Normally I try to limit the junkers I share here to those of the creampuff or at least more complete variety but it’s just getting ever so much harder to find Barrett-Jackson grade machinery in the junkyard and I fear this is the best example of a Hurst/Olds I’m likely ever to find. So, channeling the immortal words of advice uttered by Miles Dalby to Joel Goodson in Risky Business, I decided to say “What The F*#%” and just roll with it.
A garage queen this one was not, and I wasn’t able to get as many pictures as usual as there wasn’t as much as usual to actually take pictures of, but I found a very interesting bonus feature on the interwebs to share with you as well, so get in, sit down, hold on, and let’s go!
There were two versions of the Colonnade Cutlass Hurst/Olds partnership vehicle in 1975, badged W-25 and W-30, together apparently only 2,535 were built. While the W-30 got you the big 455 cubic inch engine and was produced 1,193 times, that means that this W-25 is one of the 1,342 relatively weaker-sauced variant sporting the 350. Slightly more than half of the cars were Cameo White (the others were Ebony Black), and all had the gold accent trim that makes the package so easily recognizable.
I’m sure the owner wasn’t too upset about the W-25 sticker starting to wear off although I wasn’t previously aware of this easy tell to those in the know as to what’s being packed underhood. Still, while the 350 produced 170hp in 1975, the 455 only added another 20hp to that while likely using a lot more gasoline. Torque showed a greater disparity at 275lb-ft vs 350lb-ft.
I spied the hood first, actually, from about five rows away and the gold paint had me making a beeline for it. It’s quite massive, the Colonnades may be downsized but they’re still large and the hood, well, damn, while I’m really not a muscle car fanatic, even I recognized that large stripe.
Once up close I had thoughts of taking it (it was in excellent condition), and somehow using it as an awning for my shed, but then I remembered I was married (happily), and divorce is hard. But just think of the shed-porch parties you could have under that thing, maybe with some of those light strands they sell at Costco for ambience along with a keg of something piss-yellow and sudsy and maybe some dead animal products on a stick, hoo-boy! But I digress.
That indeed seems to be a 350 in there as far as I can tell from here, besides the obviously worn body I wonder what happened to this car. Certainly it would be easy and worthwhile enough to change anything powertrain related, it’s not like the CVT crapping out on an Altima or something. But maybe the market is fickle and the lower-powered variant of anything is the child of a lesser god, at least as far as enthusiasts are concerned. And bodywork is expensive, no matter what the car is.
Of course the other big thing about these were the standard T-tops, long gone on this car along with the gold wheels, any logo or badging advertising the Hurst connection whatsoever and most other things as well. The tops just showcase the over-the-topness of this thing, maybe it’s what The Bandit and Frog would have graduated to after they spawned a few tadpoles and outgrew the Trans-Am if everything had worked out…And there’s nothing that implies American Hedonism more than white upholstery. Especially that of the 1970s. Well, maybe something with sparkles in it, but there are limits. Sometimes. Maybe.
Of course there was a vinyl half-top as well. Just think about that. Vinyl top AND T-tops on the same car. WTF, indeed. And yet I somehow find myself drawn to this, in an odd beehive hair-do and go-go boots combination sort of way. Naughty…Saucy! The louvers on the hood just add to it as well. Really, how’d they manage to only sell so few, even in 1975? I’m also not historically really a Colonnader, but time is indeed healing those wounds. And the gold stripes do raise the eye a lot.
There isn’t much left of the interior beyond the shell of a dash and the white door panels strewn hither and yon, but I’m a little surprised that the dash and carpet both managed to be supplied in black. Eminently practical.
In the back of the shot the rear seat cushion is leaning against another car, and obviously this one is pretty picked over already in most other respects. Still, you have to hand it to this car, it still has some presence and dignity left, even after all of that. A life lived to the fullest is what it seems to have done, with knocks, scrapes, and probably a few hard times, but it’s going out with head (and hood) held high, which is more than can be said of most of its neighbors.
But wait, there’s more! Or, more appropriately in my best Billy Mays voice, BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! As the man who seemed to speak in all caps to pitch his products (may he rest in piece), I could easily see him wheeling a Hurst/Olds around town back in the day, so here’s the bonus I spoke of earlier. I was able to find an old for sale posting of this exact car when it was still living a few miles away from here. Matching up a few specific dents and rusty areas convinced me beyond a doubt that it’s the same one.
This is the ad copy from back in 2017:
“Unrestored 1975 Hurst Olds W-25 with original Hurst Hatch T-Tops. Posi rear end, Turbo HD350, Dual Gate Shifter and swivel buckets. 350 Rocket with newer Edelbrock carb. Needs restoration but it’s all there and original. starts right up and runs good. White with Gold stripes. Typical rust in front of the rear wheels. Some slight damage on right rear quarter and drivers door (see in pics). Book value $6500-$7000. Bring cash and drive home.”
Creampuff it was not, as the dangling plate makes all too clear. Still, these pictures fill in some of the gaps and not just those of the grille area.
BFG Radial T/A tires as The Man himself intended. Yeah! Gold rally wheels are perfect here. And the H/O logos on the pillar are big and brash, just like the doubtless swagger of at least the original owner.
The rear quarterpanel here with its dimpled surface and the rust marks ahead of the wheel are the obvious same on the junkyard car. At night though I’ll bet this car looked great rumbling down Colfax Avenue.
Looks like a new NAPA upper radiator hose, good call. The owner (bottom right) is even displaying the rare two-handed CC salute. Of course a Hurst is worthy of more respect than just the regular single salute.
Slightly more complete in here than it currently is, nice to be able to get the correct vibe across. T-handle shifter, there it is! Oh, baby, light my fire!
And the parting shot with the trunk lid that has gone missing in the ‘yard, bummer about that. Maybe it’s on someone’s shed as a smaller awning than the vision of grandeur I was having earlier. And the bumper’s even displaying a twinkle to bid us adieu.
The ad last had it at $5,000 (in 2017 dollars), perhaps it sold and then for whatever reason it ended up in the junkyard, or perhaps it didn’t sell and other circumstances forced it to end up here. Either way, if you’re still reading, it’s now had yet another admiring audience, and likely a larger and more respectful one that it’s been used to. I’ll certainly salute it, it’s good to see a car like this that wasn’t just garaged and buffed with a cloth diaper every Saturday. This one was used as intended and picked up some scrapes and character along the way. All cars should be so lucky.
Ridden hard and put away wet, it might have been a parts donor for a clone with a better shell,
That’s some first rate forensic journalism Jim. I’ve never seen any Hurst/Olds in a regular junkyard ever, even a lower performance version like this one. Purists will tell you that only the 1968-72s qualify as real Hurst/Olds, and the prices and performance reflect that, but they are all pretty rare. Usually it’s no problem selling one of these. There are collectors looking for them and there is active club support. At least that’s how it was when I was collecting Oldsmobiles. Maybe things have changed more than I realize.
This is a very unusual junkyard find. I’m surprised the drivetrain is still there. Low compression or not, Olds engines are torque monsters and a good basis for a performance build. That is, if anyone still does that anymore.
Wow. When I had first started reading this, I thought this car might have been a different H/O I remember reading about that was in nearly-perfect condition, then sold, wrecked, and was awaiting repair with a salvage title. It’s somehow less depressing that this one wasn’t a creampuff only a few years before ending up here.
I didn’t understand the vinyl roof on these – like mixing metaphors (sporty and luxurious!). A shame this beautiful specialty Oldsmobile Colonnade ended up here, but I like the way the article ended with a concession that it had been “used as intended” and enjoyed.
Great find and writeup.
“I know you… don’t know what I’m going through… [sitting] here looking at you… ♪♫”
Just for the interior I suspect as the engine hasn’t been picked clean.
This is sad. Someone likely got in over their head on a restoration and ruined a rare and salvageable car. As for the padded vinyl roof. Even though I was just a child I’ll say this
.the seventies..you had to be there.
I can’t believe the column, wheel and console are still there!
Nevermind, I’ll go back to sipping my coffee and shut up. lol
Perhaps this is the next to ultimate Olds Colonnade?
It is somewhat sad to see this car here but it obviously had an adventure filled life. However, I have a confession to make…years ago, this guy who lived in the same town as me had a regular Olds Cutlass of the same vintage. He would routinely drive by me as I was walking home from the bus stop as he was headed to the cemetery. Regardless of time of year, he had the windows down and I could smell the joint he was smoking.
So I see this Olds and smell weed. Weird how that works.
As luck would have it, long ago I found a black version of one of these. It was in somebody’s yard as I drove by and I just stopped in the middle of the road to take a picture.
It’s about eight pictures down: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/curbside-drama-billy-takes-his-nova-to-the-races/
Some impressive sleuthing there, JK! Junkyard shots are one thing but finding some late-life photos of the same car win you the CC Golden Cell Phone Camera Award. I have seen lots of ads threatening to junk the car if nobody will pay the seller’s unreasonable price. Maybe this time the seller really meant it?
As one who spent a ton of time in Colonnades when they still populated showrooms, I find this one more cool than I expected to. T-tops were automotive exotica in their day. I would say that the vinyl on the back of the roof may have been to eliminate the opera window as much as anything.
I was quite the connoisseur of white interiors in the 70s. Ford and Chrysler almost always paired them with black dash/wheel/carpet, as did GM up until around the time the Colonnades came out. Then they offered white with either red, green, blue or black for the dash/wheel/carpets. My stepmom’s 74 Cutlass Supreme was white outside with a blue landau roof and white interior with the blue dash. It was actually a pretty stunning car in 1974. No T-tops, though.
I was simply looking for a print ad or brochure picture to run with the at that time still a potential post when I quickly found an image that looked suspiciously like the featured car, after clicking I realized it was the same one. Up until that point I was even leaning towards not writing anything up as the car wasn’t as complete as I generally prefer. But with the ad, it perfectly fleshed it out.
The vinyl did eliminate the opera window as you said, I don’t know which evil is the lesser of the two. It makes for some prime mid-70s glory now though.
Like Road Runner and Cobra, Hurst/Olds was yet another in the sad history of debasing a once legendary musclecar name on later, low-performance cars.
Ironically, between 1968-70, there was an actually quite good Oldsmobile musclecar package based around a well-engineered 350 engine, the W-31 (aka Ramrod 350). It was essentially the W-30 442 package, just with the smaller 350 engine instead of the 455. With the lighter engine and suspension upgrades (most notably the rear anti-sway bar), it was one of the better handling musclecars of the era (and the upgraded 350 engine was no slouch, either).
But the debasement began in 1970 when another ‘mylar GT’ made its appearance, the Olds Rallye 350. It had a screaming bright yellow paint job, spoilers, hood scoops, and the engine was just a run-of-the-mill 350 available in any Oldsmobile (and ‘not’ the worked 350 from the W-31).
The feature car seem to be a lot like a later version of the Rallye 350. I wouldn’t be surprised if the package code for the 1970 car was W-25, too.
Even then, the 1975 Hurst/Olds wasn’t as low as it would get. That ignominious honor is reserved for the final 1983-84 Hurst/Olds, which came with a standard 307 engine.
The worst part was a dorky ‘Lightning Rods’ shifter that was supposed to ape the multiple levers of the briefly popular drag-racing Lenco shifter. The version used in the Hurst/Olds was just dumb, particularly since the transmission was programmed to shift, even if the driver didn’t, when messing around with one of the three shift levers. Olds would have done better to have just stayed with the tried-and-true, classic Hurst Dual-Gate shifter.
Wow – great find, and research into the specific car!
These were obscure and unremarkable enough that I’d forgotten a lot of the details about what the Hurst/Olds package actually contained, but one thing that I find amusing here, is that the “entry-level” W-25 actually had “W-25” stickers advertising that fact. I assume many of those stickers were removed, or possibly replaced by W-30, or even W-80 stickers.
AFAIK, the W-30 code was reserved for the 455 engine cars, at least while the 455 was still available.
A little research into the aforementioned flashy (but low-performance) 1970 Rallye 350 reveals that the code for the package was W-45, but the code for the fiberglass hood, alone, was W-25.
So, one could say that the decals on the fenders of a 1975 Hurst/Olds with the 350 engine implies that it’s just a standard Cutlass 350 with a special hood. I don’t know if they were still made of fiberglass by 1975, though.
A little side information on that 1970 Rallye 350 was that it targeted the Road Runner. In fact, the ads for the Olds specifically state that its $68 cheaper than the Plymouth. It would have been an interesting decision between the two, similarly-priced cars. The 310hp engine in the Olds was lower than the 335hp 383 in the Road Runner, but there was sure a lot more flash on the Rallye 350.
Amusingly enough, my father bought a Rallye 350 new. It was an odd choice for him, because he typically detested flashy cars, and preferred imports over domestics. I have no idea why he bought it, other than having a spontaneous midlife crisis type of moment.
The one story I recall him telling me about buying the Rallye 350 was that salesman tried to talk him out of it, telling my father that the Rallye 350 was “just a kid’s car” – and dad, being in his 30s, married, and with a toddler, didn’t fit the profile of who bought them.
Dad kept the Rallye 350 for 6 years; it was garage-kept and immaculate. He sold it to a teenager, who promptly wrecked it.
1970 was a schizophrenic year for musclecars. On one hand, there were some of the biggest engine, most powerful cars ever to come from the Big 3. OTOH, the insurance industry had gotten wise to the danger of these powerful monsters which went astonishingly fast but were woefully inadequate in cornering and stopping, and were slapping big surcharges on them, accordingly.
To Oldsmobile’s credit, they saw the writing on the wall, and offered up a car with all the flash of a sixties’ musclecar, but without the big insurance premium.
So, it’s easy to see why a conservative family man would be drawn to a more practical, easier to afford musclecar. Soon enough, everyone else would be in the same boat with stuff like the Volaré Road Runner, Aspen ‘Super Coupe’, Mustang II Cobra II, and Monza Spyder. Lots of show, but no go. Even the Camaro and Corvette saw some of the weakest engines they’d ever had.
The only hold-out seemed to be Pontiac, that stubbornly held onto big-block Firebirds until the bitter end of that generation.
It’s a classic tragic tale, the lovely model who lived hard and was gone too soon. If only I had found you sooner I could have rescued you. We could have ridden off into the sunset and had a beautiful life together.
I believe these cars were quite expensive, for a package that was basically all bling and no zing. That’s what kept the production numbers very low.
I am surprised the hood, which looks like it is in good condition, is still there. Outside of the VIN, the hood is likely the hardest piece to find, deal with, or try to reproduce.
In my experience, rare and distinctive cars are the easiest ones in which to track down the history of a specific example. The various on-line search filters winnow things down to just a few possibilities very quickly.
By the mid-seventies, the Olds Cutlass was firmly established as a poor-man’s PLC, and the vast majority of them were no longer regarded in the 442 musclecar realm. I can’t verify it, but I think that by 1973, the 442 came with the W-25 hood; there simply wasn’t anything all that special about it, anymore, which was quite unlike the original Hurst/Olds hood scoop.
So, there just wouldn’t be a lot of people who could use a Hurst/Olds hood of this vintage. 442’s would already have one, and the other, remaining Cutlass colonnade survivors are PLC cruisers.
This is quite a find. Unfortunately, it needs a total restoration, the cost of which would exceed the value of the finished vehicle. This is why it ended up in a junkyard, with the most valuable parts removed from it.
The 1975 Hurst Olds was, up until that point, the most popular of the line. That is quite an achievement, considering that the 1975 model year was hammered by both a serious recession and the leftover effects of the Arab Oil Embargo. Hurst put together a prototype for a 1976 Hurst Olds, but Cutlass sales were already on the increase, so Olds management didn’t see the need for a showroom traffic builder. They also weren’t too keen on diverting cars to Hurst for the conversion process.
The vinyl roof covering the opera windows was a part of the Hurst package. These cars look better in black, as that color makes the vinyl roof less conspicuous.
As for the 1970 Rallye 350 – it started as a proposal for the 1970 Hurst Olds. The 1968 and 1969 Hurst Oldsmobiles were a way for the division to get around GM’s ban on engines over a certain displacement in the A-bodies. That corporate ban was rescinded for the 1970 model year, so one rationale for the Hurst Olds had disappeared. Olds thus didn’t necessarily need a Hurst Olds for 1970. Olds management decided to call it the Rallye 350 and market the car to potential buyers who wanted flash, but couldn’t afford the extra surcharges insurance companies were slapping on to high-performance cars.
There’s lots of talk here about “why a vinyl roof on a sporty car”? Maybe it’s just me, since this was slightly before my time, but it seems when vinyl roofs first became popular in the mid-1960s or so there wasn’t any notion of them being unsuitable for sporty or high-performance models. They seemed to usually be black, sometimes white back then, usually fitted to hardtops, and did a reasonable job of aping the appearance of convertibles. It wasn’t until the early-mid ’70s that they more often showed up in other colors and with thicker padding, sometimes on the rear portion only (landau), and often paired with opera windows and opera lights. It was no longer about making a hardtop look more like a convertible with the top up. That was when the Brougham association really set in.
Indeed, I was going to make that point, too. As a GenXer, vinyl tops always had the “granny’s car” or brougham connotation. However, in high school, my buddy had a 1969 Grand Prix that had a vinyl top. and the late 1960’s to early 1970’s, so saw everything from Chargers to Mustangs (albiet often a Grande or Ghia) with them.
GTOs offered them too
As I recall Olds got the pass for putting the 455 motor in their mid size cars earlier than the other GM divisions because John Beltz, the head of Olds, wanted a version of the F body (Camaro/Firebird) and Corporate said no, But they conceded by letting him put the big motor in. That inspired John to do a deal with Hurst on the Hurst Olds. I’ve seen “banker’s muscle car” or “banker’s hot rod” thrown around many times for American performance/luxury cars but these qualified as one. They were quite expensive when new.
I don’t begrudge vinyl tops in general on performance or performance-ish cars, they work very well on various Mopars, a Mercury or two, and even some European and Japanese cars, mainly of the 1960s.
I do find the “half-tops”, especially padded ones, rather more hilarious though as on this car and any other that wears it, and then coupled with T-tops, well, it’s just like what else could we possibly put on this thing. In contrast the wheels, hood, paint – all good, spot on. Of course that’s all in hindsight. Put Dave Wooderson (alright, alright, alright…) behind the wheel for more context and the whole package comes together beautifully.
A guy could buy that hood and flip it on the net for a nice profit.
All the 70s cars have skyrocketed in value in the last 10 or 12 yrs.if you look at the classic car dealers asking prices. As a colinade owner I browse those sites and my insurance co. raises the declared value and premium each year. Sadly it’s not to be for this car. In good shape it would fetch a premium like a colinade GTO,Can Am,Grand Am or a rare Buick S/R type Regal. The latter would be a great curbside find.
Around where I live here the preferred roofing material for your porch or lean too is a 73-77 Grand Prix or Monte Carlo hood as its 3 or 4 inches longer.
Terrific tidbit on GM allowing the 1968 Hurst/Olds to be sold at dealerships instead of their own f-body ponycar. Pontiac and Chevy dealerships had their own way of by-passing the corporate ban on the biggest engines in intermediates, either through the Central Office Production Order (COPO) or by dealerships just flat-out installing crate motors, but the Hurst/Olds story is the closest to an officially sanctioned biggest-engine musclecar prior to 1970.
Plus, it sounds very similar to Dodge dealerships’ ire at not being offered a version of the Barracuda and, as a similar consolation, getting the specialty Dodge Charger, instead.
you know……
there are just some things which just shouldn’t be.
This is one of them.
Kind of reminds me of images of the scrap drives during WWII, with cool and iconic beauties getting weighed up on the scales while background shadows lurk of smoke curling upward. Interiors being burned out while bumpers were piled in heaps for the chrome to be salvaged.
Once a proud owner’s dream, now merely scrap and memories,
Pretty sad )-;}
I’m not sure what the Colonnade’s were downsized from as they were longer and heavier than their 1972 predecessors. The trimmings started in ’76 and actual downsizing in ’78. I owned a ’71 Cutlass “S” and a ’73 442 and there is a noticeable difference in size and agility. I’m not a big fan of the Colonnade’s. Huge doors with unsupported glass that likes to break loose and fall down inside the doors along with and aircraft carrier size hood suspended by hinges that could barely withstand the weight. The T-tops were a weak link in the structure that allow substantial body flex. I remember riding in a friends 442 with T-tops and with your elbow on the door and hand on the A pillar, you could feel the movement and the pint was popping of between the T-tops. The ’73-’75 colonnade’s were more like the date you took home that looked great at 2:00 in the morning but then realized what you had in the light the next morning.
The “for sale” posting was not a bad car at all. Heck, you did not need to spend a zillion bucks to buy it, you could go through the mechanicals, drive it as-is, strike up a bunch of fun little conversations wherever you went with it, and not worry about door dings or parking it on the street.
I would have probably removed the trunk and pillar badges, or replaced them with cheap repros, as people love to steal and EBay that small rare stuff, but otherwise just go with it.
Great writeup, Jim…but how sad that that car ended up in the junkyard.
The very first car I evr drove by myself was a ’69 H/O. It was a loaner from the dealer while our ’69 Caddy was in the shop with an A/C issue. That was the only problem that car ever had, until my dad passed out and took out power to most of the south end of Toledo when he hit a pole. Anyway, I was supposed to move the H/O so my parents could get mom’s car out so they could go to dinner. The H/O was too “Hot Roddy” for mom, so it stayed home. I was 13 and took it around the block, twice. Somehow, I got away with it and only I knew.
The car in this article is just sad, it was sad when new, it was ugly from day one as all the Colonade cars were, and it was just “Gutlass”. I saw one once with a heavily modded or replacement engine in it, and my thinking was just, “why?”.
I had a ’75 W30 in Ebony Black that I bought while at GA Tech in the mid ’80’s. The 455 was basically a low compression station wagon motor, but it had plenty of power and was an awesome road trip car. It sprouted the usual bolt on hot rod parts (driving it back onto campus at 3am with open headers was fun) and was a great car for several years, but the various disintegrating interior and exterior trim pieces that were pure unobtanium by the mid 90’s and the leaky T-tops eventually caused it to sit more than being driven. It ended up getting traded off for several thousand dollars of concrete work. Still miss it, though.
It was about 1980 and I had the opportunity to work on 73 ,just a tune and new distributor it was really sick until I finished the work on it.I took my then girl friend for a ride in it and she was hooked….She bought it and it was ablast to drive.455 it would put the 120 speedo down on the M on the MPH at the bottom of gauge anytime you wanted to go fast.I wish I still had her and the car too….What a BLAST from the past…..