Everyone loves a fish-out-of-water story. In the automotive world, it's hard to get more out-of-water than a big ol' V-8 muscle car pounding through cones in an autocross, usually the domain of svelte sports cars and hot hatchbacks.
So when this video of a 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass appeared on the Ben Smith YouTube channel, we noticed. Classic muscle cars don't get much beefier or more authentic than this, so turn the sound up and enjoy 60 seconds of American V-8 thunder in a most unlikely setting.
To be fair, this isn't a stock 1970 Cutlass. We don't know the extent of the modifications, but the video description mentions a 440 DX engine with a five-speed manual transmission, neither of which were Cutlass options for 1970. As far as the suspension goes, it doesn't look too wayward considering its size. We don't know if there are any updates underneath, but another video from inside the car shows a fair bit of roll.
Frankly, it's a nice bit of driving to wrestle this beast around the track without killing any cones. Could we restrain ourselves behind the wheel this well? Probably not.
The video description says this all took place at Blue Suede Cruise 2024. We're assuming it's the Lingenfelter Performance Blue Suede Cruise that happened a couple of weeks ago in Norwalk, Ohio. The event featured an autocross, drag racing, concerts, and over 3,000 classic cars for a weekend of motoring tomfoolery. Another video on the YouTube channel shows the Cutlass running 13.55 at 115 mph on the drag strip at Summit Motorsports Park. Given the trap speed, we suspect the driver had a teeny bit of trouble with traction off the line.
We doubt this old Cutlass set the fastest time through the autocross, but that's not the point here. It's nice to see someone having all kinds of fun with a proper muscle car, and judging by the smile on the driver's face at the end of the video, we'd say plenty of fun was had.
