When it comes to prized collectors' cars, members from the 'Big Three's' respective fleets are sure to dominate your attention. The Chevy Chevelle and Ford Mustang are some of the first to come to mind. Though you really shouldn’t underestimate what Pontiac’s bringing to the table.Pontiac is often credited with starting the muscle car movement in 1964, but it didn't stop there. It continued thinking outside of the box and pushing the envelope to produce some of the wildest and most desirable muscle machines of all time. Still, it has many cars Gen Z collectors might not know about, with one being the missing link in almost every fleet.We've updated this article with more information about this legendary muscle car. More details about Ram Air engines and the GTO Judge package have been added to give readers more historical context. Pontiac Started It All, And Dominated The 70s Bring A Trailer There’s a bit of debate surrounding what the actual first muscle car is, but there’s no denying Pontiac was among the first to really market the sort of ‘60s machine most people are familiar with. The 1964 GTO was a mid-size car stuffed with an engine typically reserved for full-size platforms, aimed directly at the youth. Performance was the name of the game in Detroit for years leading up to this moment, but this is when things came to a head and the golden age of muscle began.The 1964 GTO is desirable to collectors for obvious reasons, but it’s not the only one to light auction houses on fire when it shows up. Pontiac is also credited with producing the last real muscle car before the oil crisis set in, the 1973 Pontiac Trans Am 455 SD, which is known to generate a lot of hubbub when it hits the block. You can't forget the 1963 Pontiac Catalina Swiss Cheese cars that tend to get collectors’ heart rates up as well. However, none of these stack up in terms of value to a variation of the coveted GTO Judge that is known to bring in millions when the gavel falls. The 1970 GTO Judge Ram Air IV Convertible Is The Missing Piece Mecum The GTO was already considered muscle car royalty by the mid-to-late 1960s. Then, in 1969, Pontiac upped the ante with a mid-year trim introduction that’d become one of the most iconic machines of all time. With a name inspired by Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In skit, the Judge was a no-nonsense, performance-oriented beast originally intended to compete with the Plymouth Road Runner.The Judge’s intended audience was originally the budget-minded consumer. Think of teenagers who wanted to buy a hot car with their savings from a summer gig. It was intended to be a stripped-down package, with a pop culture reference that appealed to the youth, just like the legendary Plymouth. However, by the time the decals, hood scoops, wing, and high-performance engine were added, it ended up being a few hundred dollars more than the base GTO. The same sort of thing would happen to the Road Runner as years passed, but that's a story for another day. Either way, the price tag didn't stop the Judge from becoming a muscle car icon. In 1970, a version of the Judge was produced in such scarce numbers that it’s now one of the most valuable cars of the era. I’m speaking of the elusive 1970 GTO Judge Ram Air IV convertible. While a grand total of 3,797 Judges were built in 1970 according to Hemmings, just 17 were produced in this trim.These cars left the factory with one of Pontiac’s best engines of the time, too. Under the hood was the legendary Pontiac 400 Ram Air IV. These were absolute torque mills that made the Judge convertibles hardy cruisers that could keep would-be contenders in check. Here’s What Makes Ram Air Cars So Special Mecum What makes these cars extra special really is the Ram Air system, and not just because it was a rare option. Most of you have probably already put things together to discern what that name actually means. You would be correct to assume that it’s partly because the hood scoops are the real deal.The Ram Air option popped up in 1968 for Pontiacs. It was a feature available to the GTO, which made the hood scoops a functional part of the intake system. Thanks to special seals, the engine could only draw in fresh, cool air from outside the car. While this will boost performance alone, engineers didn’t stop there.Cars that came with the Ram Air feature also got revised engines that could make better use of the cool, oxygen-rich charge. The Ram Air IV was the fourth and final version of said engines. It was a 400 cubic-inch Pontiac V8 outfitted with round-port heads, an aluminum intake, and a special cam.Interestingly enough, Pontiac also developed a Ram Air V setup that was poised to take things even further. It was never featured in a production car, though. Instead, it was designed exclusively for Trans Am and stock car racing. The package is most well-known for the massive intake ports in the cylinder heads that the pushrods passed directly through. It didn’t work out as well as they’d hoped. Suffice it to say, engineers would rather the Ram Air IV be the more celebrated version. One Mean Pontiac 400 MecumIf you’re familiar with the Pontiac 400, you know it’s essentially a 389 with an overbore. This made the Ram Air IV the sort of package serious gearheads would put together to take their V8 to the next level anyway, short of headers.The official rating given to these engines was 370 horsepower and 445 lb-ft of torque, which was a nice bump up from the base 400’s 350 horsepower rating. This was a lie, though. That put the Ram Air IV on par with the meanest cars of the era. The ‘70 GTO Judge Ram Air IV Convertible Dominates Auctions Mecum The 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge is a that’s always going to make a stir at auctions. It’s a gorgeous machine with muscle car prestige all gearheads and collectors can appreciate. That’s why Classic.com shows an average price of roughly $110,000 for this generation GTO, which is in line with any poster child of the era.That said, Ram Air IV cars routinely bring in significantly more, including hardtops. A 1970 Ram Air IV GTO Judge of the likes sold for $346,500 in 2023. A year earlier, another went for $319,000. Both were sold through Mecum events.While that is impressive, Ram Air IV GTO Judge Convertibles push things even further. Several examples failed to sell at auctions with bids reaching as high as $650,000. As nuts as that sounds, said bids were placed after a ‘70 Judge Ram Air IV convertible sold for $1.1 million in 2023, snatching the title as the most expensive Pontiac muscle car ever sold. The One Time a Convertible Is Better Mecum The Ram Air IV Judge convertible is the most valuable GTO ever built that’s naturally missing from most collections. Its elusive nature makes it easy for it to slip under anyone's radar, especially younger enthusiasts who’ve likely never even heard of it. If you’re fortunate enough to ever find yourself in the position to buy one, do it.That’s not to say it’s the only right choice when it comes to GTOs. All are fantastic examples of golden age performance and have the potential to run with the best. In fact, if you’re after ultimate performance, you’re better off skipping the fabled soft-top and replicating that Ram Air IV formula in a base Tempest, only cranking the dial even further than Pontiac dared to.