After a decade of putting up with wheezing small blocks and pretending we were OK with it, the performance renaissance of the middle 1980s was an exciting time. We had a new Corvette, a reinvigorated five-liter Mustang, and the Buick Grand National. We’d also be talking a little louder about Oldsmobile if they’d have built a production version of this Cutlass FE3-X “Darth Vader” concept.
General Motors’ G-Body platform lent itself well to this reawakening: it was a simple rear-drive car with plenty of room in the engine compartment and a NASCAR high-bank image. All four of the division’s G-Bodies had made some headway on the superspeedways: Monte Carlo, Grand Prix, Cutlass Supreme, and Regal. The Monte Carlo SS was released in 1983, and with a new aerodynamic nose, tasteful (for the ’80s) graphics, sporty wheels, and a “souped-up” (for the ’80s) 305, it was very popular; over 100,000 were built between 1983 and 1988. I saw these everywhere when I was a kid, and everyone thought they were cool. Acceleration times weren’t bad for the era: zero-to-sixty in about eight seconds, the quarter-mile in about sixteen.
The Pontiac 2+2 was not so lucky. The huge rear glass was less well-proportioned than that on the rare Monte Carlo SS Aero Coupe, and the 305 didn’t have the same tweaks as it did in the 2+2’s sister car from Chevrolet. The result? 165 horsepower and a production run of 1,225. Pontiac never seemed to take this market very seriously, an ironic misstep for the “performance division.”
Oldsmobile did of course build some performance Cutlasses in the ’80s, the first being this 15th Anniversary black-over-silver Hurst/Olds, which harkened back to that 455-powered Oldsmobile of the same name from the muscle car era.
With Hurst “Lightning Rods” on the console, it was a fun effort, and it had some guts (for 1983) in the form of a 180-horsepower Oldsmobile 307, which was topped by an Electronic Quadrajet.
But we all know who really understood the assignment—it was Buick with its sinister turbocharged Grand National. Looking nothing like anything made at the time (or ever, really), the Grand National was an iconoclast. Who would have thought that Buick, that purveyor of solid family transportation, would build this? The standard Regal has never been on any “top ten” list of most beautiful cars, but the Grand National still looks good today, and the powertrain culminated in the 1-of-547 GNX, one of the fastest cars of the decade…anywhere.
People tend to forget, however, that the non-intercooled GN produced through the 1985 model year was really not that much faster than its G-Body performance brothers. This Car and Driver comparison test from July 1985 showed that the Monte Carlo SS was nipping at the GN’s heels in both zero-to-sixty acceleration and quarter-mile times (both were in the mid-to-high 15s). The Hurst/Olds had been discontinued after a second run in 1984, but it had been replaced by the 442, which had the same 180-horsepower 307. It wasn’t exactly left in the dust by the other two, but it would have been about ten car lengths behind at the end of the quarter. Therefore, Oldsmobile could have used a little extra performance image, and the FE3-X would have given it just that, even if it would have looked a little derivative considering the existence of the Grand National.
Oldsmobile’s more enterprising engineers built some concept cars in 1985, and they were based on the Cutlass, the Calais, and the Firenza. Motorweek drove the Cutlass seen in our pictures in addition to the Calais, and they were impressed by the roadholding in particular, but you can see how stiff and racecar-like the Cutlass is.
Still, Hot Rod was impressed that the cars were built at all. In their March 1986 issue, author John Baechtel said this: Oldsmobile has always represented luxury and quality with a healthy measure of performance, but they haven’t really wowed us with anything awesome since the W30 and W31 packages of the late Sixties. Quite frankly, we had pretty much written them off as performance car people, even though a lot of performance enthusiasts still lurk within their Lansing lair.
These next remarks, although they sadly never came true, showed that there was still hope for a reawakened attitude toward performance from those in Lansing: These concept cars represent a new aggressive posture for Oldsmobile, one that hints at the promise of exciting performance offerings in the near future. Far more than just flashy styling and trick paint, these special vehicles were designed to illustrate a unique bond between Oldsmobile’s musclecar heritage and their new, “total car” performance future. Oldsmobile is interested in performance again, emphasizing handling, braking, and aerodynamics, as well as acceleration. These cars are the first in a series of transition cars intended to illustrate Oldsmobile’s expertise in building strong, reliable performance cars.
The Cutlass FE3-X still exists and is on display at the R.E. Olds Museum in its hometown of Lansing. It apparently still runs and occasionally gets some exercise, and it has around 4,000 miles on the odometer. This picture of the interior shows the sport seats, four-point harnesses, comprehensive gauge package, and Hurst shifter (of course) for the manual transmission. Just out of frame is the chrome roll bar. Missing is the dashboard mounted monitor for the “accelerometer” mentioned in the Motorweek clip and the Hot Rod article.
The “FE3-X” moniker is obviously based on Oldsmobile’s FE3 suspension packages, with an additional “X” almost certainly symbolizing the Cutlass’s status as an “experimental.” Hot Rod showed off the most interesting mechanical features of the special Cutlass. Starting at the top left and working clockwise: It had a set of headers and a Ram-Air system that apparently bumped the 307’s horsepower up to 200; a rear-mounted battery for weight distribution and a trunk-mounted accelerometer, much like you might find in your new performance car today; a Borg-Warner T-5 manual transmission sourced from the F-Body cars; and rear disc brakes also sourced from the Camaro/Firebird (the museum placard is in disagreement on this one—it says that the rear brakes are Toronado components). The FE3-X was also lowered 1.5 inches and had P245/50VR16 Goodyear Gatorback tires, which were extremely popular unidirectional performance tires in the mid-1980s. The Cutlass was capable of 1.0g lateral acceleration on the skidpad.
“Darth Vader” apparently started life as a Hurst/Olds before heading off to “Cars and Concepts” in Brighton, Michigan, for its modifications. Cars and Concepts also installed the convertible tops and mechanisms in concurrent Ford Mustangs and Chrysler K-Cars in addition to other smaller jobs from the Big Three, such as this one.
The production version of “Darth Vader” would have certainly been tamed in the suspension department; the board-flat cornering and more limited suspension travel seen in the Motorweek footage would have never worked in day-to-day driving. But the basic goodies are here, and can you imagine a 350-powered FE3-X with about 225 horsepower and a T5 manual transmission (or even a 200-4R, really)? Why not include the four-wheel disc brakes and some smart suspension tuning? And keep the looks, including the body kit and wheels.
No, Darth Vader wouldn’t have saved Oldsmobile, but we’d still be talking about this car today, just as we treat the Grand National with bench-racing awe.
I recall Oldsmobile offered a five speed manual, like the X had- with the Diesel in the Cutlass. Likely they did that to advertise a better MPG in the Diesel than the automatic got with no plans to actually sell them. It would have been easy for the Hurst or SS to get a five speed stick, and would made them more interesting and appealing to hod rod. I remember a lot of 305 Cameros and pre HO 5.0 Mustangs had sticks back then. Not fast, just peppy but satisfying cars with all the right sounds.
I love the interior of the X. The fake wood delete with the velour on sport seats and coffin handle doors is still luxurious, but no longer frumpy.
The “grandma” fake wood and “grandma” velour seats are quite the contrast with the Hurst Lightning Rods!
Those Lightning Rods would have confused my Grandma and my mother. 🙂
These cars looked so good but performed so poorly.
Even though the Grand National turbo cars had good power, they still handled poorly, steered poorly, poor brakes, flexy frame, body on frame so too heavy, weak auto transmissions and weak rear axles.
If I ever read about this car, I had forgotten all about it. I had pretty much tuned out on GM by 1985, but this would have been interesting. Your first sentence – no truer words were ever spoken!
Pretty neat! Never heard of this Olds.
I’ve never heard of this Oldsmobile until now and it was simply too derivative of the Buick GNX.
Derivative of the Grand National, yes, but the GNX postdated this car by two years.
I just noticed this, but the ground effects on the 1987-93 Mustang GT looked awfully similar to those on this car; I wonder if Ford was watching. Probably not.
It always seemed like a big deal at the time between CAFE and Emissions Certification (how we ended up with the 4+3 in the Corvette and the later 1st to 4th skip-shift), but with 20/20 Hindsight I’ll bet GM wishes they’d offered that same manual in those G-bodies. It was in many cases the same drivetrain as used in the Camaro/Firebird, or in the case of the 20th Anniversary edition, was eventually used in the T/A.
As it should be with emissions testing. If the drivetrain passes emissions in Car A, the chances are pretty good the same exact drivetrain passes in Car B, C, D and others with no need for expensive and time-consuming effort.
And a manual WAS offered in the T-Bird Turbo Coupe at the time.
The demand for manual transmissions in personal luxury cars like this had been very low even in the ’70s, and probably the take-up would have been low.
When emissions standards were first enforced, that was basically how it was done, and a model could potentially “piggyback” on the existing certification of a car with the same drivetrain and — critically — the same inertial weight class. Emissions compliance was figured on an “averaging” basis, where it was assumed that as long as most cars passed, that was close enough. California got burned badly on that because in fact many cars with the exact same drivetrain did NOT pass, or ceased to comply after a few months’ use; it was a big scandal. They started requiring individual testing in the ’70s, and required that each car remain compliant throughout its life.
Yeah, I don’t think there was any way Olds would have offered the five-speed if this car had gone into production, unfortunately. But nobody seemed to mind that the GN or the Monte SS were only available with an automatic.
I love this! I don’t remember seeing this at the museum a couple years ago, but it was so much good stuff to take in at once. I’ll have to stop in again after the June 2026 Olds show.
The museum does rotate their displays, but “Darth Vader” has been there most of the times I stop by, which is about once a year. Fingers crossed that it’s on the floor in June; one of these days, I’ll have to make it down to the Olds Homecoming show. It’s the same weekend as Motor Muster AND Eyes on Design, which are both “can’t miss” shows themselves.
I also go to the Back To The 80s show in Minnesota, which is my “can’t miss” show. I’ve been thankful that every year so far, they’ve been on consecutive weekends so I can do both.
Really a shame they didn’t pursue this .
The Buick Gran Nationals were fun cars, GM of course cheaped out on the paint which began flaking off in three years so we could buy them dirt cheap and re spray using decent acrylic lacquer, boy howdy did they sell fast and for good $ .
-Nate
Indeed, imagine what if Oldsmobile have gived a green light and also what if Pontiac also offered the 2+2 without the Aero Back version? I think it was also a missed opportunity for Pontiac to revive the GTO as a counterpart of the Monte Carlo SS but that would be for an other story. 😉
I honestly think the worse part about the Grand Prix 2+2 effort was the Aero nose rather than the Aeroback. It has that same unfortunate predented look the 68-70 Buick Skylarks have with a little bad 80s plastic panel warp illusion thrown in. The aero Monte Carlo SS nose was genuinely attractive and gave the Monte a truly sporty image despite its otherwise barely slightly toned down neoclassical bodystyle.
That’s not to say I disagree, Pontiac of all brands by their persona should have been leading the way on sporty G bodies. Their steadfast adherence to vinyl landau tops and chrome trim while Olds and Buick of all divisions put out sportier sexier products on the chassis than them is such an underrated blunder for the brand.
I do vaguely remember this car(not from back then as it predates my very existence by a few years, more so coming across it as just interesting trivia), but any hope of there being maybe 1/3rd of its aspects making production was a pipe dream. That distinct sleek tinted headlight/grille cover alone would have been struck down first and foremost with US lighting laws, and everything else like stated is just too hardcore for production. The most interesting about this Cutlass to me is it was a GM skunkworks effort, because I’d otherwise just think this was a build by Car Craft Magazine or a home grown effort featured in a similar magazine.
There was a Pontiac dealer who ‘built’ a Grand Prix ‘GT’ back then. Story was in High Performance Pontiac magazine then, I seem to recall it was Myrtle Motors, somewhere in the NYC/tri-state area. Car had the Rallye IIs with some fat Goodyears on it, and a rear spoiler. Can’t quite remember what front header panel it ran–the ‘stock’ GP nose or the 2+2 nose.
I didn’t even start thinking about how badly Pontiac dropped the G-Body ball in the 1980s until I included the picture of the 2+2s for comparison. They could have easily used the Monte Carlo SS’s 180-horsepower 305 and the 2+2 nose and called it…something. Maybe they thought calling it GTO would be embarrassing.
Just can’t help but seeing these attempts at performance during the malaise era as just cheap consolation prizes for those unable to afford a European sports car!
I guess it depends on where you live. In Michigan where I live, especially back then, comparatively few would have bought a European or Japanese sports car, regardless of how much better they were. They might have bought an F-Body or a Corvette or a Mustang instead of one of these G-Bodies though.