The King of Queens: 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass
It’s not easy owning a classic car in the boroughs of New York City. Owners must deal with rust
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MotorTranscript
00:00 New Yorkers are not like other people.
00:02 And I'm not talking about the New Yorkers that live in
00:04 places like Buffalo or Albany.
00:06 I'm talking about those of us that grew up in the
00:08 surrounding boroughs.
00:10 There are 11 million of us that live within a 50 mile
00:13 radius, and what that does is a few things.
00:15 One, we have the world's greatest BS meter.
00:19 And as a car guy, that's one of the most important traits
00:21 you can ever have.
00:23 The car behind me belongs to a friend of mine, and the
00:25 mechanics and the build are the same.
00:28 And the owner that we're going to showcase today.
00:31 So stay tuned for a very New York-based episode of "The
00:35 House of Muscle."
00:37 Welcome to my city.
00:39 Seeing my buddy Eddie end his 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass could
00:44 mean only one thing.
00:45 I was back home in my old neighborhood.
00:47 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:06 This car is pretty raw, right?
01:09 Carbureted 540 big block, reverse manual valve body, 12
01:13 bolt rear end, smoking torque, smoking horsepower.
01:18 I'm going to get out of this thing today.
01:19 I'm going to smell like you.
01:21 I'm going to be somewhat filthy.
01:23 But there's a charm about this.
01:25 There's a charm about a car that makes you feel like you've
01:29 had an experience and that you've had an interaction.
01:33 I feel like every time I rev the motor, I
01:34 get more chest hair.
01:36 Whoa!
01:42 I remember when the first time I actually saw it, I heard
01:45 this thing just rumble.
01:46 Like, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop.
01:50 And it just looked burly.
01:54 The guy behind the wheel had on these black wraparound
01:56 sunglasses, and the license plate on the car said, hey-oh.
02:00 I mean, if you're going to have a loud, obnoxious car, you
02:08 might as well have a loud, obnoxious car.
02:09 You might as well have a loud, obnoxious
02:11 plate to go with it.
02:13 I'm a New Yorker, and most of our vocabulary consists of,
02:17 hey-oh.
02:20 And that's me.
02:22 What are you going to do?
02:23 When I first got the car, it was black.
02:29 It didn't have the gold stripes on it.
02:31 It didn't have these wheels.
02:32 It wasn't raked like this.
02:33 It was just a black Cutlass with red pinstripes.
02:37 It was pretty sinister in its own way.
02:39 In its own respect.
02:40 But it was like a carbon copy.
02:43 It's like everybody had one, weld wheels.
02:46 I was like, OK.
02:47 So my first car show ever, and I wound up meeting the actual
02:51 builder of the car.
02:52 He brought me up to date on what the car was built for and
02:55 what it was done.
02:55 They basically hung quarters on it.
02:58 They did all the body work, and they put in a ZZ502 just
03:01 to run it to track.
03:03 That's all they did.
03:05 This car, you look at it, and it says New York.
03:07 It says, I'm a backroads brawler.
03:10 If you want to race, I am more than happy to do so.
03:14 But the odds of you winning are pretty damn slim.
03:18 I'll tell you, this thing is wicked.
03:20 And he changed the wheels.
03:24 He put on a much more streetable wheel, as far as a
03:27 rim and tire combination.
03:29 He's got 18-inch Shelby-style wheels all around, running
03:32 Continental Extreme Performance Sport tires.
03:35 And there's a big thing here, because now we went from
03:40 like, badass to badass cruiser.
03:44 And when you're an adult, that's kind of nice, because
03:46 you still want people to look at you and go,
03:48 that's pretty macho.
03:50 These guys had set up the car strictly to go racing.
03:53 We detuned the engine a little bit.
03:55 We made it more streetable, lowered the gear
03:57 ratio in the back.
03:58 We put some 373s.
04:00 So now I figured, let me just set it up so I can actually
04:03 drive the car and enjoy it.
04:04 We're talking about a 540 cubic inch Chevy big block.
04:10 700 horsepower, 680 pound-feet of torque.
04:14 We've got a turbo 400 tranny with a reverse manual valve
04:17 body through a Hurst shifter.
04:19 And it fits the personality of the car, right?
04:21 I mean, if it just had a regular automatic--
04:24 which it used to, because the column shift
04:25 pin is still right here--
04:27 you know, you look at the car and you'd be like, oh, it's
04:29 kind of mundane.
04:30 The fact that I have a reverse valve body and I've got to
04:32 bang through the gears to get this thing to go is very
04:36 fitting for what we are driving.
04:38 Plus the fact that this car, I mean, you get on it, it's
04:45 fast.
04:45 You'll rip the tires off in third gear.
04:49 I wish I had an extra year, as we all do, right?
04:53 But let me tell you, the first three years, the only three
04:57 years in this car, first is wow.
05:00 Second is holy crap.
05:02 And third is I think I'm going to crap myself.
05:05 These were light-to-light cars.
05:10 Every light was a starting gate.
05:12 Every light was an opportunity to make you look bad.
05:16 And if you were this guy named Petey with Mom's Nightmare, he
05:20 basically embarrassed everybody.
05:29 When Eddie was growing up, so much of his car persona stemmed
05:34 from what was around him in the neighborhood.
05:37 Think of cars like Camaros and Trans-Ams and
05:40 Hosemobiles.
05:40 But they were not numbers matching.
05:42 These were barely raked out quarter mile street racers.
05:47 I fell in love with cars when I was about five or six.
05:52 My entire block, unbeknownst to my parents, were a bunch of
05:54 gearheads.
05:56 It was just great.
05:57 There was a lot of cars.
05:58 Back then, you could get them for like $600, $700.
06:02 And they used to do such crazy things to it that just one
06:06 better than the other.
06:08 That's one of the greatest parts about being a car guy
06:10 here, because everybody lives in such close quarters.
06:13 Because we're all connected, you never want for anything.
06:17 If you need a part, it's there.
06:19 If you need to find something, and you break down, and you
06:21 need help, it's there.
06:24 New Yorkers get this bad rap about, oh, you're New Yorker,
06:27 you don't want to help anybody out.
06:30 That's a load of crap.
06:32 What would the recipe be?
06:34 It would be a cheap car, a big engine, and a hell of a lot
06:41 of patience.
06:42 Because they used to swap motors using
06:45 tree branches and rope.
06:47 Not everybody had engine hoists and booms that you could
06:50 buy for $200.
06:50 They improvised.
06:52 OK, an engine cradle was a tire.
06:55 Basically, whatever they had at their disposal, they used.
07:00 Local shops like Monico Auto Works are legendary for
07:08 keeping Borough cars like this running and on the road.
07:11 Basically, when I got the car, and after we did what we did,
07:15 and we were squirreling all over the place, Mike and his
07:17 brother, Mickey, they said, hey, if you want to go this
07:20 direction, swap the car down a little bit, put the
07:23 hot-shoe suspension in.
07:25 Right here, you have the Hotchkiss fully boxed floor
07:28 control arms.
07:30 This helps a lot on the traction.
07:32 If you're going to launch the car, the solid, it keeps the
07:36 car steady on the ground.
07:38 Believe it or not, but keeping 700 horsepower connected to
07:41 the pavement is actually a good thing.
07:44 And if you want stuff done right here, you need a little
07:49 bit of cash and a whole lot of attitude.
07:52 What, man?
07:53 Start from there, bro.
07:55 What's the difference?
07:56 There is a difference.
07:57 You don't start rolling the hose from the middle.
07:59 That's it.
08:00 You're fired.
08:00 Let it go.
08:01 Get out of here.
08:02 You're a bad payer, too?
08:03 I'm a what?
08:04 I love you, but you don't like to pay.
08:05 What do you mean?
08:06 I don't know.
08:07 I pay with affection.
08:08 Pay.
08:09 [LAUGHTER]
08:11 This is where I come in.
08:12 [LAUGHTER]
08:13 [MUSIC PLAYING]
08:22 Uh-oh.
08:22 Why are we being stopped?
08:23 Somebody wants to talk to us.
08:25 How are you?
08:29 Nice car, man.
08:30 Oh, thanks.
08:30 I wish it was mine.
08:32 Oh, look at this.
08:33 This is my buddy Eddie's car.
08:34 Oh, OK.
08:35 Did a nice job on it, though, didn't he?
08:36 Is that WD-40 in there?
08:38 No, this is a 540 cubic inch Chevy.
08:41 Chevy?
08:41 Chevy.
08:42 Wow.
08:43 Yeah.
08:43 I got a '55 Chevy.
08:45 Yeah?
08:45 What do you got in it?
08:46 I got a small bump.
08:48 Neighborhood car?
08:49 Of course.
08:50 Ride him out, man.
08:51 Ride him out.
08:52 [TIRES SCREECHING]
08:53 [LAUGHTER]
08:57 So here's the thing.
08:59 If you guys haven't figured it out by now, having a car like
09:02 this in the neighborhood is kind of amazing.
09:08 You have gentlemen like Pete that just went by.
09:12 And the stories that you'll hear from guys that grew up
09:17 here are amazing.
09:19 Because aside from like Francis Lewis Boulevard,
09:22 Connecting Highway was a big street race spot where guys
09:24 would literally tow their cars in and then race them.
09:30 I could sit, I could talk to that gentleman for hours.
09:34 And I guarantee you the stories that he would tell us
09:37 are things that, well, you wouldn't believe.
09:43 Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were the best days.
09:46 All of my face would be pressed up against the glass,
09:48 and all you would hear is the house shake and rumble.
09:51 And it's just sick.
09:52 The smell of race gas.
09:54 Well, back then, I think it was available on the pump
09:56 all the time.
09:57 It was leaded fuel.
09:59 And I was just hooked.
10:00 They were testing tune right there on 41st Avenue.
10:03 It was great.
10:04 There was a lunatic with a white Thunderbird,
10:07 like a '60s Thunderbird, that just
10:08 baked the tires all the time.
10:10 That was my hero.
10:11 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:19 Is it OK that there's smoke coming out the back?
10:21 Oh, is it really?
10:22 I'm seeing a little bit of--
10:23 I think it's the exhaust.
10:25 When you stopped, I saw a little whiff of it go by.
10:27 Well, it probably burned oil.
10:28 OK.
10:29 We'll go back just to make sure.
10:30 Thankfully, it wasn't an oil leak,
10:36 but rather a belt that was starting to shred.
10:39 But you see, we broke down in the neighborhood.
10:42 You shredded it.
10:42 No, you shredded the back.
10:44 Within minutes, our buddy Andre was on scene
10:47 and more than willing to help us out.
10:49 At least it held up.
10:50 It's still there?
10:50 It's still there.
10:51 You can't drive it.
10:52 You see how it's pitched in like that?
10:53 It eats itself off.
10:54 It's just a matter of time.
10:55 You're going to be down.
10:56 It's going to be breaking.
10:58 My girl lost her belt.
11:00 You can tell her that you're going to take care of her.
11:02 All right?
11:04 But what we're going to have to do at this point
11:05 is be nice to the car for the next couple of days,
11:08 because otherwise it's going to keep doing this.
11:10 Because if you think cars don't know, you're dead wrong.
11:14 They know everything.
11:15 They definitely know.
11:17 Sorry, baby.
11:18 I'm going to have them machine me as a toilet
11:20 guide for both sides of that.
11:22 You know what you need also?
11:23 You need a deep groove.
11:24 Yes, very deep so it can't fly out.
11:26 Because right now, these pulleys are shallow.
11:28 What non-car people will never understand
11:31 is that these cars are not just family cars,
11:35 but instead, they're members of a family.
11:38 Favorite part of this car to me is sitting behind a wheel
11:40 and looking at these two humps on the hood.
11:44 Every part of this car I enjoy.
11:45 I always used to have a fender that I enjoyed on other cars.
11:49 I enjoy every part of this car.
11:51 The hood, especially the crevice between the two scoops.
11:55 It's almost like caressing a woman in a way.
11:57 It's kind of like it does it for me.
11:59 I mean, I know I'm crazy, but you know what?
12:00 It's either this or a real woman.
12:02 Right, babe?
12:03 [LAUGHTER]
12:05 Oh, there's part of it.
12:06 Oh, here's another part of it.
12:07 Regardless of how many nuts you tighten
12:10 and how many bolts you turn, 45 years
12:12 of rolling over on New York City streets
12:15 will take a toll on even the best kept automobile.
12:17 [MUSIC PLAYING]
12:20 [ENGINE REVVING]
12:23 [POT HOLLOWING]
12:25 You hear the holes?
12:26 You hear the pot holes?
12:27 Everything rattles.
12:29 Now, ready?
12:30 Listen.
12:32 Right, that's a typical New York borough street.
12:35 So while we are just cruising around having fun,
12:38 you do get to the point where you're like, Jesus,
12:40 now I got to refit the door panel,
12:41 and the window crank just fell off.
12:43 And now I got to realign my hood because it
12:45 shook all over the place.
12:46 This is not something that is like, I'm making up.
12:49 This is just a fact of owning a car like this
12:51 in the boroughs of New York.
12:52 It's what it is.
12:53 It's not perfect, but you know what?
12:55 I think I have an idea of what I'm going to do next.
12:57 The gauge pod I made, it's my first attempt.
13:02 I got these pro car seats.
13:03 They were the older type.
13:05 I don't think they make them anymore,
13:06 but I'm happier with these cleaner lines.
13:08 I'm a bigger guy, so I don't really
13:10 want anything hugging me because they don't make anything
13:12 wide enough to hug me with.
13:14 So I needed to flat back, background a little bit
13:17 flatter, a little bit lower so that my head doesn't
13:20 go through the headliner.
13:22 [ENGINE REVVING]
13:24 Is it perfect?
13:25 No, it's not.
13:26 But I mean, it doesn't have to be.
13:27 I've got this roll cage in here that is just
13:29 really freaking annoying.
13:30 But when he bought it, it was a quarter mile car, right?
13:33 It was a like to like car.
13:34 It was a street race.
13:34 It's a screw.
13:35 You had to have it in here.
13:37 Are the brakes good?
13:38 No.
13:39 The brakes are terrible.
13:40 Even though they're four wheel disc, they're just--
13:42 you know, like Eddie will tell you flat out.
13:43 He's like, yeah, it was a cheap system,
13:44 but I wanted to stop a little better.
13:46 And I guarantee you it stops better than the drum
13:47 brakes that were on here.
13:49 It will always need a little bit of sorting here and there,
13:52 as most old cars do.
13:54 But I think that's OK.
13:57 Love affair I have is with cars.
13:59 If I ever had to choose between another woman and my car,
14:03 I'd pick my car.
14:05 It keeps me young, too, man.
14:06 You know?
14:07 The last 13 years of owning this car, every year I get in it,
14:11 and it's like I'm driving it for the first time.
14:14 Here's the deal.
14:16 Eddie's done a great job with the fact
14:17 that the dash, even though he's got some new automotive gauges,
14:21 is still fairly stock.
14:22 I have a cassette here.
14:23 And on the cassette, I've got--
14:24 I don't know if you can see this,
14:26 but I've got deep purple in there, which is kind of awesome.
14:29 It feels like it's kind of like 1986.
14:33 And this is what I should be driving.
14:37 Like most vehicles, this car is really
14:40 a product of its environment.
14:42 What started off years ago as kind of a raked out street
14:44 racer has now evolved into more of a stealthy street fighter.
14:49 If you are that guy in that Porsche, that Ferrari,
14:51 or Lamborghini, and this car pulls up next to you,
14:54 you might want to think twice about putting the go pedal
14:57 down.
14:57 But like anything else, as the neighborhood evolves,
15:00 well, so will the car.
15:02 So I suppose in closing, the only thing that you can say
15:05 is, well, you can take the car out of the neighborhood,
15:08 but you'll never take the neighborhood out of the car.
15:18 I still wouldn't change a thing.
15:21 [BEEPING]
15:24 (explosion)