First off the white car is a completly made up car. The Ram Air was hand made from the owner in his garage. The pics of the parts of the Ram Air are some old pieces & some new pieces. The upper & lower new foam parts showing came from my collection that I sold to the now owner about 4 years ago. I bought them when I worked in a Pontiac parts dept. back in th 80's. Also all of the cars you see here were made up cars. none of them came from the factory that way. The only one you might be able to streach a bit & say it came from the factory that way is Tom Goades G/A wagon. It was a test mule that he bought from the factory while he worked for Pontiac a couple of years after it was made & put back to a reg. Le Mans wagon. He installed the G/A front end parts after he bought the car . The Ram Air & the interior parts of the G/A along with the Ram Air partswere left on the car. So that is the closest on that you can say came from the factory that way. All the others were converted into the Ram Air cars during their ownership. As far as the number of cars that were converted into Ram Air cars is really unknown , becasue there was lots of parts sold over the counter at the dealerships. I personally bought lots of the available parts when I work at the dealer.I know of 2 in my arae alone that were here back in the 70-80's. There has been a new want for the parts for the Ram Air for the 73's but as of yet no one has put up the money or the time to design one & repop the parts for it yet. maybe one day they will be out there but don't hold your breath.
My close friend is apart of our local GTO chapter and own a '66 and a '69 JUDGE. I remember when Jim Wangers came to one of the large GM muscle car shows as a guest of honor. A guy with a really clean all original 49,000 mile '73 GTO asked Jim Wangers if he can autograph his glove box. Wangers said the '73 GTO is a disgrace to the GTO legacy and walked off. I for one really like the '73-'77 Grand Am,Can Ams and '73 GTO. For Jim Wangers to say something like that is truly uncalled for, left a bad taste in my mouth about him to this day.
1) I had a similar situation 20 years ago at a Pontiac Oakland Club convention with a well known Can Am "expert" that has left me with a bad taste as well. I had information on what appeared could possibly be some information on a rare Can Am and was treated like a complete idiot when I asked a few questions as to how I could determine its authenticity.
2) In the early 80's I phoned a GTO "expert" and had a question about production figures included in a magazine article of his that was published shortly before that. I was trying to learn about GTO's. When I asked him about a particular statement in the article regarding 72 models, he scoffed at me like I was an idiot wasting his time. Great way to treat someone young (early 20's), eager to learn about these cars...
There's no room in the car hobby for that kind of stuff.
Sorry for the thread derailment here, your comment struck a nerve. If this is too much of a derail, just say so and I will start a new thread about this.
I have not really ever talked about either of these experiences before because they upset me so much.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
I think there's a delicate line between being very knowledgeable about something, and not coming across as arrogant or elitist when the opportunity arises to share that knowledge. Or provide opinion on what's correct, and put others' cars down because they are not perfect.
The thing I like about Canadian Poncho is I freely admit I know very little about most of the 1960's cars we focus on here, but I'm treated well when I do ask my ignorant questions.
...Carl, were your questions ever answered about the Can Am? I know some stuff and have access to a few knowledgeable people that can be quite pleasant to deal with. If I can help, let me know.
