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economist suntribune wheels thursday may 23 2002 19 it was one of those deep dark automotive secrets so secret in fact that most of the companys dealers werent even aware of it code named w30 it was meant to win races on sunday and sell oldsmobiles on monday it was the 1 960s and the free world was fascinated with power and speed speed thrills became a rallying cry young drivers began to demand highperformance machines that could tear up a quarter mile of dark country road or the tarmac of the local drag strip speed and styling became the ason detre of detroits car manufacturers every carmaker came up with a perform ance package and the era of the musclecar with big-cubic- inch engines and facedistorting torque was born quietly and without fanfare oldsmobile became part of this scene in 1 966 thanks to a little known late-in-the-sea- son release of the w30 ramair option package which seeped out of general motors towers of primness basically the car was an oldsmobile f85 equipped with a 350-horse- power 400 cubicinch v8 a supercar was born the project actually began a couple of years earlier in 1964 with ford and chevrolet banging away at each other for a bigger slice of the youth market the general turned to its pontiac and oldsmobile divisions for help pontiac came out with the hotselling gto and six months later olds responded with the f85 and its now leg endary numerical designation 442 which stood for 4-bar- rel carb 4speed transmission and 2 or dual exhaust the car wasnt much to write about when compared to the styl ish gto but it showed potential with its 330cubicinch v8 taken from the companys 1964 cutlass police pursuit package the car ran well but couldnt hold its own against biggerdisplacement cars such as the 389powered gtos prowling the streets things didnt change much until 66 when the engineers at olds slipped in a brawny 400 cubicinch engine topped with a four barrel carburetor it was a nice improvement but still no trophies gtos were still ruling the road so olds changed the carb configuration to three twobarrels from a single four bar rel the 442s power rating jumped to 360 and with it gear- heads everywhere began to take notice but oldsmobile engineers werent done not by a long shot later the same year they quietly released the w30 the engines received a hotter camshaft hightension valve springs while the components were painstakingly matched measured and hand assembled right at the factory the goal was simple become king of the drag strip so serious in fact were the tech heads at olds that they sold most of the cars in strippeddown versions only without radios and some without heaters the w30 option package was so secret that the vast majority of the general public had no clue it existed and neither did most of the dealers in fact only 54 of these highperformance pavementscorchers were produced the first year most of which went to serious professional drag racers a few dealers intheknow converted some 442s by installing overthecounter w30 equipment but they were few and far between success came quickly that year the oldsmobile 442 w30 brought home the bacon by winning the national hot rod associations drag racing cstock category by 1 967 the word was out about the hot new mus clecar at oldsmobile and the company finally began to play up the w30s existence the result was a jump in production to 502 cars plus a host of overthecounter conversion kits known as the trackpac the big change for 1967 was in the carburetion the three twobarrel set up was replaced with a rochester quadrajet fourbarrel after gm brass mandated that only corvettes could have the multiplecarb known as tri- power setup as well the 442 package became available only on the cutlass supreme the next year the 442 was named performance car of the year by cars magazine and that year more 442s were built than in any other year in the musclecar era which generally spans 196472 the w30 continued on relatively uninterupted until 1970 when the engine would grow to 455 cubic inches and horsepower would top out at 370 the popular w30 option about 3100 would make it to the street would stick around until the end of 1972 although the 455s horsepower rating would drop to 300 more a product of a change in how engines were rated than the abandonment of any performance hardware but the musclecar bubble couldnt last forever in fact most people believed it had already burst due in no small part to tightening pollution laws insurance regulations and gas shortages the combined effect was lower engine com pression and less horsepower as a result oldsmobile was no longer in the perform ance business and an era had come to an end as quietly as it had begun otto stein specializes in classic cars as a writer for wheelbase communications wheelbase is a worldwide supplier of automobile news reviews and features sof gas with bvetw purchase of s venture van while supplies last sshl ojf v irz purchase cash purchase excluding freight taxes 450 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