Story
1968 Pontiac Firebird Ram Air II
The 1968 Pontiac Firebird Ram Air II is one of the narrowest first-generation Firebird performance paths. It sits beyond the base 400, the 400 HO, and the earlier Ram Air 400 story because the Ram Air II brought Pontiac's round-port 400 into the F-body line for a short mid-year window.
Reviewed sources agree on the headline: this was a 340-horsepower Firebird engine path and Trans Am World reports 110 Firebird Ram Air II cars for 1968. Silodrome repeats the 110 total and reports 98 Muncie M21 four-speed cars. Other references and auction summaries report 12 automatics. Those figures are useful context, but this page treats them as reported production numbers rather than a substitute for PHS documentation or a factory ledger on a specific car.
Specification details also need care. Over-Drive's Firebird fact sheet lists Ram Air II automatic and manual specification rows with 340 horsepower at 5,400 rpm and 445 lb-ft at 3,800 rpm. The Pontiac V8 reference lists a Firebird-specific 340 horsepower at 5,300 rpm and 430 lb-ft at 3,600 rpm. The public page shows that as a source discrepancy instead of flattening it into a single unquestioned line.
For buyers and restorers, the proof stack is paperwork and component agreement: PHS/order documentation, engine-code and casting/date evidence, round-port heads, carburetor and induction details, transmission and axle markings, paint and trim tags, and period ownership records. The gallery uses same-year Firebird context photos and source-based graphics; hood tach, scoops, stripes, or a nice restoration do not prove Ram Air II identity.