By Marcal Eilenstein
Here’s a sweet, silver machine for your enjoyment. Let’s take a look, shall we?
In 1968, George Hurst and his friend Jack “Doc” Watson took a 455 and stuck it in a 442. The rest, as they say, is history. Oldsmobile and Hurst would go on to produce some of the iconic muscle cars of the 70’s and 80’s. What we have here is an example of one of the last Hurst/Olds ever built.
A few details from the ad:
84′ Hurst Olds, 350 Olds with 2004R tranny with lightning rod shifter, 373 gears. Runs good and drives nice! Factory engine and trans goes with the car along with some other parts. The driver door does have some rust and probably needs replaced other than that the car is very solid. Nice 20 footer, great cruiser! Odometer reads 50k, however I am not sure how accurate that is. Good MO title, $5500 OBO. Ready to cruise, lightning rods and all!
The Hurst/Olds was a popular choice for Oldsmobile enthusiasts, but throughout the entire production run from 1969 to 1984, only 16,000 were built, and just 3500 units were produced in 1984.
The 1984 model came with a sturdier 8.5″ rear end. It also came with some amazing red velour interior. Nothing says malaise like a G-body interior.
I’m not sure whether this is considered rare yet not valuable, but the price on it is certainly worth giving it a look.
Hat tip for this Craigslist find goes to my dad, who actually spotted this H/O while driving through town today. It looks even better in person.
[Source: Springfield Craigslist]
Jeff Glucker
A friend of mine owned one of these in the early 90s. When he got it, we thought it was so bad ass – sounded great, and the shifters were super cool. Sadly it was slow with the stock 307 – my then new ’92 Sentra E (so base model it only had a 4 spd, yo!) ran neck and neck with it from a slow punch. he was so sad – and blamed my car being a stick for the close race.
“Shifter” This is like those Hurst Challengers a couple of years ago that were all autos. Why do I want to pay extra for pistol grip shifter on a slush box and some goofy graphics on the outside?
The early Hursts were sticks, but starting with the Colonnades (I think?) they were automatics. In the 70s they had the his & hers Dual Gate, in the 80s it was the lightning Rods.
Yeah, I know they made actual shifters too. I t just disappoints me that they’re so willing to slap their name on any old car. Kind of cheapens the brand, right?
I’m sorry, but this car is unworthy of Hooniverse. It’s a complete turd.
How do you really feel?
3 on the tree…. 3 branches on a tree….. a tree that fell down and is now horizontal.
These cars give me a happy feeling.
The Lightning Rod shifter is still the most draconian way to control an automatic, and this is way before all the paddles or even Jaguar’s J-gate halfway house. Force a downshift, or bang it into second and third, with no chance of overshooting and hitting overdrive, neutral or reverse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZmGZnmvSCM
An aftermarket intake (Edelbrock) and a K&N filter. I wonder what carb lurks under there? Also, I spy the hated (by everyone, like myself, who was unfortunate to have to live with one) Delco Air R-4 compressor.
All the G-bodies of this era were bog-slow (Grand National excepted), GM wouldn’t force the issue and drop a big-block in them. But they were pretty competent with GM’s F41 or FE3 suspension. They’re also a blank slate you can drop a crate motor in and beef up the suspension and brakes quite a bit. I had a 78 Malibu coupe, 305, 4-speed, F41, buckets, tach, rally wheels. It was a nice car and got a lot of attention for the 4-speed (no it wasn’t the “Iraqi-Taxi). an Olds like this was recently used in the cop show “Motive” driven by Det. Angie Flynn, until the bad-guys blew it up!