Engineers: "the Grand National, that's better than a Corvette" GM: "build it" Not that idiots on the internet ever actually know what they're talking about.
@@sea_bass21 Correct. The problem is Its hard to get approved to sell a car that claims it is better than the Corvette when you're brand is under the GM umbrella. I recall a similar story I heard with Pontiac and how that went with their 2nd Generation Fiero project claiming the same thing during prototype testing.
there's one of three possibilities for what happened. 1: simply crushed like most other development vehicles. 2: sold off in 2009 during the financial crisis 3: still in GM's private museum.
@Jeffery Wain It was at a show in Skokie, Il. The town borders some of Chicago's wealthiest suburbs so I've seen some pretty obscure concept cars driven to the show, including this one.
Trevor Thomas they did. And it was known as the Quad 4 Turbo. Combined with this special setup, it would have been in sports car territory. But we cant have a 4 cylinder car beating the corvette, now can we?
Simply American automakers start doing cheap quality for decades and lost market. People do NOT want sport cars, cars enthusiasts are minority. People want dependable cars, doesn't matter if Japan, Germany or Hell makes them.
It's a damn shame that they didn't produce cars like these back in the day. I think one of GM's biggest downfalls is that it generally refuses to let any of its production cars outperformed the Corvette. That flawed mindset really prevented us from seeing a lot of cool cars from General Motors back in the day. Probably one of the reasons that they have so few cars from the 80s and 90s that still get people excited the way a lot of Japanese and European cars from the same era are getting today. It's a damn shame.
@@dante04srt I would, The Fiero released to the public was exciting to a lot of people, but was nothing like the car Pontiac really wanted to release. GM brass deliberately made it a commuter car so it wouldn't compete with the Corvette. Now all these years later, the Corvette finally moved to a mid engine design.
Holy crap! I checked and you're legit - that is awesome! Looks like it went to the best possible private home as well. Angelo, any idea what became of the Firenza not shown in the review but was in the article you linked on FB about the cars? That is a sharp little car.
It wasn’t that great. It’s like putting a full race suspension on an otherwise factory stock cutlas. Handled like a dream, but couldn’t get out of its own way. My first camaro was like that. V6 with Z28 suspension. Hugged the corners, had no exit speed. My Z28 is almost the opposite, all the power you need to pull out of the corners, but a little hairy going through the corners.
"It's Oldsmobile telling us that things are going to change". They didn't. They didn't change at all. In fact, they didn't change so much that Oldsmobile is now gone. I guess that could be considered a change.....
Chicken Mcnugget close its because GM really only caters to Chevy that’s why cars like this and the Pontiac banshee where killed because they would rival the corvette as well as why we never got a Trans Am after 2002. Both Olds and Pontiac had unique ideas that would fail because of GMs favorite child would no longer be the center attention.
@Matthew Caughey Grandpas were burning up roads before your daddy was born. He's the same dude that got your grandma knocked up in the backseat of his hotrod Oldsmobile Rocket 455. Respect your elders 🙄
@@koolskater30 Exactly! The boys and girls at Olds made these cars for a reason! They would have LOVED to bring back a 4-4-2 or Hurst/Olds like this. Thank that fucknut Roger Smith and his lackys for bad decisions of epic proportions at GM in the 80' and 90's.
Me watching video: These cars are awesome. I wonder why Olds never produced them? Joyce Braga: "...those meters read more then one full G. That's better than a Corvette." Me: Ah.
That Vader Cutlass would have been amazing. I'd love to recreate one. I feel like the Cutlass G-body is probably the most undervalued of the G-body along with 'regular old Regals'
Olds did it again. They had the midas touch in engineering. A superior handling car was built but was squashed because the Corvette had to be better. BTW, when this was made, Olds had just peaked in sales for the 1985 model year (Over 1 million). They built good cars afterwards that were performers including the Trofeo, Calais 442, and 98 Touring sedan. Most just looked like other GM division cars. I would have dropped Buick over Olds in 2001 and also kept Pontiac, but it is what it is.
Yep. Oldsmobile was the top selling car in Iowa in 85 if I remember correctly and the G bodies were huge sellers period. I'm biased as I had family members that had Olds franchises but you are right that Oldsmobile was known not just for styling but their drivetrains and bodies were known to last for years. QUALITY wasn't just a slogan at Oldsmobile. It has gotten out in the last few years that Buick was kept because of the Chinese market, I guess that's why more and more GM parts are made there (Ha).
Nah. The cars were already engineered and turning them into hi-po (for the time) low-numbers hot rods would not have addressed build quality, materials, reliability, etc. It's easy to make something existing go fast. It's much more complicated to not only design for quality and reliability, but make every aspect of the car work together for a truly game-changing vehicle that hundreds of thousands will buy. You'll also need 4-6 years of full-court marketing press to bolster what is hopefully lots of word-of-mouth buzz from new owners. But even if Olds achieved (heh, pun) that kind of product - assuming they were even able to do so apart from all other GM divisions - it would not have carried for the ensuing 18 years up to the brand's death in 2002, when they very arguably had their 2 best products ever: the Intrigue and the Aurora. They had a great styling ethos, decent drive trains, and could be reasonably marketed as near-luxury. But it was already too late by 2000-2001, and Buick already had more of a legitimate in as a luxury or cut-above-average brand (particularly overseas), and its own clean and unfettered styling.
@@halohunter5217 Well those 2 did have platform brothers at Pontiac (Bonneville, GP), Cadillac (Seville, Deville), and Buick (last-gen Park Ave., Regal), but the Intrigue had the 3.5L "Shortstar" V6 exclusively throughout all of GM, and it was also the base Aurora engine since the 2nd-gen Aurora had 2 engines instead of the 1st gen's V8-only strategy. That V6 never really took off although it probably was a prelude to the original DOHC 3.6. The Northstar V8 and its $$$ head gasket design problems were no help. But yes, those 2 cars were much more differentiated than any other pair I can think of among GM's brands at that specific time.
A lot of car companies were like that for decades. Still are to a point. It’s something that Chrysler fans get to be proud of: they have the highest percentage of concept cars becoming production cars in the industry.
I remember seeing these two cars at the auto show in 1985. There were actually 3 cars that were FE3’s. The other was an Olds Firenza. I remember thinking I would love to buy the Cutlass. Too bad Olds never produced these cars for the public.
I volunteer at the R.E olds museum and we have the 85 FE3X cutlass in this video and I’m the maintainer and main driver of the car. It’s still in mint condition today with less than 4,000 miles on it. It did sit for a while but we got it running and we start it and take it out once in a while. And for everyone wondering how we got it car well we got back in 2008 when GM filed bankruptcy. I do know for a fact that the Calais is still around but I’m not sure where it’s at. I’ll try and do a video on the FE3X when I can.
I wonder what they were able to coax out of the anemic 307 V8. I recall mid eighties Olds 442 complete with lightning rod shifters at cruise ins and car shows with plaques and signs proclaiming a 9.7-9.9 0-60 time. If I recall the only slower G body was the Pontiac 2+2 but boy did the Cutlass look cool.
From the factory, the mid- '80s HO 307s were 180 bhp tops. That was probably all you would ever get out of that engine without major revisions. The Cutlass was a damn handsome car but GM just never gave it the balls it deserved.
False. I know that Chevy offered the G-body Malibu with a manual with the six in the late '70s. And it was available in the wagon (neighbor had one so I shit you not).
If only that FE3-X was a real production model. Since it wasn't they should've used some of the design cues for the Pontiac Grand Prix 2+2 and shoved either a V8 or the same turbocharged engine as the Grand National.
chaseman94 the 2+2 only had the 305 4bbl V-8. I agree with the 3800 turbocharged Buick engine, or tweak the V-8. I really think it was to demonstrate the aerodynamics more than actually perform, but damn.
GM has been famous for marketing production codes to the public, even if the package completely changed over the years (Z71, Z28, FE3, LT1, LS1, Z24, Z34, ect).
I would love to have either one of them I had a 85 cutty 442 Hurst truly a nice car made the mistake of letting my mother in law drive it for a weekend and she drove it straight in to the back of a 18 wheeler. That's just one the cars I had as a young man I wish I still had
The Cutlass Supreme FE3-X was a car after my own heart. Had that classic Cutlass G body design inside and out with a souped up 307, beefed up suspension, rear disc brakes, and a 5 speed MANUAL transmission.
I remember these badboys & wow has time flied!! This is when GM didn't mind pushing the envelope & creating some very interesting concepts that unfortunately rarely or never made it into production!! That Buick Grand National was an still is a living icon the Oldsmobile did have a similar version actually produced called the Calais 442 came with the Quad 4(180hp?) ltr banger engine, which was pretty cool back then! GM needs to get back to creating exciting & desirable vehicles again or fade away into the history books!
My 1990 Calais International Series was one car that I wish I had back. HO Quad 4, 5-speed. Added a Hypertech chip, and aftermarket mufflers, and that thing beat a bunch of Mustangs and Camaros back in the day. Oh. It was a 4 door, with manual windows and locks. Turns out it was a unicorn, and pretty rare optioned car.
That RWD Cutlass is a beauty. Would love to have been able to hear that 307 under full-throttle acceleration. Too bad Olds took the backseat to the Regal/Grand National and the Monte Carlo.
We were just talking about these cars not too long ago. They revolutionized the way GM looked at suspension setups, and looked damn good doing it. Also interesting to note was a gold version of the Calais. But the silver looks just as nice. What a shame that these cars never made it past the testing grounds. But some of that aero kit did make it to production cars in some way or another.
Revell made a model kit out of this car recently. I didn't know this car existed until a few months ago. Don't know where I've been lol! Almost reminded me of the Buick Regal GNX.
GM and its desperation to protect the Corvette in the 80's, is the reason why Neither Oldsmobile or Pontiac exist today. But sadly this never reached the markets, and the Fierro got watered down to an Economy car, even though it was designed with a V8 in mind. A Shame.
I had a neighbor who put a turbocharged V8 into a 1988 fiero gt that be bought as a project carvwhich he ended up turning into a track car. That thing could hall ass like a ferrari.
@@MeDicen_Rocha He modified it very heavily by removing the rear cargo compartment modifying the rear frame/body work and was able to jam a 502 in it. From what I remember it had more than 650 horsepower.
@@MeDicen_Rocha From what I remember it could do well over 200 but he electronically limited it too 185 too "keep it safe" and it had a fully custom built back half complete with widened and stretched removable rear bodywork (too make room for the engine) along with a modified corvette based rear suspension. When he ran it at the track on full boost using race gas he said it had somewhere around 900 horsepower He was trying to recreate the Fiero based IMSA GTU car that raced in 1985 but as a street/track car and he succeeded too a point but he could never drive it on the streets because no one would insure it for that purpose..
Being a kid in the 80's I always thought they had a live band in the production room playing the music to these shows.. you don't get horns of any kind in your informative or news shows anymore..
@@DAUltimateSACRIFICE so it’s on PBS, but it’s also on cable/satellite/Amazon prime. You can “find a station” on their website. I just looked it up for you. The problem is I need your city and state to look it up
Oldsmobile Engineers: We are going to give this FE3X Oldsmobile package wheel air evacuation ducts, adjustable spoilers, adjustable shocks, and even an adjustable brake proportioning valve Corvette Engineers: Wait, thats illegal.
I remember seeing this motor week as a little kid. I don't know if they did reruns of this but for some reason I thought it was a 89 concept. Now seeing that it was in 1985 concept. I must have been a strange little kid because an 85 I was four or five years old. I still remember the end when they said they are not going to make them being really disappointed and to tell you the truth at 42 I'm still disappointed
Olds engineers 1985: Man this thing could be another 4-4-2 like we built 20 years ago! The G body is one of the best selling cars in the US, it will be a hit! Roger Smith: No. We have cool things in the works like the W platform, buying and killing Saab, Pontiac and (cough) Olds..... and Hummers!! Oh yeah, and pickups! Lots of margin in pickups and we got to get everyone to buy them and put all sorts of package upgrades in them like power everything and leather interiors! Olds engineers 1985: Leather interiors in pickups? is this guy high?
knytrydr73 There’s a lot of this in the comments. Why is it that no one seems to think that this type of action would have triggered Chevy to just make the Corvette better? I get it, but really?!
I think the small Oldsmobile only got the 4cyl if I remember. I think it also got a high perf quad 4 at some point but I don’t know if it ever got a v6
They actually made a high-output one with close to 200 horsepowerthat was actually running high fourteens in the quarter mile stock! I think it was called the international series. As underappreciated as the Calais' were, I think this would be a pretty valuable find if you can get a nice one!
I agree that they look great. They remind me of the optional alloys that Cadillac used on the mid '80s Eldorado. I don't know if they are the same part though.
Very interesting the FE3 was used for suspension name with Holden. What makes it more interesting the 5.0lt V8 was getting makeover to EFI for Holden VL Commodore in 1988 n it wasn’t until VN did Commodore get V6. I believe GM was helping Holden but LS1 took over V8 lineup.
