73 442 olds question
February 15th, 2014, 05:16 PM
#1
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73 442 olds question
Im having problems decoding a vin for a 73 oldsmobile supposed to be a 442. has all the markings. however he says it has the 350 in it. no 442 emblems inside...
vin is 3J57K3M513237 how can you actually tell if it is a true 442???
thanks for your help
vin is 3J57K3M513237 how can you actually tell if it is a true 442???
thanks for your help
February 15th, 2014, 07:18 PM
#4
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The 4-4-2 package included body-side and decklid decals, 4-4-2 radiator grille, black hood louvers, grille and decklid numbers, rocker panel and wheel opening moldings, Rallye suspension package (heavy-duty front and rear stabilizer bars, heavy-duty rear suspension upper control arms), and 14 x 7" wheels.
February 15th, 2014, 08:03 PM
#7
morgan
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February 16th, 2014, 05:44 AM
#8
Old(s) Fart
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Northern VA
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Sorry, but as someone who actually had a driver's license at the time, the first OPEC-driven gas shortage didn't start until late 1973. The 1973 model cars were already on sale long before anyone had ever heard of OPEC. The performance downgrade was due to two things - insurance premiums on performance cars and EPA requirements.
February 16th, 2014, 06:41 AM
#9
morgan
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: CT
Posts: 1,925
Sorry, but as someone who actually had a driver's license at the time, the first OPEC-driven gas shortage didn't start until late 1973. The 1973 model cars were already on sale long before anyone had ever heard of OPEC. The performance downgrade was due to two things - insurance premiums on performance cars and EPA requirements.
February 16th, 2014, 09:01 AM
#10
Old(s) Fart
Join Date: Mar 2007
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I take it you were not yet born in 1973...
February 16th, 2014, 10:51 AM
#11
Connoisseur d'Junque
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: The Hudson Valley
Posts: 21,183
I "think" a lot of people don't have the exact events and their sequence firmly in their minds.
By the late fifties, American cars had gotten really huge, with no "small" offerings, unless you count Rambler and the Nash Metropolitan.
Cars were these eighteen-foot-long things that glided smoothly and quietly down the new interstate highways, or so the car companies would have you believe.
Starting after the War, some GIs had begun to ship home European cars, and there was a growing underground of crazies who drove these tiny cars around. MGs, Triumphs, Austin-Healeys, Volkswagens, Porsches, Saabs, and Volvos could all be seen here and there (though often not by other drivers - my father was smacked in the middle of a clear intersection on a bright day in a bright yellow 356B by a guy in a Lincoln who got out of his car absolutely shocked that there had been something in front of him on the road).
These smaller cars were a minor amusement until the recession of 1958 (the one that killed the Edsel), when the idea of a car that was cheap to buy and cheap to operate suddenly became more appealing to a larger swath or people.
As a result of this, Detroit began to develop smaller cars, which, in accordance with Joe's statement, came to market about three years later, in the early sixties - cars like Valiant, Comet, F-85, Special, and Corvair.
These cars started small, but, as the economy improved in the early sixties, grew larger, or were discontinued (GM ran the Corvair until 1969, but that was an anomaly). Through the sixties, though, as American cars began to grow again, VW made increasingly significant inroads, as there was a growing fraction of people who no longer saw the appeal of big American cars.
The American carmakers saw this, and began, once again to develop a few smaller "utility" cars for this specialized market, such as the Maverick, in addition to fielding smaller cars that were aimed at the "sportier" buyer, such as Camaro, Firebird, Mustang, and Barracuda, but as we rolled into the seventies, the preeminence of the large American car was completely unquestioned.
In the early sixties, GM discovered a market for a very large engine in a large, stripped-down car (the 409 Impala, and then the 426 Catalina), and other marques followed suit.
In the mid-sixties, the idea of putting these engines into mid-sized cars, such as the GTO and the 4-4-2, came to mind, and the muscle car was born. These cars had suspensions that were improved compared with their milder stablemates, but were still wildly hard to control by modern standards, and, as those of us who were around can attest, had a way of finding their way to trees, telephone poles, and ditches with surprising frequency.
Manufacturers responded with things like bigger brakes, but also responded to competition by engaging in the "cubic inch war," which resulted in the initial 330 of the '64 4-4-2 inflating to 455ci bu 1970. This phenomenon was not unnoticed by those who might be affected, which included various traffic scolds and, most importantly, the insurance companies, who could see their payouts for certain types of cars going through the roof and responded by sending premiums for those types of cars right up there after them. They also responded, primarily through the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, by advocating for legislation to reduce their liability by reducing the power of these cars, and their efforts began to pay off as the sizes of engines increased.
Also, in the early sixties, people in Los Angeles (and, to a lesser extent, in other cities) began to notice visible "smog" in the air, and increases in respiratory illnesses. Along with movements to clean up rivers, streams and oceans polluted by industry and sewage, to stop rampant littering, and to reduce the proliferation of billboards along the highways, the movement to reduce air pollution became stronger and stronger, first in California, and then in the rest of the country.
Lobbying by the insurance industry and the air pollution foes culminated in 1967 in Federal laws mandating crash resistance, seatbelts, headrests, dual-circuit master cylinders, four-way flashers, theft prevention devices (column locks), PCV valves, and mild pollution controls, all of which were phased in over several years.
The most stringent early air pollution rules came into effect for the 1971 model year, and, at the same time, the automakers thought it prudent to avoid a war with the insurance companies, and backed down on the power levels, rather than designing more powerful engines that would also conform with the new rules.
Notice that none of the above has any relation to fuel economy.
Fuel economy was completely ignored by the American automakers, except when advertising their smallest cars, and, with gas prices around 35¢ a gallon, drivers really didn't care very much. Through the early seventies, cars continued to get bigger and heavier, and emission controls reduced efficiency massively, resulting in staggering drops in gas mileage.
Then, in 1973, OPEC embargoed oil exports, and all of a sudden there were lines around the block at gas stations, even/odd rationing, purchase limits, "No Gas" signs, and a spike in prices.
People were freaked out.
They headed for smaller cars in droves, discovering that those sneaky Japanese were offering cars with much better fuel mileage at good prices.
Carmakers rushed to compete, hurriedly designing smaller cars with better mileage, and the government joined in, beginning mandated improvements in fuel economy beginning around 1977.
The rest, as they say, is history, but the point is that Detroit was headed solidly toward reduced performance and reduced fuel economy until 1973, when their huge cars became dinosaurs literally overnight, at which point they tried to come out swinging against an opponent who already had them beat, and have been fighting a losing battle ever since.
- Eric
By the late fifties, American cars had gotten really huge, with no "small" offerings, unless you count Rambler and the Nash Metropolitan.
Cars were these eighteen-foot-long things that glided smoothly and quietly down the new interstate highways, or so the car companies would have you believe.
Starting after the War, some GIs had begun to ship home European cars, and there was a growing underground of crazies who drove these tiny cars around. MGs, Triumphs, Austin-Healeys, Volkswagens, Porsches, Saabs, and Volvos could all be seen here and there (though often not by other drivers - my father was smacked in the middle of a clear intersection on a bright day in a bright yellow 356B by a guy in a Lincoln who got out of his car absolutely shocked that there had been something in front of him on the road).
These smaller cars were a minor amusement until the recession of 1958 (the one that killed the Edsel), when the idea of a car that was cheap to buy and cheap to operate suddenly became more appealing to a larger swath or people.
As a result of this, Detroit began to develop smaller cars, which, in accordance with Joe's statement, came to market about three years later, in the early sixties - cars like Valiant, Comet, F-85, Special, and Corvair.
These cars started small, but, as the economy improved in the early sixties, grew larger, or were discontinued (GM ran the Corvair until 1969, but that was an anomaly). Through the sixties, though, as American cars began to grow again, VW made increasingly significant inroads, as there was a growing fraction of people who no longer saw the appeal of big American cars.
The American carmakers saw this, and began, once again to develop a few smaller "utility" cars for this specialized market, such as the Maverick, in addition to fielding smaller cars that were aimed at the "sportier" buyer, such as Camaro, Firebird, Mustang, and Barracuda, but as we rolled into the seventies, the preeminence of the large American car was completely unquestioned.
In the early sixties, GM discovered a market for a very large engine in a large, stripped-down car (the 409 Impala, and then the 426 Catalina), and other marques followed suit.
In the mid-sixties, the idea of putting these engines into mid-sized cars, such as the GTO and the 4-4-2, came to mind, and the muscle car was born. These cars had suspensions that were improved compared with their milder stablemates, but were still wildly hard to control by modern standards, and, as those of us who were around can attest, had a way of finding their way to trees, telephone poles, and ditches with surprising frequency.
Manufacturers responded with things like bigger brakes, but also responded to competition by engaging in the "cubic inch war," which resulted in the initial 330 of the '64 4-4-2 inflating to 455ci bu 1970. This phenomenon was not unnoticed by those who might be affected, which included various traffic scolds and, most importantly, the insurance companies, who could see their payouts for certain types of cars going through the roof and responded by sending premiums for those types of cars right up there after them. They also responded, primarily through the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, by advocating for legislation to reduce their liability by reducing the power of these cars, and their efforts began to pay off as the sizes of engines increased.
Also, in the early sixties, people in Los Angeles (and, to a lesser extent, in other cities) began to notice visible "smog" in the air, and increases in respiratory illnesses. Along with movements to clean up rivers, streams and oceans polluted by industry and sewage, to stop rampant littering, and to reduce the proliferation of billboards along the highways, the movement to reduce air pollution became stronger and stronger, first in California, and then in the rest of the country.
Lobbying by the insurance industry and the air pollution foes culminated in 1967 in Federal laws mandating crash resistance, seatbelts, headrests, dual-circuit master cylinders, four-way flashers, theft prevention devices (column locks), PCV valves, and mild pollution controls, all of which were phased in over several years.
The most stringent early air pollution rules came into effect for the 1971 model year, and, at the same time, the automakers thought it prudent to avoid a war with the insurance companies, and backed down on the power levels, rather than designing more powerful engines that would also conform with the new rules.
Notice that none of the above has any relation to fuel economy.
Fuel economy was completely ignored by the American automakers, except when advertising their smallest cars, and, with gas prices around 35¢ a gallon, drivers really didn't care very much. Through the early seventies, cars continued to get bigger and heavier, and emission controls reduced efficiency massively, resulting in staggering drops in gas mileage.
Then, in 1973, OPEC embargoed oil exports, and all of a sudden there were lines around the block at gas stations, even/odd rationing, purchase limits, "No Gas" signs, and a spike in prices.
People were freaked out.
They headed for smaller cars in droves, discovering that those sneaky Japanese were offering cars with much better fuel mileage at good prices.
Carmakers rushed to compete, hurriedly designing smaller cars with better mileage, and the government joined in, beginning mandated improvements in fuel economy beginning around 1977.
The rest, as they say, is history, but the point is that Detroit was headed solidly toward reduced performance and reduced fuel economy until 1973, when their huge cars became dinosaurs literally overnight, at which point they tried to come out swinging against an opponent who already had them beat, and have been fighting a losing battle ever since.
- Eric
February 16th, 2014, 01:07 PM
#12
Old(s) Fart
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Northern VA
Posts: 47,902
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