Teenage CRUSH
Vancouver man’s 43-year love affair with his 442
Barry Poburn loves his 1972 Oldsmobile 442 with its high performance engine and four-speed transmission just as much today as he did when he picked the car up the dealership almost exactly 43 years ago.
He special ordered the high performance car at a time when car manufacturers were detuning new cars while adding antipollution equipment resulting in plummeting horsepower. The muscle car era was ending fast as 1971 came to a close.
Poburn had joined other teenagers to watch the Saturday night drag races on the road to Simon Fraser University. A mid-60s Oldsmobile 442 (four barrel, four-speed, dual exhausts) equipped with racing slicks for traction cleaned up every time – knocking off the GTOs, Roadrunners, Super Bees, Corvettes, Camaros, Mustangs, Mopar 440s and Hemis along with everything else that was fast.
“The 442 was always on the brain,” admits Poburn.
While passing a General Motors dealership one night, he was stunned to see a radiant green Oldsmobile 442 sitting under bright lights on a podium.
“It looked like it was candy green,” he recalls. “I just had to have one.”
The salesman at Mussallem Motors in Maple Ridge told him it would be very difficult to order a muscle car but there might be a way. National Hot Rod Association drag racing champion Buck Kinney worked in the mechanical shop and would be consulted.
Soon, Poburn and Kinney were sitting down with an order form. Racers with credentials could get cars that others couldn’t through a General Motors system called Central Office Production Order (COPO).
Poburn wanted the big block 455-cubic-inch W30 engine option. But Kinney explained power-to-weight ratios meant the lighter 350-cubic-inch highhorsepower engine was a better choice.
The Oldsmobile Cutlass would be ordered with the 442 ‘appearance package,’ which included special heavy duty handling equipment and an L34 special high-horsepower engine otherwise only available in the heavier Olds Vista Cruiser station wagons.
The car cost $4,240 and Poburn paid the difference after trading in his 1965 Chevrolet Impala Super Sport. The new car was built in Fremont, Calif., on March 28, 1972.
Poburn was only 19 years old when he placed the order and couldn’t wait to get his new car.
“The cars came in by train and, whenever I could, I would go down to New Westminster where the trains arrived to see if my car was there. That never happened,” he says.
In late spring, he received a call from the dealership that his car was ready for pickup. When he arrived, five or six salesman had joined the half-dozen mechanics in the shop with their heads under the Oldsmobile’s hood.
“I was introduced as the owner of the car and I felt like I was a celebrity,” Poburn recalls. “The car was definitely the centre of attention that afternoon at the dealership.”
Although he stalled the car several times driving it off the car lot, he soon mastered the fourspeed transmission and powerful V8 engine.
He loved the car but enjoyed it for only a year until business pressures forced the reluctant sale of the 442.
“I sold the car to my brother for $3,500 on the understanding that I could buy it back if he ever wanted to sell it,” Poburn says.
The car got hard use from then on with high-performance upgrades under the hood and racing slicks replacing the rear tires. After some time, the car was unceremoniously parked in a carport and left to rust.
Twenty years later in 1992 Poburn’s brother wanted to sell the car and the price was $5,000 — nearly $1,000 more than it had cost.
“It was a complete rust bucket but my brother’s closing line in negotiation was: ‘Hey, you know how rare the car is. You ordered it.’ ”
Restoring the car as the general contractor, he commissioned a full body off restoration which included a body dip by RediStrip Metal Cleaning in Delta to chemically remove all paint, filler and rust from the car.
The rusted body required so much surgery that transplants were needed from a rust-free donor car.
“It was important to me that I keep the same shell so it would still be my car that I ordered,” Poburn says.
The restoration was so extensive that every moving part of the car was rebuilt. Poburn sent the four-speed shifter back to Hurst for a rebuild and even had the original eight-track tape deck refurbished.
During the restoration, he decided to rectify two disappointments he had with the car. It didn’t come with the special 442 rear bumper with cutouts for trumpet exhaust extension as part of the 442 appearance package. Also missing was the special 442 air-induction hood that was supposed to be supplied when the L34 engine was ordered.
After 18 months, Barry Poburn’s radiant green Olds 442 was back on the road in pristine shape.
“The car is restored to be as original as possible,” the owner says. “All mechanical components including the engine, transmission and rear end came originally with the car making it a numbers matching car.
“The end price tag was around $84,000 to bring the car back to the original look, smell, sound, ride and excitement,” he adds.
There were only a couple of mechanical changes that can’t be seen.
The engine is now equipped with roller rockers and electronic engine components replacing troublesome ignition points in the distributor, resulting in more power, better economy and reliability.
“I’ve had all kinds of performance cars but this one always hits home,” he says with pride. “To still have a car that you special ordered, not just bought, is very special.
“It makes me feel like I’m back in the day and the memories come back.”