For those of you who know me, skip to paragraph 3. For those of you who don’t:
I just purchased a 1991 Oldsmobile Calais Quad 442 W41 out in CT. Scheduled to pick it up in January. Whats so special about it? Its just an Oldsmobile right? Wrong. This car is just 1 of 7 built with a key RPO code combination which would change Oldsmobile’s racing heritage forever. C41 (usually meaning a non-A/C car to regular GM cars). This RPO code in conjunction with the RPO W41 meant something to the 1991 Olds Calais and the 1992-93 Olds Achieva SCX’s.
In 1991, Oldsmobile built 204 Calais Quad 442 W41 coupes to allow them to be raced in Showroom SCCA events. 7 of the 204 never received a vin number, instead they received the RPO code C41. A/C and radio delete, Oil Cooler Added, Torsen LSD in the trunk ready for installation, no body undercoating, and no other interior besides the dash. These cars rolled off the assembly line and into the R&D garage in Lansing. From the other goodies were added then shipped off to GM backed race teams of the day (Hacker Brothers, Chuck Hemingson, Dick Reed/Jim Fueling). These teams took these cars to 4 different Championships in 2 years and in 1992 Oldsmobile sent select teams new Oldsmobile Achieva SCX’s also badge with the rare combination RPO code of W41 and C41 (I own one of those as well).
Getting on to the Oldsmobile Autocross Revival. The car I am picking up was originally sent to the Hacker Express Team located in Albany NY in 1991. Its had a long life of road course racing since then and now resides in CT where its current owners are ready to sell it. Its been a race car for 18 years, and has had its only year off this year. I am picking it up January 15th and will begin restoration of this car shortly after. Starting with a solid body and a built engine, I want to run this in SCCA events, but I am unfortunately un-knowledgeable about how to do this.
From what I can understand, this car is set up to run SCCA ITS because there is a lot of custom suspension work to it, but the engine is mostly “stock”. Anyone with any input here is greatly appreciated. Here’s the only pictures I have of it right now, more to come
Very Very cool… these cars remind me of the Buick SkyHawk T-Type I owned for a short while. I should have keep that car…Such a cool car with an awesome interior.
1986 1.8L Turbo 4 speed manual with recaros seat. Curb weight is set at 2396 lbs and the motor at 165HP and 175 lb/ft torque.
My advice it to know what autocrossing is and that ITS is not an autocross class, but a club racing class.
Autocrossing is going to a large parking lot with a small course set up outlined with cones. A lot of fun, great for sorting out a car, more competitive than track time, one car at a time against the clock.
Now if you want to race this I really suggest you hold of on the engine build Pretty much all is allowed is .040" over and machining to increase compression NO MORE than .5 (no big builds, custom pistons, etc.) Don’t “restore” it yet, you still need to do some 11/10th driving take out a tire wall or hay bail. Clean cars are appreciated, but focus on driving first. That means do some auto-X, do some track days, then do a drivers school.
Here are some current links, you will want to keep the car SCCA legal. MAKE SURE YOU GET A LOGBOOK FOR THE CAR FROM THE SELLER You can still race it in other series, but just start with the SCCA ruleset first.
Very cool. You don’t see many old quads around anymore. I’ve still got a set of W41 cams waiting to be installed some day.
Are you sure it’s a W41 engine though? Either someone swapped it to a HO coil pack cover (I have no idea why they would do that as those covers are damn hard to find…) or you have a HO quad instead of a W41. Power output isn’t much different between the engines though, and the only difference between the cam profiles is a couple degrees duration. HO cams are a .410 lift and 212 degrees duration and W41 cams are a .410 lift and 218 degree duration.
I have some suspension pics here somwhere of an Achieva road race car. I think it was one that Mantapart was selling off when they closed up shop. Had a swaybar setup almost exactly like I just did on the cavalier. And some other neat little things.
<3 you jeff haha