Historic Video: Watch The Hurst Hairy Olds Crash In 1967 – Was This The Last Pass The Wild Car Ever Made?


Historic Video: Watch The Hurst Hairy Olds Crash In 1967 – Was This The Last Pass The Wild Car Ever Made?

The Hurst Hairy Olds is one of the wildest promotional vehicles ever built dedicated to the sport of drag racing. Featuring twin, supercharged, nitro burning Oldsmobile 425ci V8 engines and four wheel drive, the vehicle was “driven” most famously buy “Gentleman” Joe Schubeck during the middle 1960s. It had more than its fair share of scrapes during that time period and it was not due to a lack of skill from Schubeck but more due to the fact that Superman himself likely could not have controlled the car that never really did the same thing twice. This video was taken at the long dead Niagra Drag Strip in New York back (as the posted claims) in 1967. We think this may be the video of the last pass the Hurst Hairy Olds ever made.

The car debuted at the 1966 March Meet and instantly became a legend. It made wild runs, traversing the track sideways, Schubeck sawing at the wheel to keep it between the ditches, tires smoking the entire way. As soon as the word began to permeate after that race, the car was a hot commodity. Unfortunately, it was a numbers game as to when the thing would crash, not if it would crash. The first wreckage came at the end of the 1966 season. The car was careening off the end of a Midwestern dragstrip and, as the story goes, was on fire. Schubeck, not wanting to ride the flaming Olds into the upcoming cornfield, attempted a side dismount while the car was still moving at a pretty good clip. He escaped the blaze but sustained a broken ankle in the process. His custom made tuxedo fire suit saved him from being burned.

The car was repaired and re-nosed as a ’67 for the following year. The team was feeling confidant that they had made progress on solving many of the issues plaguing the handling of the car and that season held much promise for increased performance, and for a while they were living up to their lofty expectations. The car was now making laps in the low 8 at over 180 mph. Those were heady numbers for anyone back then, but completely nutty for a car with doors and a body on it.

Unfortunately, the success was short lived. As best we know, the last pass ever made was the one shown here at the old Niagra Dragway in Buffalo, New York. One the run, the magneto in the front engine fails and the loss of power upsets the car. The suspension, tuned to be neutral at full bore now went back to its old toe-in condition and the car was uncontrollable. Veering wildly across the track and getting out onto the grass at the side of the strip, it looks really bad as the Olds careens like an unguided missle toward the assembled fans along the fence.

Thankfully (for the fans), this strip had a large steel cable stretched along the length of the outside of the track to prevent cars from getting into the crowd. The cable did its job to a “T”, but in the process, the car was destroyed.

Hurst decided that he wasn’t going to risk anyone else’s life, and Schubeck already made it known that he’d never place his tukus in the seat of it again, so the car was dismantled and that was the end of that until 2000/2001 as the car was recreated using some of the original components. It will never run down the track again. But it does make the rounds at Oldsmobile enthusiast meets and other large shows.

PRESS PLAY TO SEE THE HURST HAIRY OLDS HAVE A BAD DAY –


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5 thoughts on “Historic Video: Watch The Hurst Hairy Olds Crash In 1967 – Was This The Last Pass The Wild Car Ever Made?

  1. MGBChuck

    Well it seemed like a good idea. There is a fantastic diecast model available of this car (I have one). There also was the Terrifying Toronado exhibition car that had the same problems and short life span.

  2. Ted

    Funny what was deemed destroyed back then is now just parking lot dings to a lot of the real world craftsmen out there. How about some Hemi Under Glass vids now Brian?……………….Freight Train?…………….

    1. Dale Epp

      Wow….does that bring back memories!
      I was 13 years old and having a nirvana-like experience at that event. I’d only been to the drags maybe 2 or 3 times – but I was hooked.
      I was so stoked seeing that crazy car pull up to the starting line cuz I’d read about it in Hot Rod Magazine.

      I was standing behind a flimsy chain link fence but fortunately Niagara had a series of railroad ties submerged into the ground and tied together with heavy steel cables.

      When Schubeck left the track surface and headed across the grass he was heading directly at ME! Seriously! I couldn’t back up because the people behind me were 5 deep. Fortunately he caught a couple of those cabled ties before to could get to the me….but those ties were only about 20 ft away. Scared me shitless!

      Ya….the car never ran again and I though that was the end of “my” story. Nope! About 7 or 8 years ago I was sitting in the grandstand at the Strip in Vegas. About 2 or 3 rows down in front of me was a guy wearing a custom made Hurst Hairy Olds leather jacket.
      I said to the guy I was with “Hey, that ‘s the car that could have killed me at Niagara Dragstrip” LOL!

      Well, the guy in the jacket was Gentlemsn Joe Schubeck. He heard what I said and then got up and came back and sat with us for little while. What a hoot!! We had a few laughs….it was great! Joe told me the car kinda scared him. He said it was pure evil!

      Suddenly….I had two priceless memories!

      Dale Epp

  3. BRAKTRCR

    Beautiful car. As was the Terrifying Toronado, but neither of them would run straight twice. Same thing that I have seen with 10 second Bugs. One great pass, then lookout.
    I’m sure there are many that are perfect, I just haven’t seen it. It would be nice to have either of the Oldsmobile cars run again.

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