Olds W31 cars

Discussion in 'The "Pure" Stockers' started by nick tomlinson, Mar 27, 2014.

  1. nick tomlinson

    nick tomlinson Well-Known Member

    OK all you Olds guys, who remembers this car and do you know anything about the guys in the picture?
     

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  2. mrolds69

    mrolds69 "The Cure"

    Al Wilson...Linked In...maybe one of the guys.
     
  3. mrolds69

    mrolds69 "The Cure"

    Oldsmobile racing at that time was a big secret. GM really didn't want them to do it, but engines were going out the back door. On paper they weren't backing anybody, but in reality...they were! The Smothers Brothers were heavily involved in Olds racing at that time. It's hard to get straight info. This Wilson guy seems to be involved with that particular car.
     
  4. nick tomlinson

    nick tomlinson Well-Known Member

    Here are some more. Taken at Tri city Dragway. DSC_2148.jpg DSC_2187.jpg DSC_2196.jpg DSC_2818.jpg DSC_2969.jpg DSC_3041.jpg DSC_3167.jpg
     
  5. John Brown

    John Brown On permanant vacation !!

    Get a message to Casey Marks here on V8Buick. His uncle raced a 350 Olds back in the day, just like Casey did in pure stock a few years ago. He's probably your best bet.
     
  6. nick tomlinson

    nick tomlinson Well-Known Member

    JOHN, If you look at the pics,I believe the Cooper olds is Casey's uncles car that he raced. I would like to hear from Casey and Dave H.
     
  7. Casey Marks

    Casey Marks Res Ipsa Loquitur

    Hi Nick !

    I will try to be brief, as I tend to "babble" when I start talking about W-31's. First off - COOL PICTURES !

    What is really neat for me is that you have a shot of my uncle Jack's 68, 69, and 70 W-31 race cars.

    The 68 Victor-George car was his first dealer/Olds sponsored car. Very few pictures of that car exist. Dunno why ?? Gorgeous black car !! I have a Brownie film turned VHS, turned DVD that shows the left rear quarter crunched from an over-zealous racer in the burnout box that lost it into the rear of this car. Ouch ! It's ugly....... :(

    The 69 Lines Olds car won Stock Eliminator F/S at the 69 US Nationals. There are a lot of pictures of the 69 out there. They seem to be the ones that my aunt has the most of too ??? A number of magazine articles were written that were either about this car, or had pictures of it. I ran into a guy in my home town about 10 or so years ago that had a 69 Cutlass with one of the motors that came from the Lines car in it.

    The 70 Cooper car was also a pretty successful car. It was an "evolutionary" Olds race car. Like others in the GM lineup the car started off as a 70 F85 W-31, morphed into a 71, and finally a 72 with bumper/hood changes. In fact, I found the 70 Cooper car because of the hood that the "72" had on it. In it's 72 race trim, it had a very unique flame paint job on the hood. About 7 years ago, someone posted on one of the Olds sites a picture of a flamed hood, and asked about some info on it. He was under the impression that the "carcass" that the hood was bolted to may have been an ex race car. When I say carcass, I mean ROUGH !! It was, in fact, the 72 hood from the Cooper car. I wanted to buy the car, but the guy thought he had some kind of a gold mine...... :rolleyes: The fact was/is, the only one that could authenticate it was me, and the only one that the car was worth anything more than glorified scrap, was me. As far as I know, the guy still has it. I'd like to have it because it does have meaning to our family and it does have nice Oldsmobile/W-31 race history, but it was in bad shape.

    If you look at the pictures of all (3) cars, you will notice over the front wheel the "350 CU IN" lettering. All the same. Underneath that lettering is the acknowledgement of the head wrench, Rich Powers ..... "Horsepower by Powers" as seen on the 70 Cooper car. Powers had his hands on a lot of the racer's cars in the area. I have talked with Rich many times over the years. Great guy, and a wealth of Oldsmobile knowledge. He laughs at the sheer quantities of stuff that Oldsmobile sent to them to either try out or try to get away with without NHRA being the wiser. "See if this works, and see whether or not you get caught". Look at the 70 car. It has SS1's on it. 14" - no. One-off 15" Motor Wheel "specials" - yes.

    I honestly think that Jack had the most fun with the 68 Vic George car. It was the first car that he got the taste of factory sponsorship with. He had been drag racing for years, and now someone else was paying for the parts. There are mixed answers as to where the 68 ended up. Back then, the cars were owned by the dealership, like a new car would be. They were raced, and then returned to the dealer. At that point, the dealer basically could sell it as a used car. The 69 was definitely sold as a used car. The young guy that got it put it back on the track, and pounded the crap out of it. He then proceeded to get hit by a train and the car was demolished. The 70/71/72 car was purchased by Jack. He had it for a number of years until it was sold and went thru a number of hands until it showed up a few years back as I said earlier. Unfortunately, a very sad time in our family in the mid-70s is what led Jack to get out of drag racing entirely.

    I could go on....and honestly, there is a bunch that even I have forgotten about the cars. :af:

    I have never seen that 68 shot though.....I think it may be my new Facebook profile pic !!!! :bglasses:
     
  8. Rich Johns

    Rich Johns Platinum Level Contributor

    Nick, nice job finding and posting these old pics.

    Great info Casey.
    You need to get the 70 car back.
    Keep us posted.
     
  9. nick tomlinson

    nick tomlinson Well-Known Member

    Hi Casey, Do you anything about the Michigan State car or the Dick Davis Car? I spent my Saturday nights at Tri City and loved watching the races. My friend bought Al Provost chevy wagon when he started racing for Labadie Olds. By the way I have a color picture of the critte gitter Victor George car.
     
  10. Casey Marks

    Casey Marks Res Ipsa Loquitur

    Nothing on the MSU or Davis car. Sorry. On the other hand, the "Critter Gitter" pic would be great. There was involvement with that car by a very dear friend named Duane "Du" Dunham. In fact, Du gave me a pair of Motor Wheel Spyders that I "think" were on he "Critter Gitter" at one point ...... Spyders just looked "right" on those cars. In his earlier days, he had an Anglia (?) that was called "Du It To It".
     
  11. Casey Marks

    Casey Marks Res Ipsa Loquitur

    [​IMG]

    The chap on the left is Jack Marks, and the car on the left is the 70 Cooper car.
     
  12. Casey Marks

    Casey Marks Res Ipsa Loquitur

    [​IMG]

    Jack standing on the plane, Rich Powers on the ground. :)
     
  13. Casey Marks

    Casey Marks Res Ipsa Loquitur

    [​IMG]

    THIS is the picture that was posted that led to me finding the 70 Cooper car. Notice the flames on the hood, and that it is now a '72 442..... I like this picture. :TU:
     
  14. nick tomlinson

    nick tomlinson Well-Known Member

    Picture of the critter gitter. Did not know your uncle drove the Victor George car. Cool!
     

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  15. SmallHurst

    SmallHurst The Polyglas Pimp!

    Al Segar was the driver of the 'Go Shop' wagon. A great deal of factory workings put into those rides. My buddy was the one to redo the '72 wagon. NHRA record holder. Neat times then. Thanks for all of the old pictures.
     
  16. 442w30

    442w30 Well-Known Member

    I'm in touch with Al Wilson....
     
  17. Ryan 1969 Cheve

    Ryan 1969 Cheve Well-Known Member

    I have been chasing down information on Project W-31 as well.

    I would have aced that class!!

    The five pages are from an MSU Spartan Engineer article from October 1970.

    Ryan
     

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  18. 442w30

    442w30 Well-Known Member

    If it wasn't for Ryan and the magazine he found, I wouldn't have been able to find Al Wilson.

    Now trying for another guy as well....
     
  19. Dave H

    Dave H Well-Known Member

    Good stuff. What may not be known is that Rich Powers worked in Olds development and was the "genius" behind finding the sweet spot on the W31's. Everyone has heard about why it had 2 inch intake valves rather than the 2.07 like the big block cars, but it was his flow testing (and real life work with the cars mentioned) that found out they run better with the big cam and the smaller intake valves. He left Olds about the same time a lot of us did when it became "not so much fun anymore". around 1973. Stempel pulled the plug on the fun projects around 1970 and reassigned the best engineers (like Rich) onto emissions development. Marketing took over the promotions with the Dr Oldsmobile and the Smothers Brothers theme in 1969. Rich was at Ford Engineering for a while and worked with Dr Decal, Mark Cornea. It was a quick blast around Olds Avenue in Rich's engineering development test car (jade green/willow green F85) that built a fire under me to go immediately to Product Delivery and change my new car order from a loaded 442 convertible to the Ramrod I still have today. That was an 11 second car....easy.
     
  20. Casey Marks

    Casey Marks Res Ipsa Loquitur

    Rich Powers is a humble man. I've talked with him at length in the past. If you look at the lettering on my uncle's W-31's they say "Horsepower By Powers". He was the brains behind a lot of the W -31 engine development as Dave H said. He's quiet but carries a loud punch. He told me that they started out just "having fun" and ended up winning races. Then, as Dave H said it no longer was fun. Great guy. Got a story about the Smothers Brothers, but don't wanna post that one publicly. It may piss off the other Olds guys....lol
     
    Last edited: May 7, 2015

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