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UltimateGTO.com Photo Detail Crystal Blue Turquoise 1969 GTO Hardtop

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A Royal Bobcat GTO. Customized and sold only at Royal Pontiac dealership in Michigan. This is THE original Bobcat which was showed and raced all over the country before the other Bobcats were made. Picture was taken at Domino Farms in Ann Arbor Michigan at the annual GTO Classic Weekend. The original brick Royal Pontiac dealership was sold to another owner and then torn down. Jim Wangers said that he visited the demolition site and got some bricks from the original building. The bricks were auctioned off in 1997 for charity.

Here's some information on the above car supplied by Bryan Wilemski. (His wife's brother owns it.) It's a 1969 RAM AIR V Royal Bobcat. The factory did not install the engine but Pontiac did order the car to be built for Pontiac with the help of Royal Pontiac. I do remember some of the history of the car. John Delorean and Jim Wangers ordered the car for a Pontiac Development Project. Pontiac picked it up from the factory W/ the RAM AIR IV engine. Usually the dealership would be the next in line to take delivery at the end of the assembly line. The paperwork read something to the effect of ordered for Engineering Development Demo with a cost of $2300. The car was selling for around $3400 new. Pontiac gave the car to Royal and had a full RAM AIR V motor delivered to Royal Pontiac. Royal Pontiac did the Bobcat RAM AIR V installation and was the first owner to title the car. They displayed, raced and showed the car to all the car magazines with Milt Schornack and Jim Wangers. Even though there was a little over 200 RAM AIR V engines produced most of them were sold in pieces or were purchased by the people with connections. John Delorean, Mickey Thompson, Race Teams, Executives of GM, etc. The 1969 Royal Bobcat which received the RAM AIR V engine from Pontiac was not an assembly line installed engine but was a Pontiac ordered RAM AIR V GTO. The documented history of the car and all the paperwork make it a great collector vehicle. Does anyone know of any other documented RAM AIR V GTO's from Royal Pontiac? There is some George Delorean did in his own shop after he purchased the Bobcat rights. Does anyone know the whereabouts of these?

Here's an email that Warren Hanbury sent to Bryan Wilemski about the Royal Bobcat car, above:
From: Warren Hanbury (warrens-warriors@prodigy.net)
To: Bryan Wilemski (wilemski@RUST.NET)

Hi , seen the ram air 5 article of yours on Sean's site, very nice. We own the original set of RAIV headers that were custom made in 1969 for your wives brothers GTO for the May 1969 Superstock magazine test article along with a 69 ram air III Judge. They were put back in the original box like new, I guess when they dropped in the 5. I bought them in the mid seventies. We would like to find other five owners to possibly start an owners registry or just to trade parts or whatever.

Warren Hanbury

Interior Color: black
Visible Options: royal package bobcat hideaways hood tach stripes

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dragonhead00:   I read about this car back in 80-81 (the photo showed daylight under the front wheels at the start of its 1/4 mi. run). From what I can remember, this engine developed 500 +/- hp and over 500 lb/ft of torque. Also, It ran at or better than 11's. Correct me if I'm wrong but I also believe the parts necessary to build the RA V were available over the counter in '69. Bandit:   Gotta love the Bobcats. Saw a shootout between restored muscle cars. They went through a bunch of tests. It featured a Yenko Nova, Baldwin Motion Camaro, Shelby GT500, AMC Rambler Scrambler, Mr. Norms Dodge Superbee, and a 69 Ram Air IV Royal Bobcat. The Bobcat had the best quarter mile and best 0-60 time. The Bobcat ended up winning over all. Roger Wydler:   The Ram Air IV GTOs and Judges were some of the strongest performance cars Detroit ever released for the street. A 1970 RAIV Judge driven by Knafel Pontiac set 3 records at the summer nationals in one day. Milt Schornack raced a 1970 RAIV Judge to 11.80s! Not surprised to see the Royal Bobcat beat the other super cars on Dream Car Garage. mickey d:   I happen to own a 69 Carousel Red Judge and a while back I bought from Costco a disc package set of muscle cars (Judge was on the cover) with Dennis Cage and there is a guy that owns a Ram 5 Judge. He has claimed that it has the only set of cast iron Ram 5 exhaust manifolds. It was very interesting to see. He stated that the car was originally Ram Air 3 and someone had this motor installed. (edited) Click here to add your own comments.      -or-     See the newest comments sitewide.

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