Back in 1996, Vinny was kicking around the idea of getting another toy to play around with in addition to his 1962 Olds Starfire. This was and still is Vinny's first love when it came to classic Oldsmobiles. He decided he would buy a clean straight 1986 Cutlass and prime the entire car in light gray primer and just for kicks, spray on the Hurst/Olds stripes and trunk in black primer. He'd look through Hemming’s and see that from time to time, there would be a few ads for 1968 Hurst/Olds’. In one issue he noticed that that there were 3 ads with 68 H/O’s, one was Bob Anderson’s ad which had 2 68’s for sale and the other ad was a simple 1 line ad “1968 Hurst/Olds $12,000 Rock Falls, IL.” Vinny called the number and spoke with the seller, Carl Brandt of Brandt’s Performance Engines who informed Vinny that the car had been in his family for a long time and that it was his son’s car but he lost interest in it. Carl took the car and used it mostly to run at Byron Raceway in Rockford, Illinois.
In 1984 he did a “race car” restoration on it, by this he meant it looked awesome from the grandstands, but up close you could see that much of the glass and trim were hit with DA sanders, the car needed weather stripping and a lot of detail. At this time he also dropped in a supercharged 502 BBC and had the 68 running in the 9’s.
Vinny guessed Carl was a purist of sorts, because he decided to go back with an Oldsmobile power plant. He took a 455 and bored it 125 over, offset ground the crank and fitted it with 455 Pontiac rods, Plymouth wrist pins and 454 Chevy pistons making it a 510 cid. He did some modifications to the block castings to get those rods to clear, and installed main studs. He also installed oil restrictors and enlarged the main bearing oil feed holes. He was running her with consistent 12:20’s with stock intake and exhaust manifolds.
He used what Vinny believes are D heads (1 head has all external casting marks ground off) with Ford 429 rocker studs and Pontiac 1.65 rocker arms. he milled .125 off the rocker pedestals, installed Isky SBC guide plates, installed larger stainless exhaust valves and used Pontiac small valve spring (inside the Olds spring) to increase the open pressure to 300lbs.
He told Vinny that the car still had the original OW transmission, but he toughened it up, added 13 extra clutches and a better shift kit. The car also had a 12 bolt Chevy with 2:73 positraction. Vinny asked about rust and bodywork and was told the car was very solid, but there was the typical lower fender rust that was cut out and replaced with new metal.
Vinny asked him if he was negotiable on the price in which he responded, “I’ll take $10,000”. So Vinny contacted Mike Brady and asked if he could go look at the car for him. He agreed to take the ride to Rock Falls, he looked it over and called Vinny back and said in so many words, “get here now and buy this car!” So Vinny made the drive from Long Island and bought it.
Later Vinny found out the history on this car from Karl Sarpolis. It was bought new on July 8th from Humphrey Cadillac Oldsmobile in Rockford, IL. It is Demmer car #511 and was sold to Wayne Garhart who was a Chrysler sponsored NHRA Driver. Vinny contacted his brother last year and he informed me that Wayne had raced the car up until 1971 when he retired and unfortunately drank himself to death a few years later.
When Vinny got the car home he had lots of fun with it! "That 510 ran great and with those highway gears and L50X15’s on the rear, she would still melt the 22” of rubber through the gears! The exhausts and mufflers ended right in front of the rear end with turn downs. Just driving down the streets here in NYC would set off an orchestra of car alarms!"
But there was on drawback to living here in NYC/Long Island… traffic! That 510 would run at 160*-180* all day long, but Vinny got stuck in our famous NY traffic, that temperature would climb up to 200* rather quickly.
Vinny started talking with his now good friend Karl Sup about doing an engine rebuild to replace the 510 inch. Karl informed him that he had a spare 455 block that came from a 69 H/O and was a low mileage short block. They came to an agreement and Karl sent everything out to the machine shop.
In February 2004, Vinny started to assemble the engine. What was good was that for the past few years he started gathering up all the correct parts. He found a nice set of virgin D heads, 1111468 distributor, 7028255 carburetor, 400468 water pump, 398662 intake; all with correct date codes for the car. Besides the engine parts, he also located a rebuilt correct T3 rear with the correct 31 spline axles!
In 2005 he started to disassemble the 68. Pulled out the 510 and the TH400 and could not help but notice how disgusting and crusty the frame was. He decided that he would wire brush, prime and paint the frame rails and the firewall. One day after Vinny had power washed the frame to remove any grease and grime, he had a revelation of sorts. The engine and transmission were already out, all that is left was to drop the gas tank, disconnect some lines and remove the body from the frame!
Vinny did this and sent out the frame and all the control arms and spindles and a bunch of other parts to the powdercoater. A few weeks later it was reassembly time. He finally finished the car in May of 2008 just in time for the NYC/Long Island Olds Club Spring Dust Off. In which his 68 took a second place trophy for his class!
The car still needs the same detail work mentioned, glass, and trim. The paint still looks awesome for being 24 years old plus. Vinny has been to a few local cruise nights and she has about 40 miles on her and runs great! Honestly, by looking at Vinny's car, some beg to differ about the car needing any further detail work. With such a great story came such a great American Classic Muscle Car.
Crazy to think, but Vinny is actually putting his Oldsmobile up for sale. That's right, it's FOR SALE! Vinny says he doesn't really want to sell it, but he really wants to find a 1965 442. Whether or not that day ever comes, we know the car will be done just right when Vinny gets it. And whoever buys this 68' will be lucky! It's worth every penny.
Vinny knows his stuff! So whenever you want to talk to him or get further information on the sale of his car, feel free to drop him a line in our Members Section - HURSTOLDZ
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