woud some one tell me , was the hurst performance package availabe in 68?? and if so where can i get more info on the hurst performance subject??

woud some one tell me , was the hurst performance package availabe in 68?? and if so where can i get more info on the hurst performance subject??

Just the shifter, That i know of.

http://forums.performanceyears.com/g...&ul=4216051012

Only package in 68 was Hurst/Olds that I know of.

69 GTO RAIII 4SPD BURGUNDY
69 GTO JUDGE RAIV AUTO BLACK
03 HD XL1200S SPORT BLACK

No such option. Unless your buying a 69-71 Gran Prix. HurstSSJ I may be wrong on those years.
And the Hurst/Olds
The hurst shifter was standard on the GTO
Auto and Manual trans.
No "performance package" was offered, just
the shifters.
And from what I've seen those Hurst equipped
badges are not correct either.

James

James Aiello

There was a book on Hurst performance some years back. Most of them fell apart due to failed binding. Don't know if you can still find a copy of this book.

PS Grand Prix SSJs were built in 70, 71 and 72. Hurst customized a few other cars, notably the 1970 Chrysler 300 in both coupe and convertible, plus a few AMC's in the Rebel and American bodystyles, in addition to Oldsmobile and Grand Prix.

Glenn Uettwiller http://home.earthlink.net/~birdman8/index.html

In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination. -- Mark Twain

Yeah I have that book... mine is still in
perfect condition. But it's packed in deep
storage.
Ah yes the 300H love that big ol Chrysler!
AMC? who's that? they made cars? http://forums.performanceyears.com/g.../icon_wink.gif

James Aiello

One RA II Hardtop GTO was made in '68 that had an automatic trans and a dual gate. The distinctive thing about the car was that it had a mostly white paint job with Hurst gold paint identical to the '69 RA V car run by Royal which was blue and white. The car had a Hot Rod magazine article written about it. Jim Wangers drove it for a few months then turned it in. It was totaled in an accident. Supposedly the car broke 13 seconds in the quarter. Several people have cloned the '69 car or used the paint scheme for inspiration but no one has ever copied the '68 car.

http://ultimategto.com/1968/68roybo.jpg

Maybe one or 2 - never say never - john - inline tube

That's a royal bobcat car.... the decal on the upper part of the door... does have Hurst wheels though...

Story i heard was - hurst offered the 69 Olds to Pontiac first for the GTO and they passed. Royal was the dealer that was working close to all the marketing and engineering guys. It does have a set of Gold hurst wheels and i guess it was displayed at the 68 Detroit New Car Auto Show back in the day. Olds picked it up for the 69 model year. but did not want it on the 442 so they made the Hurst olds which is actually a Cutlass with all the performance stuff from the 442/W30. So to clone one you really need a Cutlass and a W30 - and some other parts - pretty hard to find all the parts and a unique car. I heard the car no longer exists - but if i had a good doner 68 it would be on my re-create list.

The "Hurst Equipped" badges were actually installed on vehicles that were equipped with the Hurst wheels back in the '60's, so in my mind, they would indeed be correct on a '60's era musclecar.

Funny you should say that, John.

Dad always said that our '68 GTO was the car that George Hurst saw at Detroit Dragway and liked the color combination (silver, with black on the decklid and up around the back window). Hurst approached Pontiac about doing a promotional package; Pontiac said "no" so he went to Oldsmobile. As a result, Dad always called our '68 GTO "...the first Hurst Olds" ;)

I talked to Bill Porter about our car, and he said it was not something that came out of his studio. It sounded like Royal was behind it and was trying to determine if the best process would be paint vs decal, and dealership vs in plant. I am aware of a red/black car, and maybe one other as well.

I don't share this story very often, because it is totally unsubstantiated, but your version sounds awfully similar. Recreating this car would be high on my list as well.

K

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...8GTOresize.jpg

That is one beautiful '68 !!!!!!!

needs to be lowered... (uhoh)

Shouldn't be hard to do, all you need to do is find a RA II/XW motor - 1 of 47. ;)

Hey Keith

If is funny how you hear bits and pieces of different stories and one day you are able to put it all together to get the big picture. - I don't remember where i heard my bit - but being into oldsmobiles as well it stuck. You are right if the car has not been in a magazine from the 60's or the real car does not exist or been discovered again and there are no pictures or paperwork - IT is all just a good tail.

If someone was to recreate it and show it at big events - then the real one may surface and people would start talking and photos and documents would pop up. I am sure there were hundreds of pictures taken of the car IF it appeared at the Detroit new car auto show.

I also heard it was on the Royal Dealer show floor for many months - maybe there are some photos of it at the dealership. With so many cars and fading memories this one may slip through the cracks.

John, I don't buy into that story. Hurst and Pontiac went to GM in '67/'68 with Hurst's proposal for a high performance package on a Pontiac. Pete Estes turned that proposal down since Pontiac had just received the Firebird line, and Olds, who didn't get an F-body of their own, needed the image boost. So, Hurst was directed towards Olds and the '68 Hurst/Olds was the result. Why would Hurst and Pontiac go back to Estes with a new proposal for a 1969 Hurst/Pontiac variant when the Hurst/Olds was so popular the previous year?

Looks to me like the photo you have shared is simply a Royal Bobcat package that was prepared for the Detroit Auto Show. The Hurst wheels were probably a promotional tie-in with Hurst to help boost the failing wheel sales.

Who knows what the real story is - it is all speculation 40 years later. Maybe Olds saw the 68 GTO with the gold and white and that was the inspiration for the next year or vice versa. It woudl help if we knew the build date of the 68 GTO - it could be an early 67 or if it was a late car - it could not of happened. Since the car would be ready for the auto show that is ususally in Jan it would ahve to be an early car. How early we don't know.

Since the bobcat was a dealer thing there is no set in stone guideline so that all the cars were the same - few had the striping and most did not - there are no two that are the same color with striping that I can think of- was this planned or were simply not enough units sold for there to be a repeat. The striping is also diffeternt from car to car. Some just had the hood stripe, others had the full monte and most had just the pin stripe on the fender leading up to the Royal Bobcat Foil Decal on the door. All up to the owner. Further - cars were coming from different states and dealers to have the package added so not all Royal Bobcats have a PHS that say the dealer was Royal Pontiac Inc. at the bottom.

The sad part is - History is in part stories pased down from generation to generation and these stories over the years get twisted and imbelished and altered and when writen in a book or magazine taken as the truth and they in some cases -couldent be farther from the truth. If we can't figure out what happend a short 40 years ago - how do we know that our history is correct from 100 or 1000 years ago. I guess we can only examine WHAT IS CARVED IN STONE.

This is what makes a topic interesting - no clear answers but lots of speculation.

Eric's angle makes a lot of sense also.

That emblem you speak of was not even made until 1973 and they were made for door panels on the 73 hurst olds. You got a foil sticker that said hurst hustler when you bought the wheels early on like this one.