MyQuad4

I happened upon this when I called a yard looking for restoration parts the other day, a spoiler and a few miscellaneous things. It wasn't catalogued in his computer, but the owner of the yard knew it was there. He wanted to go look at it and said he'd call me back shortly. When he called he said he had the spoiler, then continued to say that the car it was on wasn't a Calais International Series, it was a Quad 442. I got excited but held it in, and asked if was a whole car or just parts on the shelf, he said it was a nearly complete whole car! Then he added it was red, and it was strange...the motor was red and said W41 on it! He went on to add that he had never seen a Calais with manual windows...I got even more excited!! I went and took a look at it, and bought it! Now, let the restoration begin!!!!

redoldsman

Congrats. It is good you are bringing one back from the grave.

oldcutlass

Nice score

CRUZN 66

Great find...

70-442-W30

Just read to the bottom of the wiki and under "Racing" it listed 900 and 1000 HP versions of a Quad 4! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_4_engine

Gary M

That's a YARD find. Wonder how many people walked by that not knowing what it is? You would think the owner of a salvage yard would know but good for you he didn't.

Looks like the body and paint is in good shape.

MyQuad4

Not only did he not know what he had, after we negotiated the price I told him what he had and he still didn't care. Too many years in the salvage business I guess.

MyQuad4

Thank you! Yeah, it looks pretty good from what I can see, but...once I get it up in the air I'll know the truth. I am expecting the worst but hoping for the best.

MyQuad4

Look up "Oldsmobile Aerotech", thats where those engines were used. World speed records were set with them.

MyQuad4

Thanks, he said he's had it for 16 years! Very little has been picked off it in that time, luckily.

MyQuad4

Thanks! I'm excited! 1 of 204 built and I have one!

Yellowstatue

And the bonus is you can re-leaf many trees in your neighbourhood.

MyQuad4

Well played!

Chris J

That's an awesome find great job!
keep us posted on your progress looking forward to seeing it come to together.
Chris

ELY442

What salvage yard is this?

Human

I've seen plenty of Calais with manual windows. I owned an '86 Calais Supreme and my mom briefly had an '87 Calais GT, both of which had manual windows.

MyQuad4

I understand what you are saying, but if you know about THESE Calais models you would understand what I meant. Oldsmobile built 2 identical looking versions of this package, the W40 and the W41. The W40's got all of the options, power windows, locks, seats, cruise control, etc, but the W40's only got the high output version of the quad 4 engine, 180 hp. They built over 1000 W40's. Then there is the W41. It was built as a factory prepped race car. They deleted all of these options to save weight, making the car faster. W41's got a special engine, the W41 quad 4. It had higher lift/longer duration camshafts and special tuning, squeezing out another 10 horsepower (they claimed, it is actually more like 30). W41's also got special gearing in the Muncie/Getrag built transmission to help with low end acceleration and increase the top speed. They only built 204 of these, 20 of which deleted air conditioning and added a special limited slip differential to the gear box. Those 20 were built for the SCCA Showroom Stock series racing, and won the championship in that series in Calais form in 1991, and Achieva form in 92 and 93. This is one of the 204. Very rare, in fact it is my understanding this is the rarest car GM ever built! Rocketguy can qualify that. The lack of power windows was a HUGE clue as to what the car is, not so inconsequential.

Human

Very interesting. I was not aware of that. It seems you really did find the proverbial unicorn. I will follow this thread with interest as you bring this very special Calais back to life.

olds 307 and 403

As much as I hate FWD cars, that is super rare and ran mid 14's, very impressive for 1991. Great find.

Olds64

Oh yeah, very cool!

442

Nice score!

oldcutlass

Curious to see what it will take to get it running and what the cause may have been for scrapping it.

70-442-W30

I was wondering that too.

MyQuad4

I have been wondering the same thing. It lived it's life in North Carolina according to Carfax. In 6/2003 it was involved in an accident with "Very minor damage reported". The title is clean, no salvage or rebuilt title. I am very perplexed. I guess the deeper I get into it the more I will learn...

Olds64

Good to hear that I has a clean title. I hate seeing cool cars for sale that don't have a clean title.

MyQuad4

I kinda grew up during the big change from rwd to fwd. I have owned both currently and in the past. I learned to drive in my dad's 1976 Cadillac Sedan deVille, that car was my first car love. If you could parallel park that car you could parallel park anything! My first car was a 1984 Pontiac J2000 Sunbird SE, front wheel drive, stick shift, station wagon. I drove taxi and school buses working my way through college, all rwd vehicles. I have an appreciation for both, but when it comes to snow give me front wheel drive if I can't have 4 wheel drive.
As for fast, they are very respectful, especially for the time period. They had more horespower and weighed 1000 lbs less than a Camaro or Firebird V8, and I know from personal experience that they ate Mustang 5.0's for lunch. The best part of these cars was how well they balanced the horsepower and handling, they are nearly perfect, hard to overpower, fun to drive cars

Thanks, I am quite excited about this!

MyQuad4

For those of you that don't know much about the Quad 442 here are a couple of things I found on the interwebs for you.

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1...engine#image=3

http://hooniverse.com/2013/08/13/two...t-collectible/

http://www.442.com/vcs/1973_pres/smalley.html

http://autoweek.com/article/car-life...or-beretta-gtz

http://autoweek.com/article/junkyard...alais-quad-442

http://autoweek.com/gallery/junkyard...obile-quad-442

jensenracing77

Very cool! I had car number 9 for 15 years. This is on of my top 3 favorite Oldsmobiles list.

MyQuad4

HAD? I bet you regret selling it! Where did they mark them? Was it in the trunk?

Bunser

Nice find! Will watch the resurrection with great interest.

jensenracing77

I very much wish I still had it. The only place I know of that had the order number was on the window sticker.

stevengerard

Wow, I had no idea the W41s were even rare let alone that rare. Was never a fan of these cars but am now. Great find, its great to see someone who appreciates a car find a diamond in the rough. Good luck with it. I'll have to read all the links you posted.

anthonyP

Surprised to see 3.94 axle ratio, even with the 5-speed. Odd how they spelled "Ralleye" for the gauge package.

jensenracing77

And still got over 30MPG with 3.94 gears... The window sticker showed 29 but I check it many times and got between 30 and 31 MPG.

On the other end of the spectrum, It would get 4 MPG at 115 MPH. I made a 50 mile run on I-70 at well over 100 MPH and it sucked the fuel. It had a speed limiter at 115 and a rev limiter at 7400 RPM.

TK-65

In 1991? Id guess yes. Ever, not even close.

MyQuad4

Out of curioustiy, what was more rare?

Olds64

Oops, I guess it's 1 of 4. I should have read the details.

https://www.barrett-jackson.com/Even...CEPT-CAR-22627

MyQuad4

Oops, you missed something....that is a concept car not regular production. Apples to apples this isn't.

Olds64

Yeah, I guess you're right. Here's an Olds 98 that I thought was a custom but was apparently something offered back in the day.

https://www.carsforsale.com/vehicle/details/13014842

Here's a thread about it.

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...kind-olds.html

Rocketguy

You actually checked the mileage and got four MPG?