The other night, as I was surfing Facebook, I came across a discussion about what the next big collector car will be, and the general consensus was third-generation GM F-bodies, though there was a strong case for GM A/G bodies. I’m firmly in camp A/G body: the Malibu and it’s siblings already have a cult following, and the performance versions of the later G-cars (Monte Carlo SS, Grand National and 442) are doing just fine. Hey, the 5.0 Mustang wasn’t the only attempt that Detroit made at performance in the 1980s! But if there is one G-body that I’m a sucker for more than any other, it’s a late 1970s Oldsmobile Cutlass. I owned two before I was 15 years old, I love the shape and it’s arguably the best looking early-G made.
In fact, this 1979 Cutlass Calais is nearly a dead-ringer for my first car. The dark blue color looks right, the light blue interior is about as nice as you’ll find in an unrestored car, and it’s nice…almost refreshing…to see color-keyed Olds wheels in lieu of any other combination. The bonus is that the Cutlass is a Calais-trimmed car: that means it was less stuffy and Brougham-ish, but wasn’t quite the car the 442 was. Which, for 1979, proved to be just fine, as the slope-backed 442 was not a popular seller. But this blast from the past is unique for more than just being a clean cruiser:
Yessir, that is an honest four-on-the-floor in a 1979 Olds. And it’s a factory unit. So is the corporate (read: Chevy) 305 cubic inch wonder mill under the hood. Hey, 1979 wasn’t a great year for performance in American cars, period, take what you can get! And getting this Cutlass is a stout goal: we might be bending the budget a little bit at $5,500, but we see a sleeper G-machine here, or a strong jump ahead of the resto-crowd curve. Why? Normally, if you find a manual-trans Olds of this era, it’s packing the 260 V8 and a T-50 five-speed manual. A 305 Chevy and a four-speed, if this guy isn’t lying about having the build sheets ready, would be surprisingly rare. The 305 can be made to be surprisingly stout without taking away from it’s Malaise looks underhood, so you are really a transmission upgrade away from surprising a lot of people. We’d do a stock-appearing restomod, but hey, it’s your money. Invest wisely.
Craigslist Link: 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais
Where the hell do they get these model names from?
An Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais – you’d get this home and as soon as your back was turned a whole cell of IS terrorists would be jumping out of the trunk and blowing the shit out of your neighbourhood before you even knew it!
For my American cousins this alludes to the infamous “jungle” refugee camp at Calais where refugees hide themselves in semi-trailer trailers or even cling to the chassis to get to the UK
Well, this being a 79, it was just a ‘fancy’ French name to attach to the car. At the time, nearly 40 years ago, there weren’t refugee camps in the port city.
I have to agree Brian, I have never seen any Olds with the 305/4spd combo. $5500 maybe a little high but the car does look good from the pics.
I had a malibu that was V6 3 speed stick that was originally owned by an old lady that was ordered it with no a/c,p/s or p/b it weighed less than 3,000 lbs after i put a v8 and 4 speed in it,wish i still had it!
$5,500 is about 2K to much.
The transmission should be a Borg-Warner Super T-10.
Why would you leave the asthmatic 305 in place? a 406 will bolt right in, bolt right up and no one will know what your displacing.
Swap the rear end for a Turbo Regal/442 8.5 ring gear 10 bolt with some better guts.