A 1991 Calais Quad 442 W41
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| What American car made 190 horsepower out of a naturally aspirated 2.3 liter 4 cylinder, could pull .86g on a skidpad, dominated the SCCA and IMSA Showroom stock racing circuit, and still managed to escape the public's memory in 1992? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The 1992 Oldsmobile Achieva SCX | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In 1988, Oldsmobile unveiled their Quad 4 engine, a 2.3 liter dual overhead cam motor that delivered decent power for its size. A distributorless ignition system, and a valvetrain designed by TRW helped to make this engine not only powerful, but groundbreaking. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Test & Tune | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thanks to driver A.J. Foyt, the 750 horsepower turbo-charged Quad 4 in the 1988 Oldsmobile Aerotech test car set land-speed records and was capable of 257 miles per hour! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| See what the Aerotech3 looked like! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| After gaining international success with a pre-production version of the Quad, Olds launched the 150 horsepower motor in their N-body Calais, while Buick and Pontiac followed with offerings in their Skylark and Grand Am. The early versions had tubular-shaped intake runners and other one-year only quirks when compared to later models, but on the whole were decent runners. Many owners liked the fact that the 4 cylinder put out about as much power as a small-block V8 of the era. For comparison, the Cavalier 2.0 Overhead Valve motor put out 85 horsepower in those days, so 150 in a similar-sized car felt like a rocketship. In 1989, they upped the stakes with a high-output version, thumping out 180 poines. 1990 saw a revised head, intake manifold, and other refinements...but in 1991 they went all out. Oldsmobile installed a pair of hot cams, played with the fuel ratio and timing, and released the "W41" or vin code A Quad 4 in their Calais Quad 442. This special edition coupe was a 190 horsepower road course terror that could handle with the best of them, and did. They were successful in the IMSA Firehawk circuit, and their street variants were extremely hard to find. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The endangered species in the flesh: A 1991 Calais Quad 442 W41 |
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| A pair of firehawk-prepped Quads ripping up a corner in 1990. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| More on the SCX... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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