Urban legend or fact?
April 26th, 2024, 02:52 PM
#8
Gary
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Gillespie County Texas
Posts: 2,114
The Fakebook piece adds nothing new to this old story.
The yellow Mondello Vista Cruiser wagon went through Century Olds in LA. The transfer certificate showed it went to Popular Hot Rodding magazine.
The second performance wagon, a bright orange Cutlass long roof, went to Car Life and Road & Track.
The consistent belief was that these two were off-line specials made by GM to send to the car magazines specifically to gauge enthusiast interest in a high-performance wagon. The magazine stories said that.
This is a quote from page 78 in the March 1970 edition of Road & Track, "It was a wagon specially built by Olds Division to get reaction from the motoring press."
In the March 1970 Car Life, pages 76 and 77, Allan Girdler, just a young humorist at the time, wrote...
"...Oldsmobile builds a superior Supercar, the 4-4-2. The Olds Cutlass is a comfortable station wagon. But those who have the power to make the decisions have spoken: the two cars cannot be combined. You can have a W-30 4-4-2, and you can have a Cutlass wagon, but you'd better have a two-car garage."
"There are people at Oldsmobile who do not agree with this. They built a combination as an experiment, and loaned it out., Fire it from your cannon, they said, and we'll see what it does to the fort."
GM certainly had the capability to do this. In Spring 1970 they made specially-painted OAI wagons for the Indy 500 track workers, but all had standard engines. My signature picture is one of those.
The yellow Mondello Vista Cruiser wagon went through Century Olds in LA. The transfer certificate showed it went to Popular Hot Rodding magazine.
The second performance wagon, a bright orange Cutlass long roof, went to Car Life and Road & Track.
The consistent belief was that these two were off-line specials made by GM to send to the car magazines specifically to gauge enthusiast interest in a high-performance wagon. The magazine stories said that.
This is a quote from page 78 in the March 1970 edition of Road & Track, "It was a wagon specially built by Olds Division to get reaction from the motoring press."
In the March 1970 Car Life, pages 76 and 77, Allan Girdler, just a young humorist at the time, wrote...
"...Oldsmobile builds a superior Supercar, the 4-4-2. The Olds Cutlass is a comfortable station wagon. But those who have the power to make the decisions have spoken: the two cars cannot be combined. You can have a W-30 4-4-2, and you can have a Cutlass wagon, but you'd better have a two-car garage."
"There are people at Oldsmobile who do not agree with this. They built a combination as an experiment, and loaned it out., Fire it from your cannon, they said, and we'll see what it does to the fort."
GM certainly had the capability to do this. In Spring 1970 they made specially-painted OAI wagons for the Indy 500 track workers, but all had standard engines. My signature picture is one of those.
Last edited by VC455; April 26th, 2024 at 03:30 PM. Reason: Added reference to Girdler article.
April 26th, 2024, 06:01 PM
#11
Rocket Renegade!
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Vancouver Island
Posts: 4,466
April 26th, 2024, 06:19 PM
#12
Gary
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Gillespie County Texas
Posts: 2,114
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