1969 Pontiac Trans Am Ram Air III 4-Speed Muscle Car Of The Week Video Episode

1969 Pontiac Trans Am Ram Air III 4-Speed Muscle Car Of The Week Video Episode #141
The 1969 Pontiac Trans Am was the first of this legendary line of Muscle Cars, and we spent some time with a Ram Air III 4-speed version for this episode of Muscle Car Of The Week from The Brothers Collection.
#musclecar #musclecaroftheweek
www.musclecaroftheweek.com

[@barcrrt850]

There is just something about Pontiac. I have loved them all my life.

[@SF80CAMARO]

One of my all time favorites...RIP Pontiac ya made some great cars! ! First car in HS was a 1970 firebird formula 400ho ram air 4spd Hurst Green on green..

[@andrewipp426]

One of the understated muscle cars, great color combination. It has enough motor/trans/rear for spirited driving, at its curb weight but not unmanageable. I happen to like the Firebird design more so than the 69 Camaro in my opinion.

[@jeremythompson9122]

The 67-69 Camaro's and Firebird's were great looking cars. The 70-73 was even better looking

[@josephstabile9154]

"Back in the day" I was "college" poor, but rich in Pontiac desire, so In '69 bought a '68 F'bird Sprint H.O. (4-bbl OHC 6, 250 hp, 3-spd, sport susp.) I progressively upgraded, via junkyard (there were always plenty of totalled, late model muscle cars), '69 MANUAL frt disc brakes w/rear brake line w/proportioning valve, Velvetouch metallic linings for rear finned drums, variable ratio pwr. steering, '69 Trans Am hood, '69 TA frt sway bar, hd 400 H.O. rear springs, 400 fuel line, 400 H.O. radiator, a/c clutch fan, 4-spd w.r. Muncie, 12-bolt 3.55 ltd slip, 81 amp alternator w/Chevr. hi-rev (deep-groove) pulley, aircraft landing lights for high beams, Z/28 frt spoiler, 15×7 Z/28 Rally whls w/'66 Pontiac Rally center caps & F60 Radial T/A's. For the engine I got lucky & found a zero-time 400 out of a totalled manual trans '69 GTO (4-bolt mains). To this I added roller timing chain, ported head job w/RA IV tuliped, swirl-polished valves, RA III cam & springs, 1.5 rockers, RA IV oil pump, '67 400 H.O. air cleaner, finished off with RA exh manifolds & '69 Camaro off-road chambered exh. system. To say car was fast is an understatement. With me in it, it weighed a hair over 3250. Extremely strong off idle, & would pull like a demon from 5500-6200rpm (S-W gauges). Books said would have no low end torque/pwr, & need 3.90 gears--BS! It idled @650, and I could put it in 4th at idle, slowly let out clutch w/o touching accelerator, and it would smoothly pull away like an auto trans! But it could drop just about every muscle car (I speak from experience) except 425 hp 427's, L-88's, Hemi's, 427 Side-Oilers--and they'd better have been in sharp tune... BTW, car cornered/handled, like a dream (near neutral balance), and stop like it accelerated ("felt" like 1 G)--proverbial stop on dime & give change. When you pressed brake pedal, you'd first think there was a brick under it, but in service 'twas actually easy, & very easy to modulate. Thanks much for the trip down memory lane!

[@shawnbaird2015]

Favorite car on the planet

[@christokinieriem8796]

Extremely cool Bird. You stated it hard a 3.91 rear gear but the window sticker shown it stated 3.55 option. :- )

[@jeffrobodine1850]

Optional.

[@gregkistner1955]

Beautiful!

[@williamboardman9476]

"Red Carpet Specials" a dealership promo idea of John Delorean...dropped red carpet into Pontiacs of many colors. Seen a couple at auction and it's a 10K "value" pop. I drove a Ram Air III, 4 spd console 8 track T/A in 1982 in California. One owner, and after telling him about the less than 700 built, he still only wanted $3500 (what he'd paid for it new).With an extra complete Black interior in bags, and Ram Air IV heads and exhaust in the trunk, and a never installed hood tach in the box...in the glove box. Paint worn slightly off upper edges of the fenders from polishing for a decade plus. The big one that got away.

[@timjohn6805]

"PTB" on the firewall equates to "Paint" "Trim" "Body" these were factory assembly line update markings. Beautiful car, Pontiac sure were at the top of their game. The 69 Trans Am was over the top in looks, interior and performance. Very well executed design and style.

[@Darryl6636]

Nice car Kevin,thanks for that and great burnout!!!

[@MrFrozenCanuck]

Love Pontiacs.

[@Renalda5TV]

Sweet, a mobile app for MuscleCar of the Week!

[@officialbilly0]

Firebird are awesome. Whether you have 6 cylinder power glide or a 455 ho 4 speed, they are all awesome.

[@walterjones2331]

my dad had the. 76 50th 455 4speed black gold trans am

[@christ510]

Sounds really nice and I sure wish i owned it.

[@duanelehman66]

I love Kevin he’s awesome. And their cars are top notch it seems.

[@jeffrobodine1850]

Bad ass!!!!!!

[@tonyliu8333]

Do a Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II!!!!!!

[@kanukster]

Same they were only available in white, these would have looked great in all black paint

[@peterhogan9537]

I never understood why they didn,t have the ram air printed on the hood scoops, that would have looked so cool.

[@abe2571]

Read the sticker for all the options folks. Beautiful car. Looks like a lot of fun to drive.

[@walterjones2331]

nice

[@briancabral9]

i could be mistaken but they had the hotizontal mount resonators behind the rear axle like the other Firebirds and Camaro Z/28. I've seen a few at car shows in factory spec and don't have that type of muffler system.

[@josephstabile9154]

From my memory of seeing many 400 F'bird (I owned a '68, and still have a dealer parts manual) and '69 TAs, they all were factory with 1 transverse muffler behind differential and no resonators. I must add that from adolescence I've lived in St. Louis, and other regions of U.S. may have had more restrictive noise laws. I know California had more restrictive emissions laws in '69, and cars designed for there had "smog" pumps & often fuel vapor canisters. BTW,, I replaced my exhaust with '69 Camaro "off-road" chambered exhaust system. Other than trimming my head pipes a little shorter to fit, it was an easy "bolt-on". The chambered pipes were straight through, and had been first used by Chevy in the side exhaust for the '65 'Vette. As I recall, the Camaro iteration used about twice the amount of "chamber" as the 'Vette for each pipe, and the pipes crossed each other behind the differential,remaining separate, but rt cyl head exhaust therefore exited rear of car on the left side, and left cyl head exh exited on right side. It was a considerable power boost, had a "cool" sound that didn't become loader (as glass packs would), and was slightly lighter than the big transverse muffler system.

[@elzebub007]

6:40 mark, what a proper muscle car sounds like...

[@user-vn6vx6rf7d]

Sweet car! Hey NO spoiler on 68 GTO's; they were introduced in 69, for 69-71 GTO Judges only. & Not a good idea to rev a Pontiac 400 so high assuming stock internals. Keep it under 5500-

[@richardforbes9122]

the window sticker also shows sport steering wheel and it does not have that

[@user-vn6vx6rf7d]

It has the sport wheel. The standard wheel was color keyed vinyl.

[@johnhall8364]

Stripe color is wrong, steering wheel hub is from a 68.

[@TheFokker03]

yeah,i noted that.from photo's i've seen,the wheel has ''PMD' in the centre.also,i'm led to believe rallye 2 Wheels were standard fare for the T/A.

[@NVRAMboi]

Did I miss the (only) (3) options you mentioned at the beginning of the video? One option was the 4-spd stick, as 3-spd was standard. I assume the steel wheels were default standard and the red lines could've been added by a later owner. I assume the wood steering wheel was part of the TA package. ?

[@DoudD]

+NVRAMboi 1) Radio 2) 4-speed 3) rally gauges

[@NVRAMboi]

+RTLL Thanks!

[@josephstabile9154]

The "deluxe" steering wheel (plastic wood) was part of TA pkg, as we're gauges. BTW, the stacked aux. gauges were a late year ('69-1/2--'70 model year for GM was short, starting about February) offering, as was '69 TA.

[@rollingstopp]

most people wanted the 69 camaro ss - z28 verses pontiac transam

[@HoopsJunkies]

I ve become a gm guy they have all the best looking cars whay better than what ford has

[@briancabral9]

The window sticker shown lists the engine as the HO, Not a Ram Air 3

[@tomlea3713]

Interesting, didn't notice that. The Trans Am was only available with RA 3 or RA4. Ram air was part of the T/A package

[@TheFokker03]

i reckon that window sticker is made up

[@dcformee123]

I noticed on the original window sticker that the car came with raised white lettering tires and I'm kind of curious why you put red stripe tires they don't look really good with that car I think the raised white lettering would look nice with those hubcaps in the white car red walls not too good.

[@rollingstopp]

what ever the true horse power it came with is shouldve had 100 more

[@davestone983]

So many of the burnouts of the cars on this channel are lame and disappointing.....not this one. This Trans Am is pure balls.

[@proskills2168]

what's the P T B on the firewall mean?

[@tomlea3713]

Pretty sure it means "paint trim body" and not necessarily always in that order. Stamped by workers as the car made it's way down the assembly line

[@tomcherry7029]

Wow it even says it in the window sticker Safe-T-track not posi it is a Pontiac not a Chevy.

[@bobdudek3720]

Same engine in a GTO adv. HP was 366. GM could not have this car have more adv, hp than the SS396/ 360 hp Camaro.

[@chrisnizer1885]

Pontiac rated the Firebirds and the Trans Am lower because of the GTO. Had nothing to do with Chevrolet or the 396. Pontiac considered the GTO as their primary performance car and that's why they rated the same engines at lower horsepower. The ONLY difference was a small metal tab on the Firebird/Trans Am throttle linkage that prevented the secondaries from opening completely (90°). 5 minutes with a metal file and you were good to go. But it was done solely to keep the GTO as their primary performance car.

[@user-vn6vx6rf7d]

Not true actually. The only difference was the more restrictive exhaust system in the Firebirds. @@chrisnizer1885

[@lydiapawlak8564]

Those wheels have to go!

[@johnhall8364]

Nice car but the red lines are incorrect and also lousy looking. The other change I would make is to get it sitting right, too high in back. The correct factory stance is 1/2" lower in back than in front.

[@GlassTopRX7]

Nice looking car but the Ram air cars were week sauce, all of them. Are those side vent functional? End of the day they far more flash than anything else, they not match for most big block pony cars from the time.

[@TheFokker03]

no,the vents WERE mean't to work,but didn't.

[@user-vn6vx6rf7d]

Weak sauce? The RAIII and IV's were outstanding engines.

[@antikytheramechanism7909]

The designers of the Firebird put some fairly hideous things on the car and inside. It has a nose only a mother could love and they mitigated that in '69 by having part painted and the burled maple look vinyl interior was atrocious. Many people cover it in black or put Camaro parts on.

[@charlieb3943]

Why dog dish hubs?