1968 Mod Rod 442

[RM Schimel]

Stealth…..Did Pontiac also create the world in seven days???? To call Pontiac GMs only performance division is a fantasy. In reality that title would probably have to go to Chevrolet as being GM’s primary performance brand.

As far as Oldsmobile… the division has historically always been known as the engineering and innovation brand of General Motors. Under the creative leadership of John Beltz, Oldsmobile was experimenting with every possible high performance engine, transmission and car design imaginable in the sixties. They were always seen as GMs leader in cutting edge technologies. Oldsmobile’s development of the Toronado went far back into the fifties and had nothing to do with their not getting an F-Body.

Every reputable auto writer credits Oldsmobile as being the first division at General Motors to produce the modern style high-compression OHV V-8 with the Rocket engine developed by Charles Kettering in 1949.

The Oldsmobile brand was always marketed to a more discriminating, sophisticated and affluent buyer. The 442s, Hursts and W-30s were marketed to buyers who were often in their late thirties or early forties. The buyer’s were mostly doctors, lawyers or successful executives that wanted a luxury/performance car that would carry the clubs nicely in the trunk with the top down, while heading to the country club to play eighteen. Hence the term executive hotrod was coined to describe the 442s. Back in the day Olds was referred to as being the thinking man’s Cadillac not “The Stodgy Old Man’s Car”. They were not trying to please the street-race kiddie crowd - that distinction was left to the Chevy and Pontiac divisions.

RM