camshaw

About 1988 I was 17 years old and at that age we all think we know our chit!...lol.....I had a 64 elcamino with a 350 I installed and a isky cam and wiand intake and a 650 DB Holley and a set of 456 gears on a 12 bolt posi....well being born in 1971 and having missed all the way cool stuff that rolled out of Detroit I was naive to say the least....lol....that's an understatement...

I thought my car was a good runner, I busted my knuckles just about everyday and always on the weekends...workn for $6.75 an hour or something like that, funds came slow like Im sure all u guys knew back then and before...I had a few runs with local buddy's on the street and my car was ok when I could afford to drive it...one day riding my bike through the neighborhood to see a buddy,as the elco was broke down again, I stopped at a guys house who had just moved back from an auto school in phoenix who was in his 20s and had an olds sitting on his driveway that he had brought home with him..I didn't have a clue what a 442 was, not even the foggiest idea. I had met him before through a buddies dad briefly...

He went on to explain his 442 was a 68 w30 4 speed and was real rare and super fast!.. I laughed at him and said, that old clunker, well get it running and we will see.....a week went by and I stopped at another guys house who lived in the tract and this same olds guy was there hanging out with another car, this time another 442, 1969 column shift,light blue with white vinyl top and all white interior and column shift and AC....He went onto explain that he had just picked it up off an old lady who got it new and he was doing a little tuning on it to get it up to par and it only had like 60k miles on it and he paid like 700 bucks for it, I laughed and he got offended....he said I had no clue and that I should waite for ten minutes and he'd take me for a ride, so being a punk kid teenager what else did i have to do, so he did....

camshaw

we pulled out of the track after letting it warm up onto a long straight street, he lightly rolled into the car to about 20mph and then nailed it!....Holy hell the damn thing came alive!!....it thru us back into the seat as the tires lit up and the car pinned us back into second gear and hooked up and pulled hard all the way to 3rd gear and by then we were almost at 100mph and I would have loved to see the look on my face!...I was dumbfounded!....amazingly stumped at how this bone stock old ladies car could run and pull that hard being all stock!

I was truly amazed, really floored at how fast a stock 442 could run!..from that time forth I was entrigued by oldsmobiles...skip ahead a year and through the same buddies dad I met a guy in his 50s who was a mailman and into muscle cars really heavy...big time into cars....I started hanging out when I could as his house to help him swaping diffs and motors and just working on his cars....get this....I will try and find the picture...but at the time he had 2 69 hurst olds' and a 69 convertable 442, a 68 hemi roadrunner and a 70 gsx and a 69 HO GTO.!...all sitting on his driveway and on the neighbors yard and in his garage...lol......muscle galore!

well this guys name was carl, he and I became good friends...He called his 69 Hurst "Hairio" It had run 13.20s with ac and electric seats and windows!....When I first met him all I knew about was a 442, I had no idea what a hurst olds was??? I stopped by to say hi one day and he went on to give me the history of the H.O. and how fast it was, well my unconvinced teenager ars still wanted to see it in action...the seats were out getting reupolstered but that didn't stop us!....he fired it up and damn it sounded kinda nasty!...we pulled out two milk crates and sat down and get this, buckled the seat belts!...lol....pulled out off the driveway and once it warmed up we clicked it into gear with the dual gate and idled down the street, turned onto a straight open road and he nailed it!....holy hell!....I mean holy hell I was convinced!.....I was sold, and from there on out I wanted a big block between my fenders and an oldsmobile was next on the list!.....just a good ol'memory.....good times....

z11375ss

Great story! When I was about 8 my friend's brother said if we raked the leaves or some such he would give us a ride in his 68 Dart. Big Block car, 4 speed, big gear. That I think led me to where I am today. Broke but with a few really nice musclecars. That thing seemed so fast! I bet it was a 12 second car which at the time WAS fast. Now, not so much.

oldcutlass

Ahhh the teen years, we were all easily impressed which is why we still wrench today.

MarineJusten

Awesome story! Love it!

Octania

x2

write more!

dancutlass

x3
How about telling us, how you found the Oldsmobiles in your signature then?

firefrost gold

nice one Cam . Mine started as a youg kid looking at a auto mag of my older brothers it had a 69 H/o with a 71 large decal on the rear quarter for sale in it . I thought it was so cool flash faward 6 years or so and my brother was rebuilding a 71 442 so he had lots of books from fusick and oldsmobile booklets , I at the time had a 65 gto and Pontiac was the first and only muscle car then i started reading about Rallyes and Hurst and w-30's . One day on my way to town i was 17 (1987) at the time 11th grade i seen a white car across the road . Yes a 69 hurst i stopped and talked to them abut it the car had a cracked head and was half tore down . got the number to the owner and bugged him for years and years .I looked at other cars from time to time when it was set in stone he was not going to sell and finding out he got it running and on one of the first trips out he was t boned just in front of the cowl i moved on. Found the car I have now. He still has the car. I stopped a couple of years back and talked to one of his kids she didnt even remember he had the car then she said i dont think I have ever seen it from under the tarp.

droldsmorland

Check out this link too...

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...mented+car+guy

camshaw

I picked up this little gem with 36k miles on it, its a cream puff!...my buddys father passed away and he inherited the car, he wanted a 71 split bumper camaro instead so he bought one and had me build him a 468" with aluminum heads for a street motor for the camaro, then he gave me the anglia!....a great deal, but being 6'4 its kindof a hard fit!...lol

no1oldsfan

Yes I know this post is seven years old. I think plenty of us have similar stories. Well some of us lucky ones anyway. I love stories like this. Really takes me back.

leftlaneonly

Great Read .. thanks for sharing