[Frank R]

A few of you from the Northeast might remember Stephen Pontiac's race cars. A friend of mine purchased the Ram Air V from their 1970 Firebird race car back in the mid 70's. It changed hands a couple of times. Another friend picked it up 10 years ago and has it ready to drop in his 69 Trans Am street car. I watched a few of the dyno pulls but I had to leave before the final runs. They gave it more timing and it topped out at 630. He felt there was still more left. I don't have all the engine specs but I know it has stock ports heads, stroker crank and a solid roller cam. It still has the factory magnesium 2x4 intake that it was raced with only without the 2" spacers. It's a real shame in 1970 Pontiac didn't put these heads on a 455. Muscle car history would be different.

[johnta1]

It's a real shame in 1970 Pontiac didn't put these heads on a 455. Muscle car history would be different.

I agree!





Keep us informed.
The 70 Bird looks great, didn't take long to put the rear spoiler on it.
(I guess it could have started as a TA though)

[Matt Meaney]

has this been a long term project? I remember seeing a V at Carlquist, has to be a few years ago now. single plane dual quad manifold. the block was modified at the top of the cylinders, so the ring pack on the pistons he had were too high and had to get a different set with them moved down lower.

it's great that this piece of history has been preserved and brought back to life. congrats to your friend.

[Frank R]

Originally Posted by Matt Meaney

has this been a long term project? I remember seeing a V at Carlquist, has to be a few years ago now. single plane dual quad manifold. the block was modified at the top of the cylinders, so the ring pack on the pistons he had were too high and had to get a different set with them moved down lower.

it's great that this piece of history has been preserved and brought back to life. congrats to your friend.

Yes, that’s the engine.

[turbo69bird]

Originally Posted by Matt Meaney

has this been a long term project? I remember seeing a V at Carlquist, has to be a few years ago now. single plane dual quad manifold. the block was modified at the top of the cylinders, so the ring pack on the pistons he had were too high and had to get a different set with them moved down lower.

it's great that this piece of history has been preserved and brought back to life. congrats to your friend.

The one at Carl quest was the same engine.

Matt didn’t I get a RAV crank from you or something back in the day for my IV car?

[Matt Meaney]

Originally Posted by turbo69bird

The one at Carl quest was the same engine.

Matt didn’t I get a RAV crank from you or something back in the day for my IV car?

yes you did, along with some other parts as well.

congrats on the new purchase. that bird's really going to fly with the V in there.

[turbo69bird]

Originally Posted by Matt Meaney

yes you did, along with some other parts as well.

congrats on the new purchase. that bird's really going to fly with the V in there.

Well I guess the cats out of the bag already isn’t it.

Not really worried about the HP it’s a puppy compared to my street turbo car at 960hp!
But that doesn’t mean it won’t be a whole lot of fun with the stick.
My car has two hoods. The 69, one with a cut out for dual quads and one with a solid hood both have cut for the RAIV pan. So I’ve been after this engine for a long time I actually was there before The past owner (who always gets there before me normally) when he bought it the first time but I saw a bunch of fords and 50 merc in the driveway and said ahh man Someone saw a tunnel port Ford and told me about it, had their story wrong And like a fool I left without going in.

Well it was the V and there was a IV and a III trans ams out back. Only KEN would have a front yard full of fords and back yard full of Pontiacs
He was a nice guy with a ton of stuff.

I never could get the whole story out of him how he’d acquired it.
I’d wanted to put the car and engine together for a long time , keep it all together-Bristol history I grew up about a block from
The original dealership on riverside ave.
Pretty happy I got it. I can’t thank Howard enough for keeping the history all together.

So I have the IV for it I raced it with for years, (many of you have probably seen it run) and now the V from the pro car.

I also have found some video of the pro car running down the track 1971 (really freaking cool) but because I don’t own the original copy rights, I can’t post it.

I don’t know why my car had the two hoods. That’s still a mystery. But this should settle in nicely
Int he cut hood sadly I’d gone through a lot of trouble to weld in a piece from
Another hood years ago taking so much care not to warp it, now I’ll have to cut it back out. But it’ll be worth it.

Spoke with Bill eckstrom and Tom
Mc innis both of whom drove the car and they were pretty excited too. Would have been cool on the T/A it was gonna go in but I think it wanted to be back home w a Stephens car.

A lot of people don’t know it but I runner upped with this Stephens car at high performance Pontiac day at English town maybe 1999 or so. Funny thing is my buddy Marc from plainville CT was on the cover that issue of the magazine. Red 71 bird.
I don’t think anyone knew it was a real RAIV car or the Stephens car at that time except me and few people .
Won the event a few years later with my turbo car .was a little harder w the 4spd. RAIV car.

[Frank R]

Originally Posted by turbo69bird

I never could get the whole story out of him how he’d acquired it. .

Ken purchased the V in Watertown from Jim Lavey. In the mid 70’s Jim was building a 69 GTO . He purchased a new set of Ram Air IV heads from Stephens. One of the guys in the parts department told him for the same money he would sell him the Ram Air V from their race car. If I remember correctly it had a bad piston. The roller cam was removed and someone put a new Ram Air IV cam in it so it would look more complete. ( I put that cam in a 69 Trans Am). Jim lost interest and put everything up for sale. I had the opportunity to purchase everything for 2K but dragged my feet. Ken purchased the engine and someone else the car.

[4zpeed]

Very nice, be great to see it settled into it's new home, try to post a pic of two.

Agreed, like to see more of us have access to these components, no doubt be a different story.

Thanx for the thread.



Frank

[tom s]

I have seen a couple of those intakes and both were alu.Never heard of a mag one?Tom

[Frank R]

Originally Posted by tom s

I have seen a couple of those intakes and both were alu.Never heard of a mag one?Tom

I may have misunderstood him .but it's what I was told by the machine shop. He said only 4 were ever produced.

[tom s]

George Delorian when he was in engineering told me they never made less tha 12 of anything.FWIW,Tom

[Frank R]

Originally Posted by tom s

George Delorian when he was in engineering told me they never made less tha 12 of anything.FWIW,Tom

I'm sure your right Tom., I'm just repeating what I was told.

But it's such a shame that Pontiac didn't put these engines into production vehicles. GM probably wanted Chevrolet to be top dog.

[Frank R]

The final numbers are in. They advanced it to 35 and went down on the jets 652 HP/ 563 TQ..

[mgarblik]

That engine made 555 ft. lbs. torque or more over a 1500 RPM range, nice and flat. Very nice.

[LKLusza]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

That engine made 555 ft. lbs. torque or more over a 1500 RPM range, nice and flat. Very nice.

That's the first thing I noticed too. My Goodness, what a monster! That thing must feel like a full-tilt space shuttle launch when the go pedal's mashed

[sdbob]

No. However the Hecks took the car to the POCI Convention I think Downington,Pa.The one magazine had pictures of it in one issue. I cant think of mags name, oh shoot, I dont think it was HPP but its predecessor. Not color but described color. The car was sold and brought back to Royal Pontiac condition. I saw the car at Norwalk years later.

[PAUL K]

Cool engine, thanks for sharing.

[GT182]

Where was Stephen's Pontiac located in the Northeast? It sounds familiar but I can't place it. I delivered to almost every Pontiac dealer up in the Northeast from the PA line to Maine and the Canadian border.

[Rick]

Stephen's Pontiac was located in Bristol, CT