I was at a show with my 68 350 coupe last night and someone came up to me reminiscing about his old 23k original mile 67 RA 400 vert, which he sold several years ago for a very high price. The more I thought about it, I realized this was a very rare car.

Does anyone know how many 400 RA verts were made in 1967? The FGF site lists 65 total RA 400 engines were made for Firebirds in 1967, but doesn't specify between verts and coupes. 18.8% of total production in 1967 were verts. If you multipy 65 total by 18.8% it could mean that there were only 12 RA 400 verts made in 1967. Very rare indeed.

But I was wondering if anyone actually knew the answer.

I don't know that anyone knows the answer and I certainly don't, but I would guess a number lower than 12. The Ram Air option was a performance option and many of the cars went to people who would drag race them. A convertible would be of little use to them. For example, there were only 8 convertible Trans Ams produced in '69 out of a total of 697. That is 1.14% of all Trans Ams and much less than 1%, actually closer to 0.009%, of all Firebirds produced.

Agreed. My first reaction was the answer being NONE because of the drag racing issue mentioned above.

I am still looking for 1967, but I did find there were supposedly 12 RA I 'verts built in 1968:

'68 RA I Convertible

Another hard core rare Firebird for '67: My PHS documents show only 3 Ram Air I's with a smog pump for California.

Found the info on 1967 RA I's apparently on an orphaned info page that used to be part of the Premier Firebird and Trans Am Gallery.

The answer appears to be TWO

Both were automatics.

(Look down near the bottom under "Interesting Facts"

Firebird Gallery 1967 Info Page

Hope that guy you met got a pile of cash for that car.

Hijack alert! Look at the shifter knob in that '68 4 speed! We had a thread going a few weeks back... (sorry but I couldn't find it)... about black verses white shifter knob. Looks like black wins the prize!

OK, hijack over. Sorry!!

Did we ever have a discussion about factory floor mats? Because the one in that RA I 'vert doesn't appear to be a winner.

WOW, that is unbelievable - 2. That makes that car more rare than the 8 convertible Trans Ams from 1969. Thanks Salmon38.

I can tell you he said it was an automatic. The car was red with a red interrior and a white top. If I see him again, I'll find out more about what oprions it had. It was allegedly sold for $37,500 to Volo Cars in Volo Illinois about 15 or so years ago. Hopefully someone realized how rare it was and is taking great care of it now. What a find that would be!

I am going to make a wild guess and say he was NOT the owner of that 1 of 2 since this car would indeed be more rare than '69 T/A and Hemi 'Cuda 'verts. Those cars go for 6 and 7 figure prices.

Many people, including possible owners who are not knowledge freaks like us on these cars, get confused over the regular 400 hood with the twin (closed) scoops and the actual "Ram Air" cars.

Somewhere along the way, uninformed people started referring to the 400 hood as the "Ram Air" hood and bad info like that can get passed from owner to owner.

Kinda like how all cola's are "Cokes" and all limited slip rear ends are "posi's"

I believe you may have been the victim of some Car Show B.S. Bingo. Stuff were people come up to you and swear that their '67 Firebird came from the factory with a 455...

On the other hand, the price he quoted would be a totally reasonable sales price for a very low-mileage "regular" 400 convertable in excellent shape.

BTW, here is the Pontiac BS Bingo web site:

BS Bingo

You may be right, but he did describe the foam around the intake, and said his scoops were open and functional.

It is more likely that someone added the ram air intake on a normal 67 400 vert, and opened the scoops. There's no way of knowing without the engine codes and PHS documentation on the VIN.

And I do understand wht you're saying about people at car shows.... It was fun researching - I had no idea how rare true Ram Air birds are!

Thanks for all your help.

It was fun for me too. As I said above - my inital reaction was that there weren't any at all.

And definitely be on the look out for this person so you can talk to him more.

of course I met a guy who told me his parents had the same car I do, but a 65.....now THATS a rare Firebird! lol

My question would be - did the car have 97 or 997 heads on it? Any Firebird with the 670 heads was a not a ram air car. The heads above would have been the only ones used for ram air cars.

He didn't know the engine code, so I doubt if he would have remembered (or known) what the head code was.

If I see him again, I am going to pursue this, but to verify it would take codes not pictures - and I don't know if he would even be able to get his hands on that.

I think it's most plausable that someone put the Ram Air intake hardware on a low milage 400 to get a little more horsepower out of it, or for the cool factor.

In looking at websites for this, I somehow linked to a page that showed all the Firebird engines, camshafts they would have come with, etc. all in one table. Now I can't find the site. Any ideas?

Point of order...
There's a reference in Pontiac's parts catalog for 1st and 2nd design RA heads.
It goes by vin break.
Pontiac switched from 670's to 997's(probly late in the year) to do valve spring breakage(warranty issue).

Ok, the link to the site below provides some additional clarity. The 670's could be used on RA and regular 400 cars, but the 97's and 997's were installed only RA cars.

http://www.firebirdgallery.com/67codes.htm