Notice the air cleaner?

Recognize it at all?

Image was taken by a professional, but I can't pinpoint it - is it a prototype piece? Is it some aftermarket item? I can't seem to find any context.

On a possibly related note, anyone familiar with the car Paula Murphy drove?

 

Pretty cool, but I have never seen one quite like it.

 

Interesting. Is it some kind of 3 Deuces / J2 setup? I must admit I'm not good at identifying Olds paraphernalia.

 

It's in a '66, so not J2.

 

waaaay back when, i saw that in a magazine, like road and track????car and driver??? from the 60s, its a prototype W30, a real GM piece that didnt make it into production...

it really has a 66 GTO look with the pan and lid..looks like a real GM piece that was adapted it looks like the 3 open element lids made into a large lid.....

i was in my 20s when i saw that..so..its been over 30 years..i cant remember where i saw it, but..ive seen it...my cousin had mags all the way back to the 50s and when i would spend weekends there..id spend hours and hours looking thru them..things like that just stuck with me, i even thought about making one at a time in the late 80s for my 66 GTO..now..i want to make one for my 66 Catalina..lol...

thanks for the great memory and heart palpitations...love it

 

I know Car Craft did something in the August 1966 issue, but it doesn't have this pic. I know the pic is from the CC files. So you think it's a prototype piece?

 

its been sooo long..

there was a write up on it...but as best as i can remember there was a caption that talked about the a/c as a prototype heading for production or the writer was hoping for production..i wish i could remember more...it has just been too long

 

Car pictured has power steering and brakes, not quite the W30 thing for 66.

 

i cant remember..its just been too long..i agree on the power stuff..but i seem to remember it, just not all the details..too much time has passed

 

It could have been a first generation prototype for the W30. A later version--also a prototype--was used in the August 66 Car Craft article, which also used prototypes of the "bezels" [air intakes in the bumper] and the 4" diameter hoses. The hoses in the above photo looks like the same type of prototype hoses as in the CC article.

 

BTW, the engine compartment in the above photo looks like the same one as in the CC article; both have the heater hose/bypass hose reversed from the correct positions and have the deluxe round wiper motor and other details. It is likely that this car (probably Dave Landrith's who worked at Hurst) was used in parts development for the W30 option, since it got a lot of prototype stuff rather than a final package in one step.

 

66 W 30 cars were available with P/S.

 

The only car I remember Paula Murphy driving was the red Mustang fastback. She was at Green Valley match racing with two others.

 

I believe Paula Murphy drove a 65 442 and a 66. There are pictures around showing her in the 65 and along side a 66 with trophy and also a turquoise 66 color picture with 66 wagon tow car of the same color.

Here is my post in the Race Car thread here...
Some searching on the web about Paula Murphy netted this from an interview.

So in ‘64 you went to Indy and so you were doing Bonneville and Indy. When did it lead to Super Stock cars?

Murphy: In '65. I was in a ‘65 Oldsmobile that Dick Landy had driven and prepared. Then I had a ‘66 that he prepared and we ran C/Stock Automatic. We kept getting protested because he put in a 4-speed station wagon transmission in the thing and it was really supposed to be just a 3-speed. The Buicks had the 4-speed, and they just killed us all the time. Then Landy put the 4-speed in. They would say, “I can hear another shift... We can hear another shift.” But the tech people never tore the transmission out of the thing, because it looked just like a regular 3 speed.

That's classic - So you guys were touring with this car?

Murphy: No, we just ran locally in California."

The trans thing has me guessing a little.

 

This one?

 

And this one, the other pict I think was also with the 66HHO, cant seem to find it...

 

That last pic is of the car in which I have the whole car in an image. I was curious if the strange W30 pic I posted is of the same car, but I am thinking they are unrelated.

 

The other picture I was thinking about, what a great pict this is!

 

No, they aren't the same car. The round wiper motor indicates that the car with the prototype air cleaner is a 3807 or 3817 and the one with Paula is a sedan, probably 3407 (I don't see the 3800 series chrome on it).

 

Also, she was based in California and prototype development was almost certainly done in Michigan, apparently in conjunction with Hurst employees (based on the Car Craft article and logical inferences from it).

 

It has a power trunk as well. It is missing the PB vacuum hose clip. It also looks like there are no AIR plugs in the heads.

There are a lot of hours in that air cleaner. It does look like they started with a GTO ram air pan for the lower. The O/A thickness of the unit looks like it was fashioned to hold an air filter, obviously unlike how they used the bases inside the units of production cars. It is tough to say but it almost looks like there are blend lines around what could have been stock individual air cleaner tops. The lip at the perimeter is something.