Grand Am "ram air".

[kustomkid54]

Today when I was takening the car in to have door redone. A red Gran AM with V6 ran air tags pulled up next to me. After beating his gas padel to the floor a couple of times, I got the message (I'm old remember) that he wanted to race. When the light changed, he light them up. And I left him there. Are these cars not fast, or just another one of those guys that should be driving a VW?

[shooterc5]

My girl friends mother has a 2000 grand am gt with the infamous "ram air" and i have driven it a few times. Of course i had to see how much balls it had. All i noticed is that those 3.4s dont really hit their power band until about 3800 rpm. Let me tell ya my gtp would woop it ass because of it having way more torque across the entire rpm band. I really dont understand why people drive those damn cars around thinking they are the fastest thing to hit the streets because they say ram air HO on the side. Pretty lame if you ask me. But ill race one for a few laughs anyday. And another thing i have noticed upon looking under the hood of those i dont see where they get that its ram air.

[carnutcass]

Decent looking cars but not very quick. I think most of the modern GM Ram Air setups are all but worthless. More for looks than anything else.

[kustomkid54]

As I always say, Looked good in my rear view morror.
I thought he was just joking. Got off it at 55. Good thing it was the speed limit.
If your going to buy a Grand Am, you bought a family car. If you are going to add something that will do it some good, buy lights for the wheel wells or something.
OK, here's how old I am. Back in the 60's we used to the 65 and 66 442 and run some hose from the front of the bumper to the sides of the air cleaner and you have.... RAM AIR. Ram air is nothing but air being forced into the motor, with the right amout of gas. But then it took a lot time to get everything adjusted right. By ear.
Damn I'm getting old.

[theblurr87]

Originally Posted by kustomkid54

Today when I was takening the car in to have door redone. A red Gran AM with V6 ran air tags pulled up next to me. After beating his gas padel to the floor a couple of times, I got the message (I'm old remember) that he wanted to race. When the light changed, he light them up. And I left him there. Are these cars not fast, or just another one of those guys that should be driving a VW?

ah yes, the grand am...the redheaded stepchild the grand prix never wanted. were you driving the GTX? the grand am GT1 has 175 hp 205 tq, not too shabby, but the guy u left in the dust was an abolute moron.

[kustomkid54]

Maybe the "step kid" couldn't read?

[theblurr87]

Originally Posted by kustomkid54

As I always say, Looked good in my rear view morror.
I thought he was just joking. Shout it down at 55. Good thing it was the speed limit.
If your going to buy a Grand Am, you bought a family car. If you are going to add something that will do it some good, buy lights for the wheel wells or something.
OK, here's how old I am. Back in the 60's we used to the 65 and 66 442 and run some hose from the front of the bumper to the sides of the air cleaner and you have.... RAM AIR. Ram air is nothing but air being forced into the motor. But then it took a lot time to get everything adjusted right. By ear.
Damn I'm getting old.

that was the hemi right? and thats quite a ghetto "ram air" setup you must have had. i'm surprised your heart can handle the excitement of a race still

[kustomkid54]

It's the soft cookies I eat. I don't race. I just never go slow. Hemi goes in Mopars. Couple other cars have tried to use the name over the years. But no one else has ever pull it off.

[AKWE-gt]

Originally Posted by kustomkid54

It's the soft cookies I eat. I don't race. I just never go slow. Hemi goes in Mopars. Couple other cars have tried to use the name over the years. But no one else has ever pull it off.

ford use to have a hemi. i think it was a 381 or something. i now they had it their 50's or 60's trucks. i thought it was before Mopars?

[BIG-L]

Ford hemi's. The first Ford hemi was the 427 SOHC. Out of the box literally it was pretty impressive, called the 90 day wonder, NASCAR took one look at it and banned it. It's weak link was a 7 foot long timing chain. The cammer was making 600 plus at over 7000 rpm. They are very rare and pretty cool by any standard. They did drag race fairly succesfully despite some more rules wrangling. Just never were out there in significant numbers. The Boss 429 also referred to as the Shotgun was in street form not all that impressive. They did pretty well in NASCAR in 69-70 and have had significant success in some classes of drag racing. Bob Glidden won a number of titles with variations. Once again never on the scene long enough and in enough numbers to allow good debugging and development to occur. Both are so rare and expensive to not be all that significant compared to a truly mass produced engine like the various Mopar hemi's.

Chrysler did a great deal of work with hemi head engines in WWII, but it wasn't until the early '50s that they applied their knowlege to automotive engines with a 331 hemi in 1951.In the meantime a hemi head was made to fit the flathead ford. These ArDun heads were designed at least in part by Zora Arkus Duntov at Ford.
When Chrysler began developing hemi heads for inline sixes they recruited a number of guys who had worked on the ArDun heads. Together, using the knowlege of both Chrysler and the ArDun designers, they developed the early hemi engines.
There's no other relationship between these early stages of hemi development and the later 426 hemi, and Boss 429 Fords, than the fact that the guys who designed them built on the earlier successes of the guys from their own companies who came before them.
It may seem convoluted, but remember: in the '40s and '50s automotive technology was what we might consider rocket science, or nano-technology, pretty heady stuff. There weren't a lot of top-level engineers around, and the Big Three were more than willing to steal the best ones along with their ideas.
Of course, now that I think about it, they still do...

~Larry~

[kustomkid54]

1951 the "red ram" hemi. first came out with an auto trans with a clutch!
Had a friend with a Mustang (used to be a friend) with a 427 dual over head cam. Is that what your calling a Hemi? My GTO always ate him up. Guy ran 13" slicks and when he would shift, the thing would cut left. If you were next to him at the time, you were in trouble.
Ford built that motor so they could use it in stock car raceing. Same with the Dodge Daytona.

[Melvyn_with_a_GTP]

THe grand am Ram air is funtional, it takes are in through the front grill, but the posted hp increase i think is like 3 hp over non ram-air. I would conclude that it is more of a maketing gimick like wide track.

[kustomkid54]

Are you saying GM would take a $1000.00 of your moneyand not give you something?

[kustomkid54]

Are you saying GM would take a $1000.00 of your money and not give you something?

[Odin]

its funny the new marketing on the rams is it got a hemi w0w im sure that 2 valve hemi is far better than them 4 valve hemi 5.4 mustangs and excursions lol now adays HEMI is just a gimmick imports have bettered it years ago