Car of the Week: 1971 Olds 4-4-2

dodgechargerfan

dodgechargerfan

In a 55 gallon drum, floating down river, and
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When Tom Eberlin is roaring down the road in his spectacular 1971 Olds 4-4-2 W-30, he's not worried about too much.

He's not stressing about the big check he had to write to buy his prized machine. He just chuckles watching the gas gauge slowly move left as the 455 cubes under the hood inhale copious amounts of fossil fuel. He's not frozen by any mid-life crisis, worries about whether he made a wise purchase, or that it took him 20 long years to pull the trigger and buy the car he always wanted.

"I still have to wake up and go look at it to make sure I do have it," he says, almost apologetically. "It's hard to believe sometimes that it's mine... But there is zero buyer's remorse. The car wasn't cheap, but zero remorse!"

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I had to lop the last several digits to make the link work (everything after the final "2"). Nice rig... reminds me of my Atlanta days.
 
Should be Fixed.
I had an extra ] in there..

Fixed again... :P

It works now.
 
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!!!!!!
That's an awesome car! One of my dream machines if some day money didn't get in the way.
I too prefer the 70 model, but would take that one in a heartbeat.
Really nice that the guy uses it the way it was intended to be used too. :)

There is a 71 442 ragtop around town here in decent shape, but it's a 350 engine. Still nice, tho'.

For a couple years I drove my boss's 71 Cutlass S with a '66 425. I was seriouly impressed with how much torque those big block Olds engines had. It was decent enough on gas, for what I recall, though at the time mileage didn't mean much. I haven't seen a car since that could incinerate the back tires as easily as that Olds.

Fuck. Now I'll have Oldsmobiles on the brain for a few days... :)
 
I would have loved to have that notchback 455/4-speed '70 S that my friend's Dad just sold. The Oldsmobucket A-bodies are some of my favorite GMs.
 
This side of the 49th, the Cutlass S models were the sports-roof style, the notchbacks were labelled Supremes. F-85s were also the sports-roof style, at least in 1970.
A good friend has a real 69 H/O with a 455. The power is pretty impressive.
 
The car is nice, but in the article it gets annoying the way the owner keeps refering to the $$$$ that he payed for it. And judging by the neighborhood in the backgrounds, he has the $$$ to just buy the fruits of someone elses labors. Nice car or not, I get the feeling that this guys personallity would be equally annoying. :( The author of the article would have done better to not print the owners quotes.
 
restoman said:
This side of the 49th, the Cutlass S models were the sports-roof style, the notchbacks were labelled Supremes. F-85s were also the sports-roof style, at least in 1970.
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I had never seen a notchback S in my life, Resto. Every S I'd ever seen was on the Holiday Coupe body, never the Supreme. He had the documentation; it was the real deal. I'd seen SX models on the notchback, but never an S. I questioned it myself.
 
My mother had a '68 cutlass S 2 door. I guess it's a fastback-the rear window looks damn near horizontal from some angles. 350 2 bbl, ST300 2 speed auto, and it had that weird olds-intermediate-only rear axle that's 8.5" guts inside what's apparently a 12 bolt housing. Only Olds used that, only from '68 to '70, and only on the intermediates. The car still exists as far as I know, but it's been sitting in one place since about 1991 or so. I'd imagine rust has gotten it by now.
 
Unlike Mopars, the bolt count on a GM goes by the ring gear. There are 12-bolt axles with 10-bolt covers, but for the life of me I can't remember what models were so equipped.
 
I don't know of 12 bolts with 10 bolt covers, but like I said Olds had some 10 bolts with 12 bolt covers.
 
Dr.Jass said:
I had never seen a notchback S in my life, Resto. Every S I'd ever seen was on the Holiday Coupe body, never the Supreme. He had the documentation; it was the real deal. I'd seen SX models on the notchback, but never an S. I questioned it myself.
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I bet it would be worth some big bucks to an Olds collector.

Years ago I painted a 70 Supreme for an older Italian gent who was the original owner. It was very low miles, loaded, 350 4bbl car. Dark Green, Black vinyl top, dark Green interior and Olds Rally wheels. I got to drive it for a weekend while I had it. It had to be one of the smoothest and nicest riding cars I've ever driven. Plenty of go to it too.
I heard it went to the US after the old fellow passed on. I would have bought it in a flash had I known about it being for sale.
 
He's not much of a "mechanical" car guy! :D

“I think the motor had been taken out once, or maybe just pulled the head off. They did change some of the rings, and I assume that was so it would run on unleaded fuel…"
 
Yeah, I shook my head at that one. :D

Meanwhile, the exhaust seats are getting pounded through the top of the heads. :doh:
 
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