Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais 442
Ever since the original muscle car era ended in the early ’70s, Oldsmobile tried to recapture the magic of the original 442 muscle car. Behind that long name lies a compact, front-wheel drive Calais two-door with a highly tuned four-cylinder engine that produced 190 horsepower from 2.3 liters. This doesn’t sound like much power today but this car was introduced almost 30 years ago when 200 horsepower was considered high power. The little Cutlass Calais 442 W41 could accelerate rapidly and beat much bigger and more expensive cars thanks to its low weight, race-tuned suspension, and gearbox (via TTAC).
Unfortunately, production was limited to only 204 examples needed to homologate the car for the SCCA racing championship. Despite its excellent performance, the W41 was soon forgotten, but it did influence other manufacturers to present similar compact and potent cars. With this little and forgotten Oldsmobile, we had the Chevrolet Cobalt SS or Dodge Neon SRT-4.