My parents were Oldsmobile owners since 1923 and I willingly kept up the family tradition as I grew up and bought my own cars. When Sharon and I married, my car of choice was a 1962 Starfire. In the late 70's I restored the '55 Olds that my father had traveled to Lansing to pick up and take home to Penrose, CO. In '82 we drove this car to the Nationals in Lansing. It was there that we first admired the sixties and seventies muscle cars and sort of hinted to ourselves that we would look for '70 442 W-30.
Fifteen years later, the same family is in need of a car for the younger son and daughter to drive the 14 mile round trip to school. With the 1970 442 in mind, we checked out all the newspaper ads in a 170 mile radius. The only ad that showed promise was a 1969 442 that was advertised 60 miles away in Butte, MT. The happened to be February and not a particularly good time to drive over the passes, so the ads gets magnetized to the fridge. The next four months or so looking for a car did not produce a decent lead, and the ad on the fridge was still there. "No" we said, "the car must be gone by now. Just throw the ad away." However one laast urge found the phone ringing in Butte. "Yes" said the voice on the other end, "the car is still for sale"
One year later in 1986, we drove the '55 Olds to the Nationals in Santa Clara, CA. The muscle cars at the show set our minds to thinking of someday showing our 442. Essentially, the car was all there. It needed a thorough cleaning, a few cosmetics and a paint job. After a second year of driving it to school, the decision was to restore every item that we could, get it painted and go to the National Meet in Lansing. It is amazing how much you learn from the first time having your car judged! Since then the 442 had won 4 National 1st place trophies, one first place Pacific Regional and one Best of Class at the '93 Rocky Mountain Regional.
Fortunatly for us, the ad on the fridge did not get lost back in 1985. The 1969 442 has beeen a dream come true, a true muscle car of driving pleasure.