THE PERFECT TEN 4+4+2

I love the GTO page so here is one from another extinct manufacturer that helped define and shape an era. Released the same year in 1964 as an option for the F85 and Cutlass it boasted a 330 CU inch rocket, upgraded to the 400 the following year. It was a "stand alone" vehicle only from 1968 to 1971, meaning all of the other years (1964 to 1987) it was an option for the Cutlass A body. I have heard the numbers stood for 4 speed, 400, and dual exhaust. 400, 4 bbl, dual exhaust. It's like trying to figure out what the Z stands for in Z28 (Zora). It stands for fun, fast fun!

Here is a photo my wife took the other day in the back yard. It is unedited and I think she nailed it.

I know a lot of people on the HAMB are not muscle car fans, which I get sorta...ish. I have never thought about it this way but after WWII, vets returned home with mechanical knowhow, money and perhaps a bit of angst and built hotrods. After the Korean War (1953) there was another surge of HP and bigger, faster, overhead valve, drag cars and land speed record holders. The Vietnam War vets came home to dealerships across the country and bought muscle cars. If I had a dollar for every guy that walked up to me at car shows and told me about buying or ordering a 442 after he returned from Nam...well I could buy a few gallons of clear for the Olds.

Oddly the Iraq War veterans returned just as the modern muscle car era was launched in the early 2000's. Maybe I am making US armed conflict dates fit production car eras in my mind, or perhaps, just maybe every one of us that enjoy this hobby owes a huge thank you to our servicemen lucky enough to return, in possession of a DD-214, some cash and a passion for speed and power.

Regardless of my rambles, please post up your photos, stories, what-have-you and celebrate everything that is the Oldsmobile 442. Ransom would have been so proud.

 

Sweet ride there Billy, 68 I presume?

 

when I had my GTO a buddy with a 442 told me GTO stood for Go To Olds.

 

Yeah, it's a 68. Not a numbers matching car by any stretch of the imagination.

I have never heard that one , rude but funny. I actually was looking for a 69 GTO ragtop when a buddy found this over in Portland in a guys backyard. He sold me the car for $1500 and told me I could take anything I wanted out of his yard as he was done playing with them. I carted away tons of cool options and parts.

I still have a soft spot for a 69 GTO with hidden headlights, PMDs and a hood tach. [sigh]

 

In '64 it was (4) barrel, (4) speed (2) dual exhaust

And later when you ordered one with an automatic the (4) speed was swapped for th(4)00

 

Billy, do you live in a castle? First picture looks like it. When the 442 first came out, the local dealers ads said 4 bbl carb, 4 speed, and dual exhaust. So in Minneapolis that's what 442 meant.

 

At the top of our street lived a family with an only child. I was around 13 yrs old and car crazy. One day their son came home with a new orange Oldsmobile 442 with the black stripes, hood pins and rear wing. It was of course a four speed too. Every day he would go to work and I could hear the car start up with its low rumble. He would idle the car down our street in first gear. It had a lope to it and it sounded like the most powerful street car I knew. Months went by, and one summer day he arrived back home with something new. Shoe polish class designation and a track time in the low 13’s. Well the car couldn’t be any cooler than that.

 

I remember sitting in study hall, circa 1968, and oggling over an Olds add in a magazine showing a full frontal of a 442 with the air inlets under the front bumper. Coolest add ever!

 

I prefer the term chateau.

 

Do you have any animals in your moat? Sharks, alligators etc?

 

No, but I have mosquitos on my putting green that are quite annoying.

 

The mosquito is our state bird.

 

They really enjoy my wife, she has bumps and welts everywhere. They land on me but I don't taste as good, probably the Bourbon.

 

You must be drinking the wrong Bourbon

 

Definitely one of my favorite years of that great Oldsmobile!
Bravo Billy!

 

The 68's and earlier are harder to service as GM made a lot of changes in 69-72 that stuck for the next decade or more like keys on the columns for example. One thing I was grateful for was after painting my car nearly 28 years ago, I realized I had no antenna hole. Not wanting to cut one in I found that the windscreens were the same as the later model A bodies. I was able to fit a tinted glass with the antenna inside. Still in there.

 

What’s a wind screen? My cars have windshields.

 

I've been watching that damn Gran Tour TV show again on the telly. I get all "boots and bonnets" now and again. Clarkson, what an arse (damn, did it again).

 

O.K. Billy, I have a garage full of Oldsmobile's a 1968 442 Holiday Coupe, a 1968 Cutlass convertible, and a 1967 Delmont 88 convertible. The 442 I purchased on my 19th Birthday in 1977, the Cutlass I bought in 1997 to fix up for my wife to drive, the Delmont 88 my parents bought new and when my Dad passed I became the care taker of that. So I'll try and post a picture or two of the 442 and Cutlass here. None of these cars are perfect by any stretch I drive em all that's what they were made to do and I enjoy that. So they have their bumps bruises nicks and chips they may even have a little rubber on the quarter panel at times. Joe

 

Here are a few of the 442 I think I have posted a couple on one of your other posts. Joe

 

I love the SS1 wheels on the S and I spy a 442 grille. I like it in red too!

 

I never get tired of your 442. It has "the stance". Definitive Day 2 muscle car look about it.

 

Yes I put the 442 grille in it because I like it. Obviously. Having owned the 442 for 48 years I have had MANY tire and wheel combinations on it. I like the low maintence and looks of the steelies I'm too lazy to polish wheels anymore! LOL Joe

 

Yeah, I have had SS2 painted to match the body, SS1's with red line tires, TT's with no center caps, 15x10 vette rallies on back with MT DOT drags (that was a tough look), and now the SS1's again but with TAs. I have QA-1s on the front so it easy to adjust the height and attitude. There's QA-1s in back as well in place of the coils.

 

Always had an affinity for the lesser known Ramrod W-31 (442 Jr.). Known for occasionally beating up on it's big brother (if equipped properly). An older friend had a red one w/4.33's. Left some heavier hitters scratching their heads on Saturday nights.
You guys have some beauties BTW!

 

The 15x10s is the look for sure. Must be an Oldsmobile thing, I too have had the SS2 with body color paint, polished TT's and of course ss1's but I cheaped out and ran black wall tires. The 442 has 15 x 8s rear and 15 x 7s front at the moment. The Cutlass is 15 x 8 rear and 15 x 7s front. Joe

 

I had a buddy that had a Red Ram Rod 4 speed car can very well for sure! Thanks Joe

 

I have seen some quick ramrod Olds in my time. So is that a small block car?

 

Olds cutlass' had such huge rear haunches! You can't fit 15x10s on many cars without "hangin" them outside the fenders. If I remember correctly, the back spacing to make them fit is 5.25"? something like that. When I had the rears mounted the tire shop didn't think they would fit under the car. They installed one, let the car down and crawled around it checking clearance. They couldn't believe it. I had 68-69 BBC Chevelles, 15x8 was the widest wheel I tried on them. No clue on the goats or Buicks.

 

Yes the Oldsmobiles have some very good and wide wheel wells I like the !5 x8s because I can get a taller tire when you put a 275/60/15 on a 10 inch wheel it seems to be a little lower to me. Joe