Not gonna lie—when I was a kid, there were few cars that were as desirable to me as a Pontiac GTO Judge. I don’t think I preferred one year over the other, as they all have their own strengths, but the original 1969 version is the one that was seared in my mind, what with the signature Carousel Red paint, rear spoiler, pop-art striping, standard Ram Air 400 engine, and blacked-out grilles.
However, thanks to the Internet, we are able to network with others and discuss topics that interest us, if not connect with those who know more than us. This is not new, of course, but knowledge has increased exponentially due to you and me being on this particular medium. So, would it surprise you to learn that blacked-out grilles were not a part of the Judge package but, rather, were dependent on ordering one of two available Ram Air engines?
When I first heard of this several years ago from an a popular Pontiac forum, I thought it was absurd—why change the grille color for an engine option? I was not alone as a naysayer, as evidenced by this 2010 thread in the Ames Performance Years Pontiac forum. But read further and someone posted images from an assembly manual that specifies different part numbers for grilles from cars with the L74 and L67 engines, respectively known as the 400 Ram Air (aka Ram Air III) and Ram Air IV.
It appears that black grilles were only a Judge thing for 1970-71 but, for 1969, it’s clearly a Ram Air thing and not just a Judge thing.
