For Sale - 1971 Royal Pontiac Trans Am

What were the changes made to a royal pontiac

 

Looks like a nice one!

Ace sold the Royal Racing Team to George DeLorean (John's bro) in April 1969. So no more Royal Bobcats after that. Maybe George did some mods to this car at his shop?

Royal offered everything from tune-ups to engine swaps, Sean. Here's an outline of what a Bobcat kit consisted of within the following text ...

1964 Pontiac Tempest GTO Road Test ? Review ? Car and Driver

1. The main jets were changed to .069 in on all three carburetors for maximum acceleration. Normally, the center carburetor runs lean (.066 in) for cruising economy, with rich jets (.073 in) on the outboard carburetors for occasional bursts of speed. The Royal treatment gives a more even mixture distribution at a slight increase in steady-speed gas consumption.

2. A progressive-action throttle linkage is installed to calm the beast down for boulevard use; it's also more accurate than the stock linkage.

3. The distributor is modified to limit centrifugal advance to 7° (14 crankshaft degrees) and initial advance is set at a whopping 20–22° (total advance, 34–36°, is reached at 3600 rpm). This makes a tremendous improvement in low-end response (i.e., below 3600 rpm) but substantially raises the octane requirement.

4. The heat riser is blocked off, a special (thin) head gasket from the Super-Duty 421 engine is installed and still more compression is gained by installing Champion J-10Y plugs without gaskets.

5. Finally, special fiber-insert rocker arm retaining locknuts are installed which permit the hydraulic lifters to function as a solid lifter—operating at 90% bleed-down.

 

So how would a 1971 Royal Trans Am 455 compare with a 73 Super Duty in terms of performance?

 

A Royal Trans Am, circa '71, would've been as factory-delivered, as the dealership had sold their performance division to George a couple years prior - no more Bobcats. Guessing an SD would have an edge on a '71 455 HO. Though a '70 Ram Air IV T/A might be right there w/the SD. Figure they'd all be pretty fun, though!

 

I had a thrill ride back in the day in a '70 Ram Air IV, the car was wicked fast.

 

Mentions being modified by Royal, & it has the emblems, but it isn't specified what changes were made. What makes this car special?

 

Mentions being modified by Royal, & it has the emblems, but it isn't specified what changes were made. What makes this car special?

 

And even more rare than the '73 SD (88 v. 252 total).

 

Royal Pontiac performance department (Bobcat kits) was sold to Leader Automotive in early 1969 as Tenney said. In early 1970 Royal Pontiac was out of business. This 1971 Tans-Am could not be a Royal car or even modified by Royal in anyway.

 

I agree with what your looking at that I would have to say it is a Royal Pontiac car but......

If you do a search on dealer codes for Royal Pontiac you will notice that Royal was bought out in 1970.

I would have to purchase my own PHS to make sure that Royal was on the billing history card. So many people make up their own PHS info.

If the car was a true Royal car, the performance dept was no longer around by that time anyway, but if it was, to make the claim of a Royal Bobcat car you would have to have proof of the Bobcat part and I don't see any proof.

 

I am trying to find the month that Royal Pontiac was sold to Bob Shaffo Pontiac in 1970.

 

Royal was still called Royal when Bob Shaffo owned it (It would later become Jim Fresard).

Before Ace sold the performance division to George circa 04/69, Royal would sell Royal Bobcat kits to other dealerships, in addition to individuals.

It is possible that this Trans Am had the Bobcat Kit installed at another dealership, where they remained in inventory for years, in some cases.

Also, Royal's Milt Schornack went to Leader (George DeLorean's) along with the parts inventory, and could've performed some work on the car. Although ...

By '71, think he'd left George's for his own shop, Royal Automotive. Could've done some work on this Trans Am there at the time?

Cool car, Mike. Hear where Roger's coming from, though, in that the owner/consignor might want more paper than the PHS to document the Bobcat tune ...