For the fastest 442 that Oldsmobile ever built, look no further than the 1970 Oldsmobile 442/W-30 hardtop. This car is one of the most recognizable and probably the most sought after performance production car to ever come out of the Oldsmobile plant. It had a fast, tough look, befitting of the muscle cars of the period. It had a rugged 455 V-8 that produced more horsepower than any Sunday driver would ever want rattling around under the hood of his car. This was a car for people who wanted to drive not just get from place to place.
The 455 ci. V-8 engine beneath the hood of the 442/W-30 was rated very conservatively at 370 horsepower. It was common practice at the time of this car’s production to have an “insurance” number to rate horsepower at. Most estimate the actual horse power production of the 455 in the 442/W-30 to be at least 30 – 40 more than rated by Oldsmobile at the time of its release. The car was fronted by a lightweight fiberglass hood that had two fully functioning air scoops. The car was defiantly a power horse, with a performance calibrated carburetor and a high overlap cam. The W-30 also had a few other special features over the regular 442, including an aluminum intake manifold and a performance curved distributor.
Not only did the 1970 Oldsmobile 442/W-30 perform though, from a visual standpoint this was a car that anyone would be proud to own. From the great lines to the dual hood scoops, everything about the car visually spoke of power and speed. These were the factors that the muscle car buyers were looking for at the time, a car that looked great, felt great, and went faster than anybody else’s.
The 1970 Oldsmobile 442/W-30 was also featured as the pace car at the 1970 Indianapolis 500. This was a great thing for Oldsmobile. Racing was so popular at the time that many companies were vying for as much publicity as they could get, in any way possible through the NASCAR circuit. Car sales were driven to a large degree by cars popularity in the racing circuits.
The car is also relatively rare in the world of collector cars. Although there are certainly makes and models out there with less available, the 1970 Oldsmobile 442/W-30 is still quite hard to find when you take into consideration that only 3100 of the cars were ever built. Of that 3100 cars, only 2574 were of the hardtop variety.
The 1970 Oldsmobile 442/W-30 hardtop is a true American muscle car. It boasts one of the great V-8 engines of the time as well as a styling as mean and powerful looking as any that can be shown by the other major players in the muscle car field. It is also a rare car, and so would make an excellent addition or foundation to any collection of American muscle cars of the 1960’s and 1970’s.