That long wait was due to the foundry that RAR was using. They have since contracted with another foundry and the manifolds are available again right away. I actually have no personal experience with any of the re-pops other than seeing how friends used them on their cars. I have an original set of RA/HO manifolds that came on a 1967 400 HO parts car. The other set I have came from a 1968 RA 400 Firebird. The parts were in Sloatsburg NY and the guy also had a real RA hood with all the RA ductwork and air cleaner. He wanted $400 for either the intake or the exhaust. I went with the exhaust because my buddy and I felt that was the most bang for the buck on our '68 Firebirds. He warned us that we would 'never see this for sale again'. He sure was right about that. I was determined to save up and go back for that RA hood but with two small children at the time it was not viable. Still kicking myself in the butt for that. But the hood seals and foam parts were shot. Back then there were no re-pop parts, OEM stuff was super hard to get, and expensive. We used the two exhaust sets on two 1968 cars for many years and still have them to this day.