Willis!
Kool & Wow! It didn't bore me for one nanosecond!
I love to hear this stuff, for it's what I grew up with.
Milton Schick
1964 442 Cutlass
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Willis Dennis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <oldsmobile@chebucto.ns.ca>
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2006 12:49 PM
Subject: Re: 65 442 w/425 revisited
Tom:
I had the chance to do an interview with Jack "Doc" Watson at his office
in Michigan a couple of years ago. He told me that the 1968 Hurst Olds
cars all came down the Cutlass assembly line with the 455 engine, and as I
recall OW code transmissions already in place. The bodies were painted
Peruvian silver (a left over Toronado color) It had taken too long to put
the deal together so the whole car could not be assembled in house since
it was late in the production run. John Demmer came on board to finish the
cars at the Demmer Oakland Avenue plant in Lansing. Demmer had been the
Oldsmobile "skunk works" for a lot of special projects. Including the 1966
W30 L69 racing program.They made the tooling for the L69 shrouds. Dave
Mauer and Tom "Blake" Blankenship from Olds engineering, did a lot of
testing (racing) using the Demmer owned race cars. Some of you may
remember the "Rectifiers" from Demmer Tool & Die. I am by no means
challenging anything posted here. I am simply relaying what was told to me
by "Doc" Watson, Dave Mauer and Phil Yakley (John Demmer's right hand
man).
As memory serves me (at 61yrs. old), I bought the original Rectifier a
1964 F85 vin 804M206072 (I still have the owners manual with the protecto
plate). 2dr. post, 4-speed., radio and sound deadener delete, with 1304
actual miles on the odometer. It was sitting out front of Demmer with a
for sale sign, so I stopped to see how much. Mr. Demmer was just
finishing up a meeting but he took time to tell me that '64 was a former
race car that had been recently used as a company car for two weeks. None
of the staff would drive it because it was noisy, it leaked when it rained
and the women did not like to drive a standard shift. . Since I had gone
to high school with his son Bill, he gave me the keys and told me to go
check the car out. When I came back his meeting was over and he introduced
me to Jack Watson from Hurst. (I had already met Jack as the "Hurst
Shifty Doctor" at the N.H.R.A. Nationals at Indy) John asked if I would I
like to see a prototype of a new Cutlass project. Since I was working for
a printing company 2 miles down the road and still on the clock, I really
did not have time to go to the rear of the plant to see this project. I
just wanted to know how much for the F85. I accepted and went with them
anyway.
There was a silver 1968 Cutlass with blue lace hood stripes, blue deck
lid and blue lace strips along the side. Sitting next to it was a pile of
parts. A 455 engine, turbo 400 trans, "O" type rear axle assembly and a
set of traction bars made from 2" box tubing 54" long that bolted to the
rear axle housing in place of the lower control arms and then to the frame
under the doors. I wasn't that interested in what I now know was to become
the Hurst Olds. I sure did want that 1964 race car. John said he would
take $700.00 for the 1964 F85 and I could have the whole pile of parts
sitting on the floor. Plus some slicks and a couple of ring and pinion
sets (5:00 to1). Two days later it was all sitting in my driveway being
inspected by my racing friends. Not trying to bore the list. Just share a
little Olds history.
Willis
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Stoner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Oldsmobile ListServer" <oldsmobile@chebucto.ns.ca>
Sent: Saturday, February 25, 2006 9:48 AM
Subject: Re: 65 442 w/425 revisited
On Sat, 25 Feb 2006 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
. . . I know it was said "back in the day" that the 1968 and
1969 Hurst/Oldses had their 455's installed at Demmer after
they went down the assembly line. However, I also have
read the 455's were actually installed on the assembly line
through some wink-wink deal Olds concocted up -- anyone
have evidence of this?
*****************
Ken,
I don't know that any evidence on exactly how those early H/Os were
constructed has ever come to light, including any first-person accounts
from those who were there then. It makes no sense whatsoever though,
that cars would come off the end of the line without engines and
transmissions. That would be a logistical nightmare. Since this was sort
of a fleet purchase deal, it makes much more sense that the 455 and
special THM-400 were line installed as the cars were assembled. We're
only talking about a couple day's worth of production in total here for
each year and I'll bet the VINs would confirm that these came down the
line in batches. I know there are quite a few photographs in existence
that show '68's being completed at Demmer. There aren't any pictures
showing engines being swapped however, nor any pictures I've seen with
engines sitting around in the background. That whole engine swapping
process just would have taken too long for even the 500+ 1968's to have
made it out into the world. So I don't think they could have come off
the line with the standard 442's 400 in place either. It just only makes
sense that Olds built them with the 455 already in place.
Tom Stoner
Ann Arbor
2004 Oldsmobile Alero GL sedan
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Past Oldsmobiles owned by my late wife and me:
1968 442
1972 442 W-30
1975 Starfire (second worst car I've ever owned)
1976 Cutlass Supreme Brougham coupe
1976 Cutlass Salon coupe (T-Tops)
1979 Toronado (diesel)
1979 Hurst/Olds
1979 Cutlass sedan
1987 Toronado Trofeo
1991 Ninety-Eight sedan
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