Some major badasses that never got to production.....Too bad they'd be worth a mint today!!

Even in the musclecar era there was cool stuff that for whatever reason-infighting among the brass, not enough profit for the bean counters, whatever-never made production. Here's some that I really wish would have come to production. # 1. 1969 Pontiac Ram Air V. In 1968- Herb Adams and crew knew about Ford's "Tunnel-Port" Trans-Am engine-( "Boss 302" ring a bell? ) and were working furiously to build one of their own. However-they found out that the little 303 inch engines ran better with production RAIV heads. However-Arnie Beswick and Doug Nash and other Pontiac Racers discovered that the big heads-they had ports and valves like a big block Chevy- coupled with a HOT General Kinetics solid-lifter cam-REALLY woke up the 400 and 428 inch engines. They were making the same power and torque levels as the vaunted 427 Chevy and 426 Chrysler Hemi. They were making power to 7,000 rpm and beyond.  The only thing was they needed more bottom-end strength if they were going to live at those high rpms. We all know Pontiacs blow up if their run much over 5,800 rpm. In the early 60's Smokey Yunick had dominated Nascar with a 421 Catalina. He got them to live for 500 miles at Daytona by cutting down a 421 crank to 389 size. ( 389's had 3 inch journals, 421's had 3.25 inch journals ). Smokey and Fireball Roberts won 22 races in 1961-62 alone by doing this. Herb Adams and crew figured that same process would work on 428's and the upcoming 455. It would have-but for some insane reason Pontiac wouldn't warranty solid-lifter engines. Adams and crew pointed out that Chevrolet had several solid-lifter small and big-block engines that GM warratied-so why not a Pontiac? DeLorean nixed the project because of this. However-they had enough parts to build about 600 engines. Adams suggested they sell them to the public. Arnie Beswick and Milt Schornak had great success drag racing RA V GTO's and Royal Pontiac swapped one into a '69 Judge that nade the cover of Hot Rod-but there was never a production version. # 2. 1970 LS6 Nova SS and Camaro SS. The mighty 450 hp LS6 454 was slated to be optional in the Camaro SS and the Nova SS as well as the Chevelle line. Since a 396 was already an option in those cars-it would have been a drop in. And since a Camaro is 400 lbs lighter than a Chevelle and a Nova is 800 lbs lighter-they'd have been totally badass. For whatever reason-the brass decided the LS6 was only going in the Chevelle line. Which brings up....# 3. 1970 LS7 Corvette. Zora-Arkus Duntov-chief Corvette engineer fully expected the even more radical LS7 to make production as the 'Vette's top engine-so he didn't offer the LS6. The brass killed the LS7 at the last minute. That left the 370 hp LT1 350 as the most powerful Corvette engine that year. The LS5 454 was a "Station Wagon" engine rated at 360 hp-but it had a mild hydraulic cam and an iron intake and a Quadrajet. Everyone reveres the LS6 450 hp 454 with it's 11:1 compression and L78 396 cam. The LS7 454 had 12.25:1 compression and the legendary L88 427 cam. It would have easily topped 550 hp. Duntov was right-that Corvette would have been untouchable.  # 4. 1970 Pontiac 455 RAIV. In 1970 GM lifted their ban on intermediates having engines over 400 cubes. Chevrolet responded with the LS6 454 Chevelle, Olds unleashed the legendary "W30" 455 and Buick got into the act with the Stage 1 455 GSX. Pontiac however, stuck with the RAIII and RAIV 400 engines as the GTO's top performance options. You could get a 455 in a GTO-but it was a generic "Station Wagon" engine. If they'd put the RAIV heads, intake and cam on a 455 block-well-people might be hailing the 1970 GTO as the pinnacle musclecar instead of the LS6 Chevelle or Hemi 'Cuda. Why they didn't is a mystery. The 455 Pontiac never reached its full performance potential-imagine one with 10.75:1 compression, the free-breathing round-port heads,aluminum intake, and the hot 308 / 320 duration RAIV cam. Can you say 500 hp and 550 lbs of torque? In 1971 they introduced the 455HO which was a great street engine but it only had 8.4:1 compression and the very mild "068" cam. The vaunted "SD" 455 in '73-74 still only had 8.4:1 compression and the mild RAIII cam. Too bad. # 5. 1971 Boss 429 Mustang. The '69-70 models started out as 428 FE models and were sent to Kar Kraft for the Boss Nine conversion and Ford lost money on every one. The longer,lower,wider '71 Mustang was designed to accomodate a 429 from the start. They could have been built on an assembly line in Dearborn, which would made them profitable. But the Boss 429 only existed so they could race them in NASCAR-and in '71 Ford cut their racing program. People like the Wood Brothers and Bud Moore were still using them-but If the factory wasn't racing them-they didn't need a production model. Too bad-they'd have been badass. If only-the brass were gearheads.....Mastermind