Last week, we kicked off this Rare Rides series with a shockingly wedge-y Ghia Probe, but that feels a little international, a bit foreign.
Let’s see a familiar brand from the good old USA that’s never pretended to be international. It wears an Oldsmobile badge and stripes tinted with that familiar shade of Hurst gold.
Behold, the 1999 Oldsmobile Intrigue 442.
I went over to Hemmings again to find this one-off beast.
Undoubtedly, when one reads or hears “Hurst 442,” this rather common W-Body is not what comes to mind. But now it will, and aren’t you happy for the association? You can thank me in the comments!
According to the ad copy, General Motors used this 442 at places like SEMA to show off its custom car prowess. The aggressive, custom body panels are set off by special wheels and dual exhausts.
The most recent vehicle before this Intrigue to actually wear a 442 badge was the Cutlass Calais 442 in 1991. And with a shocking production figure of 1,364 that year, they’ll always be considerably more common than this one-off.
The elegant and understated interior uses two colors of dead cows, and they’re both rare. I can’t recall the last time I saw an Albino or Premium Beige cow.
The engine powering this 442 is probably not something you’d expect unless you often think about General Motors in the late ’90s era. What was the best engine they had available at the time?
The revered and oft-reliable 4.6-liter Northstar V8, of course. According to the seller, this one has been reworked for 442 implementation, but there are no details beyond that. I’m just glad The General didn’t see fit to equip this very special car with the plebeian supercharged 3800 Series II.
The bill of sale is yours for just under $40,000.
[Images: Midwest Car Exchange via Hemmings]
I’m surprised they didn’t put a Shortstar in there. At least that was an Olds engine.
Even a “one off” was one too many.
So THAT’S what happened to all those old wrought iron floor grates! Just try finding some if your going all period-correct on a remodel.
The sickness is overpowering me.
I knew you’d love it especially.
CASCA: He fell down in the market-place, and foamed at mouth, and was speechless.
BRUTUS: ‘Tis very like: he hath the failing sickness.
CASSIUS: No, Corey hath it not; but you and I,
And honest Casca, we have the falling sickness.
Julius Caesar | Act 1, Scene 2
I like the dual exhaust…
Is there a matching gold chain option?
Dude it’s 1999, it’s a gold Motorola pager.
Please tell me we can go back there.
youtube.com/watch?v=B9lXUXQ6DUk
Ackkkkkkkkkkk!
I’m an Olds Fanboy (I had a poster of the original Aurora on my dorm room wall in the 1990s) but god I had no idea this existed.
Somehow it would have been less nauseating to work up a H-body Bonneville JUDGE package.
Traded in his Chevy for a Cadillacackackack.
You oughta’ know by now!
At least he can polish the fenders.
I agree. Of all the dead GM divisions, I miss Olds most. I’ve got a few favorites for a future fleet LOL:
Alero with a Quad 4, coupe, manual.
Second series Achieva, same as above.
G-Body later, RWD Cutlass Supreme V-8
B-Body Delta 88 Royale Braughm Coupe (later series, a Holiday Coupe in the late 70s fastback roof).
Plus the more I see of their 1960s stuff, the more I like them over their Chevy or Pontiac counterparts. This includes the 1960s Cutlass and full sizes.
John-95
The ’66 98 Luxury Sedan was very nice. 4 door ‘post’ style, with frameless door windows. Really quite attractive. They did the same treatment in ’67, but like all full sizers that year, it had that parrot beak hood, not attractive at all.
Yeah, that pointy nose isn’t attractive to me. Pontiac did it bad, then Ford hired the guy responsible and thus it was applied to FoMoCo cars. Yuck.
I found a 1964 Cutlass sedan V-8 the other day real close to me for a good price, but it sold quickly. I would have LOVED it.
Too many doors? I don’t give a damn. I love coupes (as you can see from my list) but I won’t turn my back on a good classic example just because its a 4 door.
The side paint treatment is particularly vomit inducing. And I am a lifelong Olds fan and son of a career Olds salaryman. Praise God they made only one of these.
You should never argue with a crazy mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mind. :-P
I almost can’t believe this is a GM-approved creation and not just some enthusiasts imagining of what a modern 442 would look like.
The ad says it doesn’t have a title and can’t be driven on public roads. I could think of better uses for $40k.
Bonfire?
Driving this thing on any road, public or private, should be a felony.
Concept cars are not issued a VIN number, so yeah, they cannot not be titled or insured, and are good only for car shows and holding down your garage floor. Same for last week’s Probe I.
Never saw this one, but the colors remind me of a 1970 Chrysler 300 Hurst 2-door hardtop. There was one such beast that lived down the road from me growing up in the late ’70s and early ’80s; but I don’t think it was the Hurst edition because I don’t remember seeing the Hurst stickers on it. I think it was way better looking than this car.
http://turnersvillecj.blogspot.com/2015/04/tbt-1970-chrysler-300-hurst.html
If you put one of those stickers on a Big Mac, would that make it a Patty Hurst?
That’s not your father’s Oldsmobile…
…it’s your drug dealer’s.
I love Hurst Oldsmobiles, but what an abomination.
On a separate note, I believe the last “good looking” Oldsmobile made was the original Aurora.
This is wrong on so many levels. The front bumper with its square inserts looks bad. The gold looks like decals they added after the fact. It looks like most of the money was spent figuring out how to get the V8 in the car and they had very little money to finish the car. They should have went with a black and gold two tone. This car could have been a contender. It was not a horrible looking car…much better than the 1991 Calais.
What does 442 stand for on this Intrigue?
4 children
2 different women
2 child support payments
Well played…
You now owe me a keyboard as I have sprayed coffee all over mine.
Well done.
That is AWE INSPIRING, Corey. So much fail in one tidy package.
And what’s with that hose running along the front of the engine? Is this a forced induction Northstar?
(I’d pay good money for that engine cover, though.)
My job is to bring the fail to the surface, for all to see. #neverbury
It is as if Olds Engineers were told: “Come up with a concept proposal that honors our heritage.”
(A few hours later)
“Let’s see if the higher ups are stupid enough to go for this.”
I’d guess that’s the coolant hose from engine out to radiator in. Typical for a transverse Northstar install.
Ugh. If I was a rich man I would buy this to bring to a big Oldsmobile meet.
And then the participants can take a whack at it with a sledgehammer for free.
If this car could talk, it would say: I shouldn’t be.
COREY LEWIS HAS BESMIRCHED HIS LORD AND SAVIOR, THE 3800 SERIES II BUICK V6! LET US PRAY THE PRAYER OF SALVATION!
Our Engine who art in heaven, hallowed be thy marque. Your Sagniaw Casting Plant come, your torque be done, in Flint as it is in Plant 36. Give us this day our daily bell housing pattern, and forgive us our emissions, as we also have forgiven the EPA. And lead us not into DOHC’s, but deliver us from head gasket failure. For thine is Buick City and the torque and the forced induction forever and ever, Amen.
Peace Brother Tres, Brother Corey has been given penance for his blasphemy.
My teachings for this false prophet await moderation. I am afraid I used our Lord’s name in vain.
If I could post the GIF of the Rock standing and clapping I would. Amen Brother Tres.
http://giphy.com/gifs/fallontonight-132BzeWxsErbyM
Man, tres, that was really good – what you did there. You’ve got talent!
EYE BLEACH, PLEASE! Once seen, it cannot be unseen! This is just so wrong on so many levels! 4 doors, 4 wheels, 2 exhaust tips! BLEAH!!!
LOL this is truly horrible. I am not a Olds guy, nor an old school muscle car guy, but even I need eye bleach now too.
One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was manufacturing along the Flint River with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from Chevy in the Hole.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of parting lines in the casting block,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.
After the last scene Chevy in the Hole flashed before me,
I looked back at the parting lines in the casting.
I noticed that at many times along the path of Chevy in the Hole,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of casting lines.
This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
“Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You’d manufacture with the utmost quality.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of parting lines.
I don’t understand why, when I needed You the most, Your quality would change.”
He whispered, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your PV and DV testing.
When you saw only one set of casting lines,
It was then that I wasn’t such a reworked piece of sh1t.”
::Golf Clap!!::
I do believe the LORD has blessed you and made you a prophet of His Eternal Torque.
After the Lord’s Prayer above I was reading this, half-grinning in anticipation of the impending punchline, and I wasn’t disappointed. Hilarious, and verily so.
BTW, where on earth is CrabSpirits?
“Off-Camber Tire Tracks in the Sand?”
So I noticed in the photos on Hemmings it shows the odometer reading 9167. That to me says either somebody did do a bit of driving in it or they actually modified a used car.
This is truly awful. It screams ghetto/Pep Boys but it’s right from the factory.
Please destroy this vehicle.
In one of Bob Lutz’s books he tells the story of being ordered by Lee Iaccoca to come up with a Lamborghini edition Chrysler Imperial when Chrysler bought Lamborghini. Lutz and designer Tom Gale tried to object but they were ordered to do it. Lutz said in an act of “malicious compliance” he and Gale took a burgundy Imperial and put outrageous gold Lambo Rims on it and all of these gold accents and Lambo emblems. They wanted it to look outrageously bad. Gale worried that Iaccoca would actually love it. Iaccoca of course, really liked it, but he decided to scrap the idea. The car sadly never saw the light of day and Chrysler fans wait in joyful hope of it being found in a basement vault in Auburn Hills.
This Intrigue looks like an act of “malicious compliance” on the Act of some Oldsmobile Engineers who were asked to come up with a “Heritage 442” Concept package for the Intrigue.
Who in their right mind would pay 40 Grand for an Olds Intrigue you can’t drive?
Wow, the tale of the first malicious compliance car…
I’m a long time Oldsmobile fan, even have one in the driveway right now.
But this thing is an abomination. For some reason, I don’t remember seeing this car back in the day, but that appears to be a blessing.
We all lived in a better world before we knew this thing existed.
“THE VEHICLE IS NOT CERTIFIED TO COMPLY WITH ANY FEDERAL, STATE OR LOCAL LAWS, RULES OR REGULATIONS AND MAY NOT BE DRIVEN ON PUBLIC ROADS.”
Yet it has 9100 miles…
I put 200,500 on a short-star powered 2000 Intrigue. Never gave me a single problem. It was a great highway cruiser, but suffered from the usual GM cheapness inside. At least the interior was well-designed.
A lot of people who owned them seem to have loved them.
It was the only American family sedan ever to make Automobiles all-star list. The magazine stated it was the first American sedan that was “plainly better than the Camry”. The car had a two tone design similar to a Lexus, but the cheap materials dropped the ball.
The Intrigue was featured in the film version of the X-files.
They should have put the Aurora 4.0L V8 in there, not the N*.
The Aurora V8 is a Northstar, just debored a bit.
Kneecapped N*
The wheels are nice at least?
This car would be pretty sweet if it just looked like a regular Intrigue with some larger, better looking wheels, wider tires, and dual exhausts.
The Intrigue was the best looking W-body, it’s a shame it never had the supercharged 3800 or this Northstar version.
And it never occurred to me until now, but Oldsmobile got no love from GM through the 80s and 90s in terms of access to the performance engines in the GM parts bin.
Buick and Pontiac had the turbo and supercharged 3.8L, and both made the SC 3800 available in a midsize.
Of course, Pontiac, Chevy and Buick had the TPI/LT/LS 350 V8s. Impala SS, Roadmaster, Camaro, Firebird.
Even GMC had the Typhoon and Syclone with turbo 4.3Ls!!!!!
What did Olds get? A weak a$$ 307 for the Cutlass? A quad 4?
They had Oldsmobiles with the supercharged 3800. They also were the only BOP division to get a unique V8 sedan in the pre-Y2K FWD era. And they got a unique V6. And the Cutlass Supreme was the only convertible W-body.
Olds didn’t want the pushrods and other old-school stuff, they wanted to be the “technology” division thus the DOHC mis-adventures and AWD Bravadas and Guidestar Nav systems and color DICs.
They didn’t have the supercharged 3800 in a midsize, only in a boat.
They never had anything nuts. Pontiac, Buick, Chevy, and even GMC did.
Grand National, Turbo Trans Am, Regal GS supercharged, Impala SS, IROC / SS Camaro, Firebird Formula WS6, LT1 Roadmaster, >>>>>>anything Olds had in the 80s and 90s.
All those things were cool. But GM still killed them off. Olds even outlasted RWD Buicks, GM pony cars (until they were brought back), and the B-Bodies. Just when GM does something right, it has to die.
“All those things were cool. But GM still killed them off.”
GTFO with these “cars”. There are trucks and SUVs to be built!!!
Crack pipe…
Crack pipe??? Sounds like you me and some others on here used to frequent Jalopnik in years past. I recall those wild and crazy times…before that site changed.
Ugh – a front drive Northstar V8 – labeled as a 442.
This is blasphemy.
You know, I am old enough to remember the original Hurst Olds. Admittedly, this is really nothing like it. However, I actually do kinda like what they were trying to do here. It’s a nod to their heritage. So, I’ll come out and say I’m diggin’ it. Seriously. As I’ve long been into rare and one-of-one cars. Am very much loving that interior.
And take note that I’ve posted my comment without reading any of the others above. So, I suppose quite a number of people will suggest it shouldn’t be a 442 since it has 4 doors instead of the 2 on the original Hurst Olds models. And that is a valid point. Will say I started high school in the fall of 1970, and graduated in 1973. Am pretty sure for one or two of those years, some kid I didn’t know was driving a real Hurst Olds. Those things had to be rather pricey in their day, and I was content with a 9 year old car as my first car.
In addition to the miles on the odo, eagle-eyed readers will also note that the stereo is NOT one of Delco’s finest!
Methinks this is a fake! Somehow, I would think that GM would have kept this all-original, without a BestBuy special hiding in plain sight!
No Hurst Lightning Bolt shifter in there, fercryinoutloud! Surely a NOS leftover from a Cutlass could have been shoehorned into a custom console!
Oh, and about the Olds Intrigue, I always kinda liked them. About 10 years ago I had a co-worker who owned one and claimed it was a pretty good car. But his wife was the one who usually drove it.