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Oldsmobile was looking to build a young man's car to tap into the youth market. They were hoping to get a chance to build their own version of the F-Body to accomplish that but General Motors brass decided not to offer the platform to the Oldsmobile brand and they were not happy about it. George Hurst (of shifter fame) was looking for a muscle machine to work his magic on and the suits at GM figured that this may be a chance to make it up to them.   Now, if you remember, General Motors had a corporate ban on engines over 400 cubic inches in intermediate sized cars but since Hurst was not GM, they were able to work around that limitation. The project was headed up by Jack "Doc" Watson and he had an order for 500 cars which he would arrange to be built at a tool and die maker called Demmer Engineering in Lansing, Michigan. Oldsmobile's chief engineer John Beltz put together a team of engineers to work with Doc Watson to develop a high powered 455 to get this car moving. They set the heads up to flow better,bumped up the cam, jetted the carb up and loosened up the advance curve in the distributor. The new "W" engines would make the new Hurst/Olds an absolute ground pounder. The W-45 was rated at 390 horsepower at 5000 RPM and made 500 ft/lbs. of torque at 3600. The W-46 used standard 455 heads and the same cam as an automatic 4-4-2. Both engines were painted red so that people could differentiate them from the 4-4-2's 400's at a glance. The standard gear for non A/C cars was a 3.91 limited slip diff and A/C cars got 3.08's. Not only did the Hurst/Olds have more engine than the 4-4-2, they got a rear anti-roll bar standard and more rigid rear lower control arms. Also, power steering, power disc brakes up front, larger core radiator and a better suited proportioning valve. The F70-14's that the 4-4-2's had were traded for Goodyear Polyglas G70-14's. Under the front bumper were two scoops that force-fed air into the air cleaner via two flexible air ducts.   Labeled the "Executive's Hot Rod", its ride was surprising smooth for the way that the car handled. Braking was more than adequate as the Hurst / Olds could stop clean and straight from 65 miles an hour in 148 feet repeatedly. In fact, the only thing that was better than it's braking and handling was it's acceleration. "Car & Driver" put a Hurst / Olds through it's paces and it pulled 0 to 60 in 5.3 seconds and shredded the 1/4 mile in 13.24 seconds at 107 mile an hour!   All of the Hurst / Olds' were Peruvian Silver (a Toronado color) with black stripes and trunk lid. All of the interiors were black vinyl with a walnut wood accent panel across the bottom of the dash and the Hurst Dual/Gate Shifter as they were all supposed to be automatics. It is my understanding that one Hurst/Olds was built for the son of Demmer Engineering's owner and that was the only H/O ever built with a manual transmission (it had a Competition Plus shifter). Even though there were over 2,500 orders for "Doc" Watson's Super Car, only 515 were built. Most of them were 2-door hardtops, 459, and the remaining 56 were 2-door sedans. - Dan Davis.