was costing a great deal of horsepower. Most likely it was due to the hose being pinched off when the hood was closed.
The setup was abandoned before production started, but the brochures had already been printed up. Ram Air was not available on the 350 H.O. cars.
It was a strange setup, and looked very homemade.
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