Oldsmobile Cutlass 1970 images

1970 was the year GM finally let Oldsmobile drop its biggest engine into the Cutlass 442, after years of a corporate ban on big-block mid-size cars. The standard 455 made 365 horsepower, but the W-30 option pushed that to 370 horsepower and a sub-15-second quarter mile. See the seven Cutlass body styles offered that year and the Rocket V8 that finally gave the 442 room to breathe.

The Oldsmobile Cutlass base model in Â 1970 is the F-85 and could be a two door sedan, a two door hard top, four door hard top or four door sedan. The more uptown trimmed Â and classy “Cutlass Supreme” has a notch back or the sporty fastback “Cutlass S” Â are also on the options sheet. The basic 4-4-2 in 1970 is equipped with the 455 Rocket 88 engine and a four speed with a Hurst shift kit. There are seven body styles Â in all in 1970, additionally including a convertible and two different station wagons.

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MCF thanks Gateway Classic Cars for the images displayed here

1970 marked the one year GM finally got out of its own way and let Oldsmobile’s engineers build the 4-4-2 they had wanted to build all along. For years, corporate policy had capped how much engine a mid-size car like the Cutlass could carry, forcing the 442 to punch below its potential while rival brands ran wild with bigger blocks. That restriction disappeared for 1970, and Oldsmobile didn’t waste the opportunity. The Cutlass lineup pictured here, in its seven available body styles, could now be ordered with the biggest V8 Oldsmobile had ever built for a mid-size car — and one specific version of it turned the 442 into a genuine record-setter.

The Rule Change That Freed the 442

Through the late 1960s, GM enforced an internal ban on engines larger than 400 cubic inches in its mid-size cars, a restriction meant to protect insurance-friendly image and keep intra-company competition in check. When that rule lifted for 1970, Oldsmobile immediately dropped its 455 cubic inch Rocket V8 into every 442, offering 365 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque in standard trim — a figure Oldsmobile quietly underrated to keep insurance premiums in check — numbers that would have been unthinkable in a Cutlass just two seasons earlier.

The W-30 Took It Further

Buyers willing to check the W-30 option box got a blueprinted 455 producing an advertised 370 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque — numbers plenty of owners will tell you undersold what the engine really made, backed by a fiberglass hood, plastic inner fenders, and an aluminum differential housing all aimed at trimming weight rather than adding it. The Force-Air induction system fed by those functional hood scoops helped the W-30 455 reach 0-60 mph in roughly 6.5 seconds and cover the quarter mile in 14.8 seconds at 98 mph — figures that held their own against nearly anything else built in Lansing that year.

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