ah yes. Helen Early says Olds built approx 12 or 13 Rallye 350 W-31 cars. I have seen and heard of fakes, but nothing legit. Also, Sebring Yellow is the color you are looking for Marco. Remember, Rallyes were built on 3 different "style" cars. F-85, Cutlass S post and Cutlass S. Whether that makes a difference to you or not, I don't know, just remember there are subtle differences. from my vague memory (my notes are at home) they came standard with the OAI hood and air cleaner setup, special order sebring yellow paint, painted bumpers, SSII rims without trim rings, wing, 3:23 OPEN rear end. I know the last one for certain because a few years ago I picked up a 3:23 open rear end from a 47K mile Rallye that was wrecked hard in front. Got the air cleaner base too. Guy said he probably had the plastic top too and would send it to me free of charge if he found it. Needless to say I never heard from him. Oh and I think they came with boxed control arms and rear sway bar too as I also got that with the 3:23 rear axle.
One of the cars that was recently on ebay had a picture of the original window sticker from the car. It shows the wing as option W35 Rear Deck Spoiler. Check it out: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...ory=6405&item=4507533189&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW Harvey
NO Rallye 350's were built in production with W31 engines. I do know for sure. There were a couple of engineering prototypes that had them installed prior to the production run, but they were converted back to 310 hp L74 cars before they were sold. They were used in the analysis of whether to offer the W31 engine or not. Decision was no. The cars were not very popular and many had chrome bumpers and trim rings put on by the dealers who couldn't sell them. Also heard of a few having the stripes removed and repainted a standard less offensive color. Helen Early is a very nice person who probably is tired of being asked this and just there could have been just to not offend anyone. It's another urban legend like the infamous solid web 403, Hurst convertibles, 4 speed Hursts, etc. Those all did exist but not in production. Wings were mandatory options on the W45 appearance option cars. The way all GM cars were spec'd out back then was to have a base car than add options. Some options dictated other mandatory options like the wing, N67 wheels with trim ring delete, W25 hood, 442 rear bumper with trumpets, etc. etc. You could get different rear end ratios and posi/non posi, and many other options. The W31 package was a performance option and while only a $231 option on my 68, the other mandatory options increased the sticker price another $800. Among them were M20 or M21 4 speed, posi, 3.91 or 4.33 axle ratio, heavy duty cooling, dual exhaust, heavy duty wheels, L74 engine option, and a few others I don't recall right now. There were strong rumors that the W45 Rally 350's were supposed to be the 70 Hurst Olds. Supposedly Hurst backed out when Olds insisted on no performance engine option in the package. It appears they upped the standard cam in the L74 engine in mid year and probably was related to the upcoming Rallye program. Dennis Jensen has one of those engines in his 70 Cutlass S.
Thanks for enlightening us Dave :beer I knew you had mentioned this before I think on ROP. So take care of that tummy of your's I find 2 Advils...........a huge glass of water and a serving of spaghetti cures me right up :bglasses: Any of you who are OCA members..............you'll see Frank LaTorre as the advisor for the Rallye 350s located on the inside back cover of every issue of Journey With Olds.................I call him a crazy pi-zon but a helluva nice guy
Thanks for enlightening us Dave :beer I knew you had mentioned this before I think on ROP. So take care of that tummy of your's I find 2 Advils...........a huge glass of water and a serving of spaghetti cures me right up :bglasses: Any of you who are OCA members..............you'll see Frank LaTorre as the advisor for the Rallye 350s located on the inside back cover of every issue of Journey With Olds.................I call him a crazy pi-zon but a helluva nice guy
Thanks for enlightening us Dave :beer I knew you had mentioned this before I think on ROP. So take care of that tummy of your's I find 2 Advils...........a huge glass of water and a serving of spaghetti cures me right up :bglasses: Any of you who are OCA members..............you'll see Frank LaTorre as the advisor for the Rallye 350s located on the inside back cover of every issue of Journey With Olds.................I call him a crazy pi-zon but a helluva nice guy
Erwin: It's easy to edit/delete multiples. Don't get me wrong, I really do like Rallye 350's today, just didn't then. I think they make great race cars, or street terrors with a 455 or hotter engine. Rallye Bob in Illinois has an awesome one he bought new. VERY fast car. Too bad they didn't come that way. The Rallye was a forewarning of what was to come in the 70's after the insurance companies paid off the politicians to hammer the musclecars. Later "winners" in my book were late 70's Road Runner Volares, 79/80 442's (puke, barf), heavy chevies, mid 70's "GTO"'s and a flurry of obese, then junk Mustangs back then. Camaro/Firebird semed to be the only ones that stayed the course and they even strayed for a while. Thank goodness for Smokey and the Bandit and the Black Trans Am's. dave
AMEN brother!!!! I actually like the 70-73 Firebird Formulas though................just something about staring down the front at those 2 scoops Kinda scary though, but since I don't have a car at the moment.................I guess its like when you ain't "gettin any" anything and everything is looking good right now
Weren't those bumpers more than just yellow paint? Wasn't it a special rubber like coating? How would you duplicate that finish if you found one with bumpers in poor condition? Todd
Yeah it was a Urethane coating that was quite thick. Royal Pain in the Ass. Maybe Rusty can help with that, he's a piant guy.
Unfortuanately, I do not have the answer for the bumper coating. All of our bumpers are done off site.
The one my dad had didn't have the spoiler, and it looks like one of the ones in the first links didn't either. Regarding the bumpers, wasn't the coating referred to as "elasotomer?"
Mark Thanks for the tip. I posted a wanted ad and have already had two responses with cars for sale! Harvey
According to the Dealer Order Sheet, the spoiler was mandatory on the Rallye 350. The box already has an "X" on the pre-printed form. But that doesn't mean someone couldn't possibly order a "spoiler delete" if they knew the right people and/or codes. And I'm sure the dealer would be willing to remove it, fill the holes, and paint the deck lid if that's what it took to make a sale. Factory literature refered to the ugly bumper covering as Urethane. I don't know if the word "elastomer" appeared anywhere. No offense intended to Rallye 350 fans, but I've never been real fond of them. A big turn-off for me is the fact it used decals instead of paint stripes like other Oldsmobiles. The decals look chinsy like a Judge. :laugh:
I recall at one time the content of the package changed. Either the spoiler originally was standard or the opposite.
Rallye 350's Elastomer was a term Chrysler used on the Cuda bumpers. The spoiler either started out as a mandatory option or changed later. Everyboby have a great Holiday Season.
Howdy everyone. This is my first time posting on the site, though I've been following it for a long time. Dave H. refered to my Cutlass S, that was built in April of '70 which has the L74 350 'QB" code, which Olds installed their old manual trans cam, 286/286 @ .472" lift. This was a mid year offering that pretty much coincided with the Rallye 350 development. The May 1970 Car Life magazine tested a Rallye with the M-21 and 3.42 gears and went 15.25 @ 94 mph with two people in the car. My brother, Dan has run my car at the track a couple of times and turned a 14.74 @ 95 mph pure stock, and a 14.40 @ 97 mph swapping in a M-20. So, the stick models could hold their own. :3gears: :3gears:
