[HO455]

……….Send in the clones. This is another sad day for true Oldsmobile enthusiasts. The problem with fraudulent and dishonest Oldsmobile W-30 sellers is already at epic proportions. But it now will become an epidemic. We just have to look at the spring Mecum Belvidere, Illinois auction to see a recent example of this at which time a car broker sold a 1971 black & white W-30 convertible clone for 170K. The car was represented as a legitimate four speed car but had air conditioning, power brakes, a spoiler and the wrong heads-but some unsuspecting buyer did not seem to care. Special thanks must go out to “Parts Place Joe” for helping propagate an already completely dishonest hobby. But I am sure his bank account will continue to flourish in the future with the addition of these new D, F and H Oldsmobile heads. Sadly this hobby has become completely distasteful. Now 99.9 percent of the W-30s for sale or coming through major auction houses are not legitimate W-30s but just well assembled clones. With the new addition of these heads all the pieces for perfect W-30 clones are available. From what I understand there is even perfectly aged counterfeit Oldsmobile broadcast sheets, exact duplicate OW transmission tags, Intakes, Red inner fenders etc… There is really no way to distinguish what is authentic anymore. I spoke with a very well know Oldsmobile restorer collector recently & he stated that almost ever W-30 he has recently seen sold in public was not truly a legitimate W-machine. He said that most of the true & legitimate W-30 convertible four speed cars are in the hands of wealthy private collectors that really have no need to sell their cars. He said if a legitimate W-30 convertible four-speed car does come up for sale it is almost always done in private. He said these cars have become so rare & sought after that they generally move from one collector’s hand to another collector with no public knowledge of the sale. He said there have been sales reaching astronomical numbers for perfectly concours restored 1970 W-30 convertible four speed cars with unquestioned pedigrees. But they have completely escaped the public arena. Sadly for the W-30s and the LS-6 cars without the benefit of a historical service that the Pontiac & Buick community enjoy, the level and quality of fake W-30 and LS-6 cars is just going to increase to an unbelievable level. I guess it does make the authentic W-30 or LS-6 cars almost priceless if you can prove out its pedigree. But sadly it also has made the hobby so dishonest & distasteful that you almost want nothing to do with it anymore. I believe that is why so many Muscle Car enthusiast have gotten away from the whole numbers matching concours aspect of the hobby and have gotten heavily involved with the Pure Stocks etc… But in reality that is what the cars were truly made for anyway.