From the first time I rode in some kid’s example back when I was attending Wasson High in Colorado Springs, I’ve had a shred of respect for the Oldsmobile Quad 442. I’m not going to say one word one way or another about whether or not using the vaunted 442 name on one of GM’s one-size-fits-all-brands small cars was a tragedy. It was the 1980s, and GM was all but done making RWD cars by this point that weren’t cop cars or the Camaro and Firebird. But at least Oldsmobile tried to make the Quad 442 actually interesting. They took the N-body Cutlass Calais, stuffed 180 horsepower worth of Quad 4 up front, hooked it to a Getrag five-speed, and cut it loose. The market might as well have yawned, but those in the know snapped the cars up in the same way that Neon ACRs and Spirit R/Ts were snapped up. These were attempts at front-drive performance that tried to work. In the Quad 442 form, it did work: light body, potent engine, FE3 suspension and a driver that could do more than rip the skins off of the front tires equaled a car that could shock the shit out of anyone who derided it as a dressed-up econobox. In proper tune, this little red two-door could deflate the ego out of an IROC-Z owner faster than a sewing needle could pop a balloon.
Not everybody wants to jump straight into a monster V8 sled. I get that. Not everybody sees a 1970s Nova as a “compact”. I get that too. I know many people that don’t go on their desires to get a well-performing machine because they view that as a luxury that they can afford and that they would rather have a daily car that they can live with. Sounds like my Pro Commuter fixation…and if there was ever a car designed for that duty, this is it. $3,500 gets one of the early 1990s hidden jewels. Make sure the maintenance on the Quad 4 is up to par and prepare to have more fun with a little GM front-driver than you should ever be able to have.
My recollection of those cars is much different. When these were brand new I worked for GMAC. The company would get pool cars for some of us to use and to be fair they’d rotate between the brands every couple months.
When it was Olds turn we got in 4 Cutlass Calais. Two Quad 4s and two regular old 4 cylinder cars. I think the regular motors were rated around 120HP.
Not sure if they put the wrong convertors in the Quads or what the exact problem was but both of those cars were absolute dogs!! The regular motor cars would destroy them in a race(we tried). Nobody there could figure out what all the hype was about.
Then we found out if you went more than 5MPH over the posted speed limit in a turn the suspension was so stiff it would literally lift the opposite rear tire several inches off the ground leaving the unsuspecting driver with a nice “I’m gonna die!!” feeling. Musta been how Nader felt the first time he drove a Corvair!! Definitely was NOT impressed by those cars.
That wasn\’t my experience at all. Mine wasn\’t a 442. Mine was a just a Calais with the Quad 4 and 5 speed stick. It was very fast and exceptionally good on fuek
Somehow Mom found one of these as my high school ride. Mine was a 1988 and gray. People would be in awe when any 60-70-or 80 Chevy V-8 of average making all that racket would suffice to my silent 4 banger. Plus I got 30mpg to the 12. 2 summers of wages into a big block money pit isn\’t gonna touch it. Wish I still had.
A 190 hp version of the Quad 4 went into the Achieva SCX, a car i had 20 years ago that I still miss. Olds developed that car for an SCCA racing series that it ended up winning. The 442 is interesting and relatively fast, but the next-generation Achieva SCX was a much better home for that drivetrain.
One of my co-workers road raced an Acheiva SCX. He liked the drivetrain, and GM had an impressive amount of factory support for it, but he thought some of the other FWD cars of the time had better chassis design.
Still, I’ve got to give GM credit for trying, even if the result wasn’t quite the Prelude-killer it looked like on paper.
Had one of these brand new, spent more time getting engine work done at the dealership after the first year than my hot rod.
Almost bought one of these new. It drove fine, but as soon as it really started to come on the power band, the factory rev. limiter would shut it down. It was such a tease! I forget what the rev limit was, but it was artificially low, maybe 5500? You could just tell it wanted to go much higher than that! I walked away and bought a 2 door S-10 blazer a couple of years later.
69rrboy, did you miss something? Getrags didn’t have converters, they had clutches, and were respected back to ’60’s Mopars (OK, maybe not respected, but the A833 wasn’t out yet. Still, apples and oranges.) And Casey, the Quad4 was as good (or bad, take yer pick) as anybody’s 4 banger back then: if you drove the crap out of them because you thought 442 still meant “hot rod”, you got what you deserved! A friend had one in 1998 that he wanted to sell with 90K on the odo and original motor, and it was fun, especially down twisty Memorial Drive in Houston. Unfortunately, he got rearended, so it went to the crusher, alas. I liked that car.
I piced up a 442 olds 1965 convertible 400 4 sp red red and white in side for 150.00 back in 77 fast car
I had 1990 Buick Skylark Custom 2Dr. with the quad4. It was pretty quick, never raced but she stayed on the highway getting 30 mph. One day after just a regular day of errands, I fired her up and immediately shut her down. White smoke out the exhaust, just after I had her painted for flaking paint. Both problems were known GM issues which was the first and only time GM did not offer any assistance. Had the head redone to only be totaled by a drunk driver a month later. Those seats were so comfortable.
I didn’t miss anything hotrodpop. What you apparently missed was the part where I said, the two cars we got were regular old 4 door Calais with Quad 4 motors and AUTOMATICS. I wasn’t talking about this fake 442 thing with a stick. I never even knew they made such a thing until this article.
As I also said, I don’t know if they might’ve had the wrong convertors in them or what the actual problem was but both of those cars were complete dogs. The execs bragged those motors up for months before they came out. Then when we got them it was a BIG disappointment.
Probably just poor product planning. Let’s put a race motor that does nothing until it gets to 6 grand in a daily driver and then stick a rev limiter on it that doesn’t let it get close to there. Oops!
The motors seemed to do fine in that one race series they had back then where those cars ran against Dodge Spirits with full body kits that looked pretty cool. The Archer brothers car kicked ass. Wonder what ever happened to it. If you can find some old video of those races you can see all those Olds running on 3 wheels around the corners. That’s a very strange feeling to get in the driver’s seat.
In 1991 Olds came out with a Qud 442 W-41 which was their High Performance package. I road tested one and sold my 88 Mustang GT and bought the W-41. Olds made just over 200 of the W-41\’s so they could get them in SCCA racing. They tore up the track. The W-41 that I bought was number one of 200 made. I had a lot of fun with it. Just about all the Corvettes and Mustang GT\’s would look at the Calais and always let me take off first thinking they would fly by me and the next thing they were thinking was did I have a V-8 under the hood. You see my W-41 would run 14.5 seconds at 95 MPH in the quarter mile and I\’m sure a professional driver might get it to go faster. The only problem with the Quad 4 were the engines. They had bad head gaskets. Olds extended the warranty because of that but if they used one of their head gaskets, it would blow again. The only head gasket that worked was the Felpro gasket. The rev limiter in mine was set at 8000 RPM\’s. It handled like a Corvette and I never had the rear wheel lift on me. There was also a problem with the brakes but that is for another time. The W-41 had 190 HP 10 more than the regular Quad. 4\’s. It also had a different gear ratio, 394-1. In 1992 it came out as the SCX and no W-41 badging. It had the 190 HP but after that the HP dropped to 185. I kept mine for a long time and then finally sold it. I also took mine to Oldsmobiles 100 birthday in Lansing. They also lined up 100 Oldsmobiles in a field. The oldest to the newest and mine was in the front line at the end. I probably should have kept it. I also talked with the racing team and they loved the car.
The problem with the head gaskets was an aluminum head, on a cast iron block. dissimilar metals have different heating and cooling qualities. Dumb move. They made a fix for it, but only after everyone was pissed about it, and it was too late. It was a shame, because they were cool cars, and quick.