This could be the cheapest Hurst/Olds around! Sure, it might also be one of the least desirable ones, but there are some really cool features here that make this project worth a look. This was the last of the special edition cars that came out of the partnership between Oldsmobile and and the famed aftermarket supplier – Hurst. It’s pretty rough, but it’s listed here on eBay with a starting bid of $700 and no reserve!
This may have been the last iteration, but it was also the most popular. The eighties weren’t a good time for the muscle car, so these must have looked pretty good to the guys who wanted something special. The package consisted of much more than a couple of fancy badges too. The high output 307 V8 fed 180 horses to the rear wheels through a beefed up rear end. That may not sound like a lot of power today, but 0 to 60 in 9.8 seconds wasn’t too shabby at the time.
Some of the visual effects included a power bulge on the hood and a spoiler on the trunk. The styling may not have been for everyone, but then again, this was about as good as things got back then. Rear wheel drive and big V8s were disappearing, so you have to give GM credit for trying to keep the flame alive.
Every car with a Hurst badge on the back has gotta have one of the company’s iconic shifters mounted on the floor. This car is no different, but the shifter found inside this car is nothing like the ones that had gone before it. The Lightning Rods triple-shifter insured that you never missed a gear during those stoplight drags. The stick on the left operated like a typical automatic shifter, but the ones on the right controlled first and second. It was probably a lot of fun mastering the technique.
Looks like someone left one side of the t-top off. That’s a shame because this thing is already in rough shape. The outside has been resprayed at some point and the rims aren’t the originals. Still, I’d love to see it returned to mid-eighties glory somehow. This one might end up being too crusty to justify a full restoration, but there are a lot of Hurst/Olds specific parts here that have some value. What do you think – will someone rescue this car or will it just get parted out in order to save others?
I’m a big Olds fan and it’s a real shame to see this special model in this kind of shape, it’s probably going to end up being a parts car, I’m betting floors and frame are in bad shape.
I think the cars too rough to do anything with now, but I had a brainstorm of takin the driveline and putting it in an open Tbucket. Those shifters look cool!
Very stylish back in the day. There were at least 2 running around in the ’90s in my neck of the woods that had 455s swapped in – super easy to do – had the same trans (BOP pattern) as the Buick GN so there were lots of HD trans parts available. Cutlasses were very popular in this generation. Did you know that the grille inserts were spring loaded on hinges so they pushed in if impacted? Also the Olds 307 was the last carbureted engine sold in the states – although it was in the Caprice not an Olds I believe.
I had to look on YouTube to see how the shifters worked. It’s certainly interesting.
I have the Hurst Lightning Rods shifter in my ’65 Galaxie with a Boss 429 transplant. I purchased it back when it first came out due to the “cool factor” but it has proven itself over the years.
I’ll take the ’62 Ford in the background.
The 8.5 rear end would sell for $800.00+ around me, and the Lightning Rods would bring an easy $500.00+.
A friend of mine and his wife had matching Silver Hurst Olds, . Very nice looking cars…
Badly want a lighting rod shifter they always looked so cool
This is what you really want http://www.lencoracing.com/ST1200MasterPage.html
I had a friend who bought an ’87 442 new with the 307 engine. He loved and babied the car, but was not able to do any work on it himself. Once it got out of warranty it still had low miles, however he started being plagued with carburetor issues and was always having to take it back to the dealer. The Olds dealer just kept bleeding him out of money trying this and trying that. Any other shop would have most likely jerked the old carb and replaced it or totally rebuilt it. I told him about an original local 1-owner documented ’69 SS that was under a special car cover and on wooden blocks (I kid you not) in the back of the owner’s home. I had known about it since High School. He promptly bought it and ditched the Olds. It’s kind of odd in a way, but as much as I would have loved to have that Camaro for myself, it was so cool seeing my buddy end up with an early Camaro SS after what he’d been through with the Olds.
Lightning rods! Cool shifter . Had a chance to get one of these in good shape for cheap years ago and passed it up. Not much performance at all but a unique car for sure!