cjsdad

Was driving home with the wife and kid in the car this last weekend and passed a 66 or 67 Cutlass that was cruising kinda slow. I'm still not too sure of the year because by the time I was close enough to try and figure it out, I saw the Hurst badges and got totally lost trying to identify what year it was. Gonna hafta keep my eyes open for it to see if it pops up again. It looked all original, but I know absolutely nothing about the Hurst vehicles. It looked like a 442 until I was close enough to see the Hurst badges. Can the gurus of the H/O club give me some background on the 66-67 years so I can recognize what I'm looking at if I see it again? Thanks!

edzolz

There were no 66-67 Hurst Olds made. Possibly it was a 68 (black and silver) or 69 (white).

Run to Rund

Some owners have added HO emblems that were commercially available to other years. Hurst employees were actively involved in the development of the 66 W30 but it was not an official situation.

cjsdad

Having owned both, I certainly know the difference between the two distinct body styles, and it was definitely a 66-67 body so it may be a home-made Hurst. A tribute car, or just someone's personal paradise, dunno. But that explains why I didn't find any threads with 66 or 67 in them when I searched this part of the forum. Thanks for the backhanded info though.

cjsdad

Thanks Dood, that may be the situation. It was a nice car and like I said, it looked like a 442. At least it had a louvered hood. But the Hurst badges completely threw me off. I live in a rather rural area and don't see too many other 66-67 Cutlass in my area so they are noticeable when they show up. I'll keep my eye open for it and maybe catch him again at the store or something and get some back story on it.

69 Hurst

There are badges out there that say "Hurst Equipped" that were used on cars that came factory equipped with dual gate shifters, perhaps that is what you saw? I think they are usually mounted on the rear of the car on the drivers side. My buddy has them on his '66 GTO.

Just a thought...

edzolz

Wasn't meant to be backhanded, just stating a fact that what you saw couldn't have been a Hurst Olds.

hurst68olds

this aftermarket "HURST equipped" emblem has been reproduced and is found on many cars today

it was not a factory installed emblem "back-in-the-day" on anything

69 Hurst

Thanks for the clarification.

cjsdad

It was a pretty quick drive-by, he was driving very leisurely and I was at speed but that does look like the emblems that were on the car. Looked like he had one on the trunk lid, one on each rear fender (at least the driver's side rear anyway) and one on the front grill bar where the "Cutlass" or "442" emblem would normally be. Can't wait to see it again and get more info on it. Gotta be a good story behind it. Anyway, thanks for all the info. I need to peruse this forum a bit more. There's a lot more to these Hurst vehicles than just the badges it seems. Besides Linda Vaughn, of course.

Koda

There was one 67 Olds with lot of Hurst gear and two engines, but it's dead.

69 Hurst

I think the Hurst Olds Club owns it now...

Gmcdually

I have never heard of this car , anyone know more ?

Fun71

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurst_Hairy_Olds

4speed455

Hurst Hairy Olds is the name given to a pair of exhibition funny cars campaigned by Hurst Performance in 1966 and 1967.

Developed with help from General Motors engineer John Beltz, the Hurst Hairy Olds was built to be a showcase for the then-new chain-driven automatic transaxle of the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado as well as a rival to the Hurst Hemi Under Glass. There were doubts in the automotive press as to the strength of such a system; the Hairy Olds was designed to dispel these doubts.

The car debuted at a meet in Bakersfield, California on March 4, 1966. Driven by Joe Schubeck, the Hurst Hairy Olds began as a fully trimmed and later upholstered Oldsmobile 442 in body in white (BIW) form. Hurst installed not one but two 425 in³ (7 L) Oldsmobile engines and Toronado transaxles both front and rear; a pair of drag parachutes were mounted in the stock taillight positions and four-wheel disc brakes were fitted as well. Two engines meant two of virtually everything in the cockpit related to the operation of the car, including two cable-operated shifters, two tachometers, two sets of oil pressure and temperature gauges and even two accelerator pedals. Additional power was provided via a Cragar Equipment-modified 6-71 GMCsupercharger atop each engine, each burning a blend of nitromethane and alcohol. Weight was reduced through the use of aluminum body components and Plexiglas windows. The result was a 2400-horsepower, four-wheel-drive exhibition drag racer which smoked its front and rear tires down the length of the race track with times in the eleven-second range.

Although the drive chains held up admirably, the car was not without its problems. The tremendous amount of power at the front wheels caused massive torque steer, resulting in difficulty in keeping the car in a straight line. The rear engine contributed to unloading of the front wheels, which in turn caused the front engine to overspeed. Visibility was poor as well due to tire smoke from both ends of the car. This coupled with engine oil spray out of the valve cover breathers because of the pressure of the superchargers.

A second Hurst Hairy Olds was built in 1967, but was wrecked during an exhibition race in Niagara, New York.

The 1967 car was the subject of one of the most popular model kits of the 1960s, a 1/24 version produced by Monogram.[1]

The 1966 car presently resides at the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing, Michigan;[2] the wrecked 1967 car was shipped back to Hurst Performance and dismantled.

Run to Rund

I would like to see some verification of the above--it was my understanding that there was only one car, updated for 67, and later cut apart and buried, etc. I believe only the hood and maybe front bumper, both aluminum, were discovered decades later. I thought the car presently in the museum is the re-creation done by Dennis Mothershed.
https://www.hotrod.com/articles/hrdp...ry-oldsmobile/