orange442

Oldsmobile 305 V8? Did you mean 350? If it is a 305, it is a Chevy, not an Olds. Good luck with your sale.

Allan R

305 Chev engines WERE USED by Olds in 78. I also had a 78 Calais off the showroom floor with a 305 4bbl in it. Decent engine too. I imagine this will tick off a few of those who believe there should never be anything but Olds engines in Olds bodies. Fact is they also ran Buick engines in some factory produced Olds models.

The car looks excellent and the price seems reasonable. Good luck with your sale!

orange442

I also had a 79 Cutlass with the 305 Chevy which is the reason I asked the question above. Olds did not have a 307 in 78 so a factory V8 in a 78 could only be an Olds 260 or 350 or Chevy 305.

Allan R

Right! Here's the complete lineup of 78 engine choices

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Terry - the 78 Calais had buckets and console as standard equipment. Also U21 rallye pac, and sport steering wheel.
Looks nice - have a look - this also shows the options of T tops and PW/PDL, sport mirrors and padded landau roof. Note that in 1978 and 1979 the Calais was a separate model that used the Cutlass Supreme coupe body as base. They also had the unique 'Calais' hood and sail panel emblems.

vette442

Allan, there was a dark red t-top '78 Calais exactly like the one in the brochure rusting away by an off-campus maintenance building at my college in Indiana, PA in 1987 or 1988. I had just picked up my '79 Supreme (which was very nice) but I wanted to get that Calais so bad for some of the upgrades. Could never find out who owned it....

Terry

Allan R

Terry, from memory it was a wonderful car. Great ride, excellent performance and loved the styling. Mine was silver lower with the burgundy padded roof, SSIII wheels and sport mirrors, B85 moldings. Really a sharp looking car! Interior was exactly like the illustration I posted. Too bad you couldn't find the owner. I really wish I still had mine. That was the first year it was produced and IMO 78 was the nicest.

BlueCalais79

You could get bucket seats in a Supreme but they did not recline, like they do in the Calais. I bought my 79 blue Calais in 1984 from one of my landscaping customers, and I didn't even know the seats reclined for years until I wondered what that lever was for. Good thing I wasn't driving it at the time I found out what it did!

Anyway, the 305 with the 4 bbl really wasn't all that bad for its day and I think you got standard a 2:41 rear axle (the 2:29 was a custom order), instead of the standard 2:29 if you had the F motor Olds 260. The red Cutlass for sale above looks like its worth the price tag, per the photos provided. I think this one's also on e -Bay (?).

Looks like they used virtually the same photos in the 1978 Sales Brochure as they used for 1979 for the Calais.

Allan R

The 78 and 79 Calais both used the red emblems. The 78 olds brochure shows the same pics in a different format.

BlueCalais79

Yep I revised my note on that one my error. My Crestline book has a nice photo of the front of a 1978 Calais and the ornament & header panel emblem are black. But then again the whole photo is black & white. D-OHH! Also, I'm not seeing this car on E-Bay, I may of had it confused with a different one.

Allan R

Here's the 78 Calais page. There is a disclaimer at the back of the catalogue stating the interior for the CS is shown instead of the proper Calais one where the T tops are shown. Personally I like the 78 grills better than any other year. Don't like the wheel covers, which is why mine had SSIII's

Allan R

Too bad the car didn't come with a hottie in the reclining bucket seat like the pic shows OH WAIT - Just found it: That's RPO 2L8

oldcutlass

I moved this conversation away from the classified adv. Carry on.

Allan R

Thx Eric! That was the right thing to do keeping the OPs sale on target. My apologies for the side track.

joe_padavano

Just for completeness, the 305 Chevy was the largest gasoline V8 offered by Olds in the 1978 A-body line, except for the Cutlass Cruiser wagon. The wagon could be had with a 350 Chebby motor for high altitude regions (apparently the 305 ran out of steam with a loaded wagon). The Olds 350 was only installed in the 1979 H/O and the 1980 442.

BlueCalais79

Allan, yes that's correct and then some, the T-Top car is actually a Cutlass Supreme Brougham, you can see the "pillow top" cushion in there. Ridiculous that it found its way onto a Calais page. What a mis-match. I've never owned or driven a 78 or 79 Cutlass that had a Chevy 305 in it, but it had to be better off the line, what with the extra 35hp over the Olds 260 and a (very) slightly higher axle ratio.

What I have owned though, was a Cutlass with a 231 Buick V-6. And I can honestly say, never again. What an underpowered d-o-g that car was. It was actually rated 5hp less than the 260 wheezer but it had NO torque and you'd better be good at picking your spots getting onto a highway with a drivetrain like that!

These days in my 79 Cutlass Calais I have a 3:08 posi with a 200R4 trans matched up to the Olds 260. I got the 4th gear so I don't blow up the motor. And it's worked out quite well, I only use 4th on the highway or when I'm going above 50 or so. With this set up I got back my 1900 rpm at highway speeds and so about 20 to 22 mph pure highway. Good enough.

Allan R

Yes, the disclaimer in the booklet says it's a Cutlass Supreme, not a Calais. They used it apparently as a quick fill in for a car with T tops. IDK

The 305 Chevy 4bbl was a decent performer, as I said earlier. It was also very dependable and I never once had to take it in for any service work. Just the usual GOG regular mtce account.