Anyone who has read BangShift for any amount of time knows that I have had an intake manifold obsession for, well, forever. I am fascinated by how many different designs, applications, tricks, failures, guesses, and straight up genius have been applied to these pieces of air moving equipment over the years. My favorites are not just the oddballs but the oddballs that have some neat backstory and some really rare provenance. And here we are.
This Shelby box ram style intake which was offered as an over the counter sales item from your friendly Shelby parts dealer is actually way more than that. After reading up on these and looking this piece over, the words “Buddy Bar” are cast into the bottom of the plenum. Bar was a high quality casting company at this time and clearly they made this piece. Some of the Shelby experts say that if you see one of these it means it was originally installed on a DragonSnake Cobra intended for drag strip action! That would also make it one of slightly less than 40 ever made. How awesome?!
Now, even if the DragonSnake part is not 100% true, the piece is still very rare, especially with the single 4bbl top on it. Perhaps it was run in a class where dual carbs were a no-no? Either way, this is just an interesting piece of history that I never knew existed until I dove down the Rabbit Hole today!
eBay: This Shelby Ram Box intake is wildly rare and cool – hit the images to see more!
The runner design of this manifold is very similar to the intakes on the Summers Brothers quad hemi land speed record-holder car, Goldenrod. Over 400 wheel-driven MPH on the salt.
There were 2 versions. Single 4bbl and dual quads. We had one of the single 4bbl on the SuperStocker when we were playing around. Autolite carb and a Paxton. Not many 130MPH 289 Mustangs back in the late 70’s early 80’s………
I actually have a Ram Box on my 1968 Shelby. I also have both single and dual carburetor plates.
Wow! A friend I worked with at the Ford garage let me borrow his Ram Box single four manifold. I put it on a pretty much modified 289 that I had tried numerous 4v intakes on and this Ram Box made the BEST power. It also looked so cool in the little 63 Falcon engine compartment. I tried to buy it but he was not selling. I have looked from time to time for one to buy but so far I have not been lucky. Great article
I actually have a Ram Box on my 1968 Shelby. I also have both single and dual carburetor plates.