1969 Oldsmobile Hurst Olds Video – Muscle Car of the Week

1969 Oldsmobile Hurst Olds Overview

Designing and coming to market with unique builds is commonplace for car manufacturers and, in a 100+ year old industry, the uniqueness of these builds sets companies apart from others. One such unique classic car build is the Oldsmobile Hurst Olds.

History of the Hurst Olds

The Hurst components were so successful in the Oldsmobile 442 models, Oldsmobile collaborated with George Hurst to come up with the limited-edition Cutlass that featured a larger engine (as GM had a policy that did not allow larger engines in cars smaller than full-sized models). The Hurst/Olds became the only intermediate-sized GM car at the time to offer an engine larger than 400 cubic inches. Since Oldsmobile was working with Hurst on this build, they were able to imply that Hurst was installing the engine which is certainly a clever workaround for the engine size restrictions within GM.

1969 Oldsmobile Hurst Olds

In 1969, the Hurst/Olds returned for a 2nd year including some subtle changes. The most noticeable change was the color of the car. It went from a silver and black paint scheme to a Firefrost gold on white paint scheme. A pair of English racing mirrors finished off the exterior, along with H/O emblems on the front fenders and deck lid. 442 blacked out grilles and black hand painted pinstripes appeared on it as well. A functional “mailbox” fiberglass hood scoop with H/O 455 on each side was implemented into this model as an additional added feature. Unique 15×7 chrome SSII rims with Goodyear F60x15 Polyglas tires with a mounted spoiler on the trunk can also be found on the 1969 model. With only 913 of these built, the 1969 Hurts/Olds is absolutely a delight to stumble upon.

The horsepower for the 1969 Hurts/Olds 455 cubic-inch Rocket V8 engine was rated at 380. This is the same engine as the 1968 Hurst/Olds but with better drivability. After the 1969 model was released, the Hurst/Olds was temporarily discontinued while, at the same time, GM removed the 400 cubic-inch engine limit for the 1970 model year which permitted the larger engines to be installed in intermediate muscle cars. However, in 1972, Hurst/Olds added this model back into production.

Muscle Car of the Week

The fully loaded 1969 Hurt/Olds seen in the video below shows off the engine that made this model so special. As the Muscle Car of the Week video mentions, although installation of the engine took place on the Oldsmobile factory assembly line in Lansing, Michigan, the car was ordered by Hurst and then shipped to Demmer engineering to complete the Hurst/Olds conversion. Once the car was finished being built, it was then brought back to Oldsmobile in Lansing, MI and sold through Olds dealership. The feel and the look of this car along with the larger engine truly made this model the total package back then and highly sought after now.