The 1984 Hurst/Olds was the last of its kind. Oldsmobile collaborated with Dr. Hurst nine times since 1968 to build a Hurst edition Oldsmobile Cutlass. It was a sharp car and was very similar to the prior year offering except the 1983 Hurst/Olds was black with silver highlights and the 1984 Hurst/Olds was silver with black highlights. This example is located in Millbury, Massachusetts and is listed on eBay with 6 days remaining in the auction. The car looks to be in pretty good shape and sports the iconic Lightning Rod shifter in the center console between the two bucket seats.
The interior looks to be all there but is a little worn after 87,000 miles. The backseat looks to have been where the parties took place because there appears to be a cigarette burn in the seat and more wear and tear than you would expect. One of the interesting things about the bucket seats in these car is that ashtray for the back seat was mounted in the back of each front seat. The headliner and visors were recently replaced but some of the plastic chrome appears to be peeling from some of the interior parts.
Performance was just starting to reappear in GM cars in the mid 1980’s. The 1984 Hurst Olds vehicles was built with the LG8 5.0-liter 307 cubic inch V8 engine that sent power to 3.73 rear gears and was equipped with dual exhaust. The LG8 engine had a horsepower rating of 180 hp which was higher than the base LG4 305 cubic inch GM V8 of about 150 horsepower. Published acceleration times for the 1984 Hurst/Olds stated that the quarter mile could be covered in the mid-16 second range and 0 to 60 mph was approximately 8.5 seconds.
There were 3,500 Hurst/Olds built in 1984. This 1984 Hurst/Olds is listed here on eBay and is bid to $2,551 but it is early in the listing. The seller has a Buy It Now Price offering of $17,000. This is the last official year for Hurst/Olds production. The car has some needs but might be a good buy. Do you think the Lightning Rod shifter was a gimmick?
I lost a race to one of these in my 89LX 5.0. A sloppy shift, and he went by me, couldn’t catch him. We met next set of lights 🚥 i asked if that was a stock motor ? It was a 350ci transplant 😲
For some reason, Stan, you are the only one I can give a tums up to. Good enough for me.
The “Lightning Rods” was pure schmooze, it did nothing. I saw’r a car just like this at a car show, I even made light of the fact it had those, the owner looked at me and said, “I just leave it in OD”. While it would seem someone at GM thought the Rambler “twin stick” was a novel idea, I think it really came down to drag racing. At the time, and I hope someone can add, pro stock cars had this type of shifting, with 3 or 4 levers. Anyone know why they did that? I read they claim there was no connection to that, but I beg to differ. It was deemed confusing and tiresome. If in “D”, you HAD to use the shifters, but in “OD”, it skipped all that. I suppose it was as close to a manual as an automatic was going to get. I read there was a kit for other GM cars, that sold poorly. I like the car itself, but “just leave it in OD”.
Howard, if your going to the trouble of a lightning 🌩 rod shifting automatic, why not just equip the car with a manual transmission?
I’m wondering if you got higher rpm’s between shifts with the lightning rods. If so that would help some
$17k, nope needs to much. Take a few thousand off. I likes these and always wanted one but the state of classic car prices are still out of control. Maybe just maybe these prices will start leveling off.
you got to love the patch on the muffler. shows that the owner was too cheap to fix it right. what does that say about any other repairs that were done. too picky for the asking price. the 10k area would be right for what needs to be done.
I love it for the fact it doesn’t have a T-Top! I was a tech at an Olds dealer when these came out. They sent most of them to a local trim shop that installed them. I thought that ruined them,and still do.
Lightning rods, what a ridiculous concept. Too boy racer for me.