1984 Hurst Olds Cutlass - A Love Affair Rekindled

After a childhood spent being gaga over cars, through my wonder years and into my later teens I had all but lost interest in them. How else to explain how such a dyed-in-the-wool car guy could settle for  1974 Mercury Comet four-door as his first car? In retrospect I can't say I blame myself seeing that when I was thirteen, GM started "The Great Downsizing Epoch" that may have resulted in better cars, but also began an era when cars began to become soulless, appliance like transportation conveyances. However, when I first saw a black, 1983 Oldsmobile  Hurst Olds Cutlass, my childhood love affair with all things automobilia was re-kindled. '83 H\O's were black while the '84's, like this one here, were silver.  

The 1983 Hurst\Olds Cutlass was offered as celebratory fifteenth anniversary edition of the 1968 Hurst\Olds Cutlass; the '84's kept the party going for another year. From 1985 through 1987, what was essentially the Hurst\Olds became the 4-4-2 hearkening another Oldsmobile moniker of yore. 

The original H\O's featured a high-performance version of Oldsmobile's "Rocket 455 V-8" that got around General Motor's mandate that no intermediate model could have an engine larger than 400 cubic-inches; Oldsmobile claiming that Hurst Performance installed the engine although in reality, Oldsmobile installed the engines along with a Hurst Dual-Gate shifter that allowed drivers to shift the automatic transmission manually. Or semi-automatically since the cars did not have a clutch. Oldsmobile partnered with Hurst on Hurst\Olds Cutlass' in 1968 and 1969, 1972 through 1975, 1979 and 1983 and 1984.

The 1983 and 1984 H\O's and the 4-4-2's from 1985-1987 cars featured a performance version of the last Oldsmobile "Rocket V-8" that displaced just 307 cubic-inches. These "Rockets" had little in common with the vaunted Rockets of yore like the original H\O's 455 cubic-inch heavy breathers. Based on the Oldsmobile 260 cubic-inch V-8 that Oldsmobile offered from 1975-1982, these 307's had a "hotter" cam, stiffer valve springs and richer jetting of the secondary-barrels on the over square Rochester Quadra-Jet. The modest modifications helped bumped horsepower to one-hundred seventy; a thirty horsepower increase over a base 307 engine. Certainly nothing to really write home about but back in the early '80's, any increase in horsepower was a welcome one. 

The star of the show on the '83 and '84 H/O's were these Hurst-supplied "Lightning-Rod" shifters. The "rod" on the left allowed normal, automatic shifting if the driver selects OVERDRIVE. Put it in D and the shifter on the right takes care of the one-two up-shift, the middle shifter the two-three shift and when it's time to up-shift to over-drive or fourth gear, the driver slides the shifter on the left to OD. Certainly cool looking but rather cumbersome and bulky to operate none-the-less.

Similar to today's "manumatics", I can't imagine many driver's used the "Lightning-Rod's" on a regular basis. Case in point, on my son's 2017 Chevrolet Camaro which has an automatic, he can "row-his-own" from the shifter or use paddles behind his steering wheel. He's told me that the only time he's used the shifters is when I've been with him in the car while he's driving. 

Pointless baubles and bits, though, are all part of what makes a "specialty-car" like this actually special. Certainly worked on me. Still does. I love these cars; the similar looking but "Lightning Rod" shifter less 4-4-2's that came after it too. The flashy paint jobs, the chrome wheels, the snarly sounding engine that really didn't have that much go and of course the shifters all coming together to re-stoke my automobile fire that hasn't been extinguished since. 

1995 Buick Riviera - Power Drive

Buick's stylish '95-'99 Riviera shared its Cadillac based chassis with the equally fetching Oldsmobile Aurora

Back in 1995 the sales manager of the radio station I was working at back on Long Island drove up in one of these  resplendent in black and a "3800" V-6 sucking extra air forced down its throat from a supercharger. Less than a minute after I asked him to throw me the keys to that company issued vehicle I was hurtling down the Meadowbrook Parkway towards Jones Beach north of 100 miles per hour on a last chance power drive. When you're driving something with almost twice the power of what you're used to you owe it to yourself to have as much fun as possible. Life is short. Exceed the speed limit.

The first Buick to be called a "Riviera" was a 1949 Roadmaster hardtop. In 1963 Buick introduced a Riviera as stylish 2 door sedan that was a stand alone model.

The 1995-1999 Buick Riviera, along with its cousin the Oldsmobile Aurora, are examples of what GM could do in the '90's when they put their best and brightest on a task and let them do what they hired them to do. The cars were bold and stylish and what I'm most enamored of, whimsical. Everything that GM cars in the '50s and '60s where. Only thing was that no one cared and they didn't sell well. What happened?

I had a 1982 Riviera. While it was the worst car I ever owned (that's saying a lot because I've owned some real bombs) I still get weak in the knees when I see this distinctive -R-. 

Big, stylish, statement making two door coupes, a GM mainstay in the '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s, had become passe by the mid '90s. The  people who bought them years prior were now buying big stylish statement making sedans and (oh, dear) sport utility vehicles. Vehicles that made the same dramatic impact as Buick Rivieras of yore did but just without the down side of any inconvenience. Getting into the back seat of one, for instance, no matter how comfortable it may be once you get back there, requires a gymnastic maneuver of two. When my son and his friends get out of my Monte Carlo on car pool day they all joke about how its time to get out of the "clown car". Nice, boys. Nice. You can walk from now on.

A super charger is a belt driven compressor that forces additional air into an engine. This differs from a turbocharger than recirculates exhaust back into an engine. The performance gains are significant for both. I prefer super charging although there are many pundits for the turbocharging.

The market for two door cars began drying up in '90s and by 2008 GM stopped making them altogether. While only recently have they began again to make a two door variant of a sedan (Cadillac CTS coupe--I don't count the Camaro or Corvette in this segment) the sad truth is a big two door sedan is as relevant today as a leisure suit.

My teenage sons know what I like in a car and they too appreciate the whimsy that you can only get from a big two door car like these. Will we ever see cars like this again? Doubt it. Whimsy is in the eye of the beholder and what's cool and avant garde to one is compromised and silly to another.