Dave check out the 68 H/O on ebay under Olds cutlass. Bid is 48,100 and not reached reserve. Buy it now for 59,900. Gotta be high water mark for these car. It does appear to be a 2003 Preservation Senior car but seem high to me. John
Seems "High" This guy has had this particular car on E-bay 3 or 4 times. Personally, this would be the most expensive H/O that I have known. That includes '69 H/O and '72 H/O convertables. It may be a great car, but I think that it is one of those dilusions set on by watching Barrett-Jackson!o No:
Wow. The sad part about these is someone eventually gets caught holding the bag on these type cars. That really is way over what I think it's worth, but it's only marketing hype and publicity that keeps these from being even more valuable than the W31's and W30's in concours condition. They're certainly more rare and just as much fun to drive. That sure would set a high water mark, though, and there's still lots of people that don't mind dropping $45k for a car that's "reduced" from $59,900 just so they can say "Barrett Jackson". These cars usually sell on payments rather than outright cash purchase. The specialty dealers around Detroit really do a great deal of business right before the Woodward Cruise by selling the cars with payments, then reselling them on consignment afterwards (while the owner continues to make payments) and the beat goes on. You could rarely pull these big bucks from an individual on a private sale. Another way to look at it is a tax shelter. One of my brother-in-laws (Ex brother in law, now) owned 3 McDonald stores and displayed one of his cars in each of them in place of the Ronald McDonald romper room crap. He set up a separate business to lease these cars to each of the stores and depreciated them over time. He rotated them from store to store. These were very big dollar mid year Vettes, 57 Tbird, etc. He had some other McDonald owner friends and they bought and sold these cars from each other, paid mega bucks to keep them in top condition. Usually had one or two extras to have fun in, too. Any way you cut it, though, someone eventually gets burned. Still also watching that black Ramrod on ebay. Over $15k now. Wonder what the reserve/Buy it Now is on that car.
same bay seller as the white W31 a couple weeks ago---someone out there must have quite a collection. Patton Edit: Just noticed the white W31 is on ebay again also.
I know the fender wells look correct, but is the engine also supposed to be that color or should be the olds gold?
hmmm Isn't this the car that had some body damage and was drug out of a boneyard for resto?? me think this car appeared on the Yenko board about a year ago or so, b4 it was sold to a refurbisher. I think Kevin Suydam actually went to look at it, but got quick stepped b4 he got there??? JH
That rings a bell I seem to remember a big buck 68 H/O that the owner took out for one last ride after he sold it and rolled it. Same car? I LUV 68 Hursts! To me it's the opposite of a Rallye 350. The 68H/O doesn't look fast (W45 non A/C car) but is, and the Rallye 350 looks fast, but isn't. "Screaming yellow zonkers can make a man out of you..........Maybe yes, maybe no............." Anybody remember that one?
The wrecked car was the Russ Dunmire dealership drag car. This car appears to be correct in every way. The way judging in the OCA goes is as follows: Junior until you win best of class with more than 975 out of1000 points then you become a Senior. Senior until you win Best of Class then become Senior preservation. After winning 2 Senior preservation awards, the car is retired from competition. The status is carried on from one owner to another.:boring: For those who give a rats butt, mine scored a 935 the last time it was judged in a national (Denver 2001).:sleep: The motor is the correct color (Wrong shade). All Olds 455's were painted that red in '68 and '69. In '70, they were painted the Olds engine blue. The story goes that all of the H/O's were supposed to have had the 455 engine installed at Demmer engineering (that was the loophole that stepped out of GM's ban on anything over 400 cubic inches in an 'A' body). During the 100th anniversary in '97, I was talking with some line workers from the day. They said that the engines were installed on the line. They said that you could see those red engines from a long ways away when it was sitting in a bare chassis. :TU:
Red engines For the hourly workers, they looked at what was coming at them, not going away from them (no time). I can see why they'd say that. All the 455 engines were red in 68 and 69 including the 88's and 98's. Seeing red engines wasn't anything that different. What really stood out was the black trunks on the silver cars. That was the only black on the cars, stripes were put on a Demmer. I coordinated the 68 Hurst project for Olds Manufacturing and we looked for anything that would make life easier for the people on the line. Our main assembly line ran upwards of 80 cars an hour in 1968 (got up to 98 cars per hour a few years later) and the complexity back then would drive an assembly plant nuts today. We put in the stock shifters (no console or carpets) to get them to Demmer. The special handling cars were always a pain to them. Test rolls drivers loved them, though. I was told to not watch my Ramrod go over the rolls (and didn't), but I heard it almost jumped out of the front wheel locks when the test driver powershifted second gear. I would have stained my BVD's. 935? Not bad. I'm impressed........favorably!
Dunmire Olds I remember the Dunmire Hurst Olds, it was meticulosly restored by the late Derryl Farmer of Portland Oregon(passed away in 2002). Derryl sold the car at BJ in either 2001 or 2002. He told me the couple who bought it were pissed drunk when they logged the winning bid and had no idea what they bought. (this is what the BJ handlers will do when they smell a mark) The booze is free at the bidders hospitality tent-I wonder why?) I hadn't heard about the wreck tell me more.
See that Buicklawyer tipped us to this car earlier in this thread. I think it's genuine, but you could never tell by the words without documentation. The sad part about this way of selling a car is he'll probably get more for it by the way it's listed. The type of people buying these cars are probably investors more than enthusiasts and if it doesn't say 442, it's not worth anything. Surprisingly there's a lot of people that do know Oldsmobiles (or should) that think the only one worth keeping is a 442. Case in point is the Musclecar Enthusiast magazine article on cheap musclecars last Spring where they used a pic of my car with a $3500 price range on it. Someone doing a search on ebay would miss this car if they didn't list it as a 442 in the title. I think that's the source of the W31 oil pans, etc. that tyou see on there from time to time. I'm still not totally sold on the unique 69 Hurst intake manifold that came up last month. Remember this one? Too bad the pic is dark.
Dave Worthington on ROP is cleaning out his storage file and posted all his photos from the Mondello and Dick MIller races from the last few years. I downloaded all to a CD. Great photos. It was overcast the day this shot was taken at Norwalk, but the rest are gorgeous.
Dave I see you recived my E-mail about the RR on E-bay Wasn't that car owned by someone that lived in Canada, I think I have a picture of it from a Canadian car show? What do you think is a better lookin ride a 68 H/O or a 69 H/O? Me and someone from the now defunct Rallye 350 club were having this debate, I think the 68 H/O is better looking because I like the black/silver combo and I just love 68 442/Cutlass?Hurst-Olds in general, but the 69 H/O does have that "looks fast just standing still" look to it, or the "tuff stance look"
I think the '68 looks classy and the '69 looks tough. I believe the '68 is a faster car as long as it doesn't have AC. I believe the '69 had the '68 "AC" heads even if it was not equipped with such. I'm sure Dave will step in to set me straight if I am wrong.
