Let’s go racing! It’s an all-General Motors muscle car brawl when a 1966 Pontiac GTO goes head-to-head with a 1968 Hurst/Olds in this single-pass, winner-takes-all dragstrip duel. Here are the challengers and their stats:
For 1966, the Pontiac GTO became its own model instead of a Tempest/LeMans option. The GTO had its own unique, curving ‘coke bottle’ bodywork and minimal trim. With the GM corporate engine displacement limitation on mid-sized vehicles removed, the 1966 GTO realized meteoric sales, with 96,946 units going out the door. Our subject GTO is optioned with the 389 cubic-inch, Tri Power (three two-barrel carbs), 10.75:1 compression, 360 horsepower and 424 pound-feet of torque. It gets that power to the ground through a four-speed manual transmission and Safe-T-Track rear end. Car and Driver tested a new 1966 Pontiac GTO with this drivetrain, running a 14.0-second quarter-mile time at 105 miles per hour.
The first year of the Hurst/Olds option was known simply as the Hurst/Olds, not 442 Hurst/Olds. The bodywork was shared with both the 442 and the Cutlass. All Hurst/Olds for 1968 were painted in Peruvian Silver with black stripes down the sides, hood, and around the rear window, with a black painted trunk lid. It is powered by the 455 cubic-inch Rocket V8 with a single four-barrel carb, producing 390 horsepower and an eye-watering 500 pound-feet of torque. Power gets to the ground through a Turbo Hydramatic three-speed automatic transmission with a Hurst Dual-Gate ratchet shifter mounted in the console and 3.91 rear gears. Courtesy of GM Corporate policy, the Hurst/Olds was the only 1968 GM mid-size optioned with an engine larger than 400 cubic inches. Oldsmobile skirted the policy by stating the engines were installed by Hurst, not Olds. Only 515 1968 Hurst/Olds left the factory, 51 Sport Coupes and 464 Holiday Coupes. Original testing of the 1968 Hurst/Olds yielded at 13.9-second quarter-mile time at 103 miles per hour.
The single pass, winner-take-all showdown had the 1966 Pontiac GTO speeding through the quarter-mile trap in 14.14 seconds at 99.35 miles per hour, while the 1968 Oldsmobile Hurst/Olds turned in a 14.12-second time at 91.52 miles per hour to win the narrowest of victories. You can see all the both cars and the race in this video clip from Cars and Zebras.
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From those times I'd say the Olds was seriously limited by available traction. 500lb ft of torque vaporizes those skinny bias-ply tires.
THAT was the biggest "Issue" of the day... Tires
At the time, most Drag Strips, and Class Rules, limited "Stock" vehicles to Bias-Ply OEM tires, and a Max tread width of 7".
With the rubber compounds of the OEM tires focused toward mileage... Traction for acceleration -- and stopping, with Drum Brakes at all 4 corners -- was pretty limited. My basically Stock '64 GTO could break Traction at the 3-4 shift! "Getting off the line" without "Going up in Smoke" was often THE Key to a Win...
Olds driver at 91 MPH obviously let off the gas, 'sandbagged', to let the race look close...
It's not a equal race unless the drivers are doing equal responses; otherwise the cars are equal.
I used to run 13s all day with my 68 HO back in 68 and 69 with stock Goodyear poly glass tires. The car was a torque beast, for sure.
Awesome. No losers there
The Olds had a substantial advantage in torque... but generally weighed around 200 lbs more than the GTO's.
But my experience was that it was more about rear-gear ratio's... The Pontiac generally could rev a bit higher, so could handle a bit fatter gear ratio ... maybe a 3.90 vs a 3.73 (Most 'stock' street cars did not go to 4.10 or higher because it was not practical on the highways and Interstates. Gas was pretty cheap, and some folks didn't care... but the higher RPMs could cause over-heating, and the engine oils of the day were not up to the heat.) My '64 GTO had 3.90 rear with a wide-ratio 4-spd. and 'Tri-Power'... It was everything "The First Musclecar" was intended to be... No power accessories (windows, door locks, etc), no A/C, no power brakes nor steering.. just an AM Radio with 1 speaker in the dash, and a basic heater. And we could run 13.5 at 100+
Doesn't sound very impressive, today, with FWD Toyota's running in the 13's right off the showroom floor.
But in the late '60s my GTO was 'known' all over the County and most of eastern metro Atlanta.
I was definitely "Punching above my weight-class"...
In the early 70s I couldn’t afford a 442 much less a hurst olds so I came up with my own plan for my 69 cutlass s. It was a very basic car pretty light for a cutlass. The owner of the olds dealer I worked was a drag racer. I ended up with a lot of his old parts. An aluminum center 391 diff,aluminum deck lid,plastic inner fenders, dual inlet under bumper air cleaner and a “special “ 4 speed with a tall first gear. I ran the big tires from the big 98 olds with the white walls turned in. The big tires and tall first gear got it off the line. The big tires would burn down smooth all across and everybody thought I was running slicks. Traded the 350 engine for a 425 out of 66 starfire. Of course had cam,headers,Holley and few other goodies. With my boss giving me discount on his old stuff probably had 3 grand in the car. Was going fast on a budget. Would love to have old car parked in my garage in 2021
389 against a 455? The outcome was no surprise.
Because I was running on or near the national class record for B pure stock, my track went over my car with a fine tooth comb every weekend. Absolutely nothing was allowed. They even opened the distributor to check for altered springs and weights. Meanwhile the famous teams like Royal Pontiac....... I always wished I had the money to “blueprint” the big 455, but I was in the Army at the time, and that would have cost a full year’s pay.
Suffice it to say, the HO 455 was bad ass with a cam that almost eliminated enough vacuum to operate the brakes, and other internal mods that weren’t talked about. The GTO vs. HO was really not a fair fight. I’m a huge GTO lover, but the 68 HO is one of three cars I regret ever selling.
These cars would get walked by a Camaro 2.0T today.....
With no disrespect...
ANY Car from 50+ years ago... would get "Walked" today...
Tires alone make a HUGE difference! But we now have EFI, ECU engine control, Dry-Sump Oiling, advanced
camshaft design, variable intake manifolds, better quality fuel, and Thousands of other improvements...and your example includes a Turbocharger! Put a Turbo on either of those cars and some sticky Drag Slicks... and see how your Camaro does... If we have NOT made great improvements, then our Manufacturers are not doing their jobs. Compare a 1965 GTO to a car from 1915... The Indy 500 Winner ran at 89 mph.
A 1976 KZ900 Motorcycle was "King of the Streets" with maybe 90 whp... and my 2012 Yamaha 1000 has 150 whp and weighs 120 pounds less.
That 4-banger with a micro-turbo only produces 275 HP. It's hardly a super-car. It's a 2.0L engine, not a 7.4L.
Point is, those old cars weren't that fast. They were loud though. My '72 sounded great. I suppose it seemed fast at the time as a kid....
The new generation of car guys like to compare the new technology savy cars to the old muscle cars. The new cars just tap on the computer and instant horsepower. Push a button and no longer loss of traction. It took a certain skill to spend all morning adjusting valve clearance on solid lifter cam, adjusting timing by ear. And how about sanding the metering rods on a quardrajet, wrapping a chain around the header to upper control arm to save the motor mounts, cutting every other tooth off the synchronisers in a 4 speed Muncie so you could shift it flat on the floor. Or running air shocks on the back with no air in them trying to control the wheel hop while trying to control the side to side shuffle when the posi finally kicks in. All this was a labor of love and knowing a job well done when it came time to line them up. Used to work hard to get my 400hp down the road but now I watch my sons run their 1500hp down the road and they make it look so easy. Yes times have changed but we were king once
What kills me is why GM go to a gas eating 3-speed auto when they had a 4-speed Hydromatic from the start, all they had to do was add O/D and the 70s Energy Crisis wouldn't had been that bad. Even Ford's 4-AOD that was last offered In the '14 E-vans started in '62 but mothballed it until '80 introduction.
Not all 68 Hust/Olds were Silver & White. I had a Green w White strips down the sides w door post that was raced @ Ontario Speed Way in upstate NY in late 60's & early 70's