Best Old Car

The 1965 Cutlass 442

In 1965 Oldsmobile dropped a big engine into its GTO look alike Cutlass and renamed it the 442. The company then made the 6.6L engine standard and defined the 442 as 400 cubic inches, 4 barrel carburetor with 2 exhausts. Sometimes the 442 definition was different due to the variety of options available. Standard transmission was a three speed manual with a four speed option. Another alternative offered was Oldsmobile's jetaway automatic transmission.

The 1965 442 was the first to use the Hurst shifter which came with the three speed stick shift. The company introduced the 3 speed stick in mid year and it was a floor shifter as opposed to the regular column shifter. 1965 saw chrome body side scoops added to the body, along with chambered, dual exhausts, and a chrome single snout air cleaner. In mid year, the company offered chrome reverse wheels for the first time. A 6000 rpm tachometer was also added to the dashboard, however it was more decoration than useful.

Original road tests with the four speed transmission placed quarter mile acceleration at 13 seconds at 102 mph. Another magazine tested the automatic and did the same distance in 15 seconds at 89mph. 0-60 took just under 8 seconds. In 1965, Olds sold 25,000 442 and of those 3468 were convertibles. Oldsmobile brought the 442 as an option for its F-85 in 1964. This was package that placed a police packaged engine into the old four door sedan body. The four door version went over like a lead balloon telling Oldsmobile it needed to appeal to a younger and hipper audience if it wanted to compete head to head with the GTO.

So the next year, 1965, the car maker mimicked the GTO body, eliminated two of four doors and added a convertible to the line up. The marketing campaign went from simply showing the car to talking about the speed and horsepower. Oldsmobile added a big engine, one that measured 425-cid V8 and was exclusive to the Cutlass 442. Horsepower had to be tweaked by anyone looking for top speed, because it was not the fastest of muscle cars. However, it did steer better and ride better than most of the other muscle cars on the market at that time. The car maker never fancied up the interior to match other muscle cars, but its horsepower was rarely matched.

Every car enthusiast at some point or another has bought themselves a car magazine. In the same way that record collectors and music lovers buy old copies of the NME and Melody Maker, car lovers seek out old car magazines such as Practical Motorist, Motor Sport and Motor Trader. There's a certain joy in skimming through the pages of old car mags and not only seeing the models of the day in reviews and articles but also looking at the advertising from that era, it's always interested to stumble across a classic article about a beloved, classic car.

It's very exciting to find old car magazines in good condition for sale on online auctions sites such as eBay because magazine by their very nature are first bought, read through then ultimately throw away or passed onto friends and family. These types of magazines nearly always end up as bathroom fodder even before they end up in the rubbish so it's very rare to find old car magazines in anything other than a tatty, worn state. Old car publications sometimes meet an unhappy end at the hands of rodents with a craving for the printed word or simply just degrade over time from poor storage. For old car magazines to survive intact they will need special treatment and care when transported during a clear out or house move.

Some collectors of old car magazines might simply stick to a single publication or a particular era so if you're lucky enough to find someone who's letting an entire collection go you might just have a fantastic lot of a certain motoring magazine; usually their value is based on their scarcity and condition. If you're buying online in bulk make sure you can collect the magazines in person as your precious magazines may be damaged in transit if the seller has inadequately packaged them.