Road Test & Tour : 1970 Oldsmobile W-30 442 Ram Air clone 455 American Muscle Car

There are car guys, and then there are car guys. You can tell the difference because the former rarely cares about anything outside of his or her own brand—and these days the typical fan comfort level shrinks even further to a specific model and year. We know experts who can cite chapter and verse about 1970 Chevelle SS454s or 1969 COPO Camaros, but not one meaningful tidbit about a 1970 Olds 442 W30. As the number of folks who were actually there during the muscle car era dwindles, fewer and fewer know the backstories. Dead brands like Plymouth, Mercury, AMC, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile offered much in their day but firsthand memories and expert advice are increasingly rare. Mike Mancini, the owner and operator of American Muscle Car Restorations in Kingstown, Rhode Island, is one of those striving to pull back the veil of time for all to appreciate.

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“The W-30 version of the car has always been kind of the pinnacle of the Oldsmobile muscle car,” says Mancini. “I’ve always been a fan of not just Chrysler but GM muscle cars from that era and the 442 W-30 always was like that top-dog car, and so when I had a chance to get one I jumped at it.” Mancini, known by many as specializing in assembly line-correct OEM restorations of Mopars, has an unrelenting historical curiosity of all things from the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s which extends to all things automotive and even includes related pop culture and design. Those who know Mancini might even say he was born in the wrong era—and like he always does, he spared no expense in reconstituting one of the greatest muscle cars to ever pound the boulevard as a brand-new beast.

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Assembly line-correct OEM restorations—sometimes called NOS restorations because they rely on “new old stock” components—go far beyond flipping through the repop parts catalog and waiting for the UPS truck. These restorations involve finding rare, leftover inventory that was used on the original assembly line. That might sound like a lot of work for a result that’s sometimes hard to see, but the cumulative influence of NOS parts on the whole allows us to legitimately experience for the first time in over half a century how classic muscle cars looked, sounded, and smelled the day they rolled off the factory floor and into the dealership showroom. Whether you’re a wealthy collector or regular Joe, the experience of driving a new car away from the dealership is one we can relate to, even if only vicariously so.

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The origin story of the Olds 442 is fascinating. Almost immediately after the debut of the Pontiac GTO in 1964, Oldsmobile’s down-market intramural corporate rival, nearly every U.S. automaker and GM division wanted something similar. The GTO would become the archetype standard-bearer of the muscle car phenomenon: lightweight intermediate body, big-car engine, unrivaled straight-line performance, and affordable enough for the youth market. While the GTO was available with a 389ci engine, the new 1964 Olds 4-4-2 had a 330ci V-8. The 4-4-2 (hyphenated until the 1968 model) stood not for the engine’s displacement but for the car’s four-barrel carburetor, four-speed manual trans, and dual-exhaust system. (Later on, “442” came to mean 400-inch engine, four-barrel carb, and dual exhaust.)

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Unlike the GTO though, there was nothing “youth-oriented” about the 442 in substance, other than its exuberant performance. The 442 was upscale, and by 1970 the 442 had arrived at its most sophisticated and powerful iteration: the W30. With the AMA racing ban of 1957 and the subsequent limit on engine size gone (it was 330ci from 1963 to 1964 and 400ci from 1965 to 1969), 1970 saw no limits on engine size. Oldsmobile delivered the goods with the 442 W-30 and it was centered around a 455ci Oldsmobile V-8 with 370 hp and 500 lb-ft of torque. The W-30 package also added a fiberglass W-25 hood, low-restriction air cleaner, functional air ducts, aluminum intake manifold, better heads, a reworked cam, better distributor, and an improved carburetor. It was a worthy machine that held its own performance-wise against all but a small few; its reason for existing was to ensconce its occupants in unequaled opulence while meteing out street justice to all comers. In 1970, just 2,574 Oldsmobile Cutlass “Holiday” coupes were produced in 442 W-30 form (an additional 262 were Sport Coupe 442 W-30s and 264 were 442 W-30 Holiday convertibles), making the model ever so rare today.

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The example featured here, a Holiday coupe 442 W30, came into Mancini’s life almost by accident and it made quite an impression on the restoration expert. “A customer of mine had it, and he was going to be moving out of state and wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with the car. I ended up going to look at it and documenting it, all numbers matching. One of the neat things about this one is it has a great color combo in it and it had a ton of options on it, so I worked out a deal with him to buy it. I worked on it in my spare time in the course of running my business.” Mancini pulled the trigger on the unrestored Olds in 2010 and over the next eight years the restoration proceeded slowly but steadily.

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With the number of assembly line-correct OEM restorations being exceedingly small, and the subset of Oldsmobiles undergoing the same being vanishingly infrequent, it would seem like a very difficult job to pull off, but not impossible. “They do reproduce a lot of stuff for them but some of the rare parts are hard to find,” says Mancini. “With all our restorations we use a lot of new old stock parts, so the good thing for me is that I had a lot of time on my side. It wasn’t like I was working for a regular customer and had to get the car done, so I had a lot of time to casually hunt over years to find these rare parts that I needed. So, I amassed quite a collection of new old parts to put on the car. It is a little bit of a mountain to climb because we hadn’t restored an Oldsmobile before, so I had to do a lot of research, a lot of studying of survivors and original cars to try to get all those little details correct. One of the nice things also was this car was relatively original, so it had a lot of self-evidence of what it was and what I was able to document and duplicate.”

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And exactly where does one find the experts and the repository of Oldsmobile knowledge? While other car brands have registries, a large network of experts, or production archives to fall back on, Oldsmobile fans have relatively limited resources. We wondered, where do you go to get the best insider information for restoring an Olds 442 W-30? “There’s a very good internet forum that’s dedicated to 442s and W30s, so you can bounce a lot of questions you might have off of the experts that linger around,” says Mancini, pointing us towards the 442 W-30 forum at ClassicOldsmobile.com. “I’m fortunate to have a pretty good customer base that have collections and some people that I know have original survivors, so I was able to take photographs and document or just verify a question I might’ve had whenever I needed to.”

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When validating a legitimate 442 W-30 car beyond the obvious VIN verification, cowl-tag check, and validating that the numbers on the engine, transmission, and carburetor match, there aren’t many options, but a degree of luck can help. “You’re very limited with Oldsmobile because their records aren’t available, so you have to have an original build card, and that’s really the only way to prove it’s a real W-30, paperwork-wise,” says Mancini. “A build card is kind of like an original build sheet but it’s not really a broadcast sheet, so to speak. It’s a small manilla punch card that would’ve been run through an IBM machine that has certain codes on it. Plus, this car also came with some other documentation. Let me back up a minute. So, if you have nothing, your first step is to check the VIN number. That’s going to tell you some information. Then you can check the cowl data tag. That’s going to also tell you information such as the body style, color, interior color, and so forth. The next verification step is the build card I mentioned. This car was also fortunate to have the original sales invoice that had all of the options that it was ordered with. And that was in the original owner’s name and that was pretty neat.”

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One of the more interesting options possessed by this 1970 Olds 442 W30 is the rare and highly desirable W27 aluminum axle centersection with which, it is estimated, only 355 W-30/31 cars were built in 1970. Mancini tells HOT ROD this option was just one of the things that initially attracted him to the car. “It’s just a gorgeous color combination: jet black with gold 442 W30 stripes and a gold interior, so it just had a kind of mean look about it. It was a four-speed. Another rare option that is kind of a big buzzword in the 442 W-30 realm is a W27 rear axle, which this car was equipped with. The entire rear centersection is aluminum, a very rare option.”

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So, what’s a 1970 Oldsmobile 442 W30 worth? Mancini estimates the value of a mint-condition 1970 Olds 442 W30 these days is anywhere between $125K and $135K, which is a lot more than what he figures it was originally when he bought it, about $75K in 2010. A check of the Old Cars Report matches that figure almost exactly and spells out a base value (in perfect condition) for a 1970 Olds 442 at $57K, with a four-speed option adding 20 percent and the W-30 package adding another 100 percent, which puts this car’s value right around $125K. The big upswing in value over the eight years Mancini owned the car was also the main reason he decided to part with it in 2018. “I kind of thought I would maybe keep the car,” says Mancini, “but as the time rolled on, it became valuable, and more valuable, and by the time it was done it was too much money to pass on, so that’s why I ended up selling it.”

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At first blush, that might upset some folks, but you have to understand that for Mancini and the crew at American Muscle Car Restorations, the thrill of performing the restoration is its own reward. The discovery and examination, the research, the gradual peeling away and documentation of its life, the quest to unearth rare parts, the finesse of the detail work, and the ultimate reward of successfully turning back the hands of time is an experience that both outlives and dwarfs the experience of owning and driving it. It’s more like the role of a museum docent or an art restorer than a hot-rodder. You either get it or you don’t.

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We’ll let Mike Mancini have the last word on that: “I like taking something and putting it back like new and I like making it a piece of artwork and making it as authentic as possible. It kind of morphs from a car to a piece of art and that’s what I did on this car. When you do a car at this level it’s almost like, do you really want to drive it and deteriorate some of this work that you’ve done? So, it becomes one of those things where you’re building a full-scale model that’s kind of unusable if you’re really hard-set on that mentality of keeping it as pristine as when you finished it. It’s probably fitting to be in someone’s collection and maintaining that state, if that’s what you want us to do. But when it was done, I did get a chance to put it through maybe 100 miles of road testing to make sure everything worked, so I did get a chance to enjoy it a little bit before it got sent off, and, oh man, it was great!”

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1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442 W-30 Options List 

Tinted glass, all
Deluxe seat belts
Front and rear floormats
Sport mirrors
Console
Anti-spin axle
Four-speed fully synchronized transmission
Sport steering wheel
Power steering
Super Stock II wheels
Rally gauge package
Stereo eight-track tape player
AM/FM stereophonic radio
Heavy-duty radiator
W27 aluminum axle carrier
W-30 Induction system (adds fiberglass hood with functional air scoops and low-restriction air cleaner, aluminum intake manifold, special camshaft, special cylinder heads, special distributor, and special carburetor)
Accessory group
Locking gas cap

1983 Oldsmobile Hurst/Olds Review – The Muscle Car With THREE Shifters!

In this video, Zach shows off the **1983 Oldsmobile Cutlass Hurst Olds** that he is driving. This is a very special car, not only because of its history but also because of the unique Lightning Rod shifter, a feature only available on Hurst Olds. This car is equipped with an Oldsmobile 5.0L V8 engine, with a 4-speed automatic transmission, which is fun to test drive because it gives a classic racing feel. This car is also special because it is a limited edition, only available in 1983 and 1984.

### Engine and Transmission
The 1983 Oldsmobile Cutlass Hurst Olds uses a 5.0L V8 engine, although it has the same displacement as the Chevy 305 5.0L V8, the Oldsmobile 307 engine has certain differences. With only 44,000 miles on the car, the engine still retains most of its original power. The transmission is a 4-speed automatic with a standout feature, the **Lightning Rod** shifter system.

### Lightning Rod Shifter System
The Lightning Rod system is a special feature of the Hurst Olds, designed to help the car shift gears manually, like a drag racer. Although it looks strange, when driving, you can easily shift gears using these special shifters. If the car is in “Drive” mode, the car will shift automatically like a regular car. However, if you want, you can control each gear manually using the shifters, creating a very interesting driving experience. Feel like a real racer when controlling the gears yourself.

### Interior and Amenities
Inside, the Hurst Olds is comfortable with very soft seats, a characteristic of GM models from the 80s and 90s. Although it does not have as many advanced technologies as modern cars, amenities such as power windows, power mirrors and power locks still make the car very easy to use and convenient. In particular, the car also has sports indicators such as a tachometer, speedometer and indicators such as engine temperature, oil pressure and fuel level, helping the driver easily monitor the condition of the car.

### Luggage Compartment and Space
Another notable point is the spacious luggage compartment of the Hurst Olds. In contrast to sports cars with limited space, this car offers a large luggage compartment, ideal for storing belongings on long trips. A special detail is the Hurst Olds 15th Anniversary logo mounted on the trunk lid, creating a unique mark for this car.

### Exterior Design
In terms of appearance, the 1983 Hurst Olds has a special color scheme, with black and silver combined, creating an extremely attractive and powerful appearance. This color combination not only makes the car stand out, but also brings a classic feeling, like a valuable collectible. The square design of the G-Body line also contributes to making the Hurst Olds more luxurious and sporty.

### Driving Experience
When driving the Hurst Olds, Zach shared that the driving feeling was quite familiar, similar to other G-Body cars he had driven before. However, this car felt comfortable and easy to drive. When you drive the car, you can control it like any regular car, just put the gearshift into auto-pilot mode and enjoy the ride. While the Lightning Rod system may be intimidating to some at first, it is actually quite fun and truly unique.

### Why the Hurst Olds Is a Special Gift
At the end of the video, Zach shares his thoughts on the car. Initially, he felt that the Lightning Rod system seemed like an unnecessary and even “silly” feature, but after experiencing the car, he realized that it was an important part of what made the Hurst Olds special and fun. Although it is not a necessary feature for racing, the Lightning Rod makes you feel like a real racer and brings a special feeling, making the car more attractive than ever.

With its attractive appearance, easy handling and a unique feature like the Lightning Rod shifter system, the Hurst Olds is not only a means of transportation but also a piece of automotive history, a mobile work of art and a special memory in the hearts of classic racing car lovers.

With these experiences, Zach felt that the 1983 Hurst Olds is a very special car, worthy of being a gift for those who love the history of cars and racing. This car is not only an icon of the 80s, but also a testament to the creativity and passion of car enthusiasts during that time.