Olds Quad 4 Prototypes | Retro Review
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Lol on dream engine.
Keep in mind that back in 1990, that 4 banger made 180hp n/a at time when other most others needed a turbo to make the same or less power. In 91, the W41 made 190hp and was years ahead of the ITR.
The bean counters really screwed the engine over from cost cutting, especially concerning the head gasket and ignition housing plastic.
Still, 180hp and a 5 speed in a 2600lb car made for a high 14sec car that got well over 30mpg.
The bean counters really screwed the engine over from cost cutting, especially concerning the head gasket and ignition housing plastic.
Still, 180hp and a 5 speed in a 2600lb car made for a high 14sec car that got well over 30mpg.
I had a Beretta GTZ back in the early 90's that had that Quad 4.
I used to call it my "domestic Type R," lol. I loved that clunky thing.
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I had a GTZ too. I also had a Calais S auto, a Calais I-Series, a GA GT, and an Achieva SCX, all 5 speed cars.
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Damn, you loved them 4-banger GMs, lol.
I had friends who had actual ITRs and swapped Civics at the time. What really sucked was how little mods were available for that damned car. That's OK. I'd just switch to my old LX notch and handle what my Beretta couldn't.
Shit, that would put it in good company now.
My dad had a Calais S for about 6 months...then my mom hit her annual deer...hard!
Replacement was a cutlass 2.8L...not nearly as fun. That 2.8 became my first car a few years later
i did, lol. before that, i had a 69 barracuda notchback when i was 18-21. i wanted something a little different.
the Calais S auto was stock. the I-series had a 2.5" exhaust, homemade inner fender CAI, and the chip from a W41 Calais (higher redline, slightly different timing and fuel). best 1/8mile in that car was a 9.70 @ 74mph on a street tire and on DRs it ran a 9.50 with a slipping clutch. the GTZ was stock. the GA GT was rebuilt with 11.5:1 pistons, forged rods, 226/.410 lift cams, titanium retainers, and an extremely rare Olds race chip from a scca world challenge car. had a lightweight flywheel and a spec 6 puck clutch. it pulled hard to 8k and was a lot of fun to drive on the street. the Achieva was gutted and had a cage. it was the autocross car. it had a leftover blueprinted W41 from the firehawk series a long time ago. it also had a 1 5/8" to 1 3/4" step header. didnt take it to the strip either but it was fast enough to outrun ls1/auto camaros and modded new edge mustangs on the days id drive it to work. it weighed 2620lbs with the cage and a full tank of gas.
not long after, i found a hell of a deal on a 97 cobra vert and bought it. i own that car to this day and still daily it with 83k.
here an extremely old vid of the achieva idling with the blueprinted W41 engine. the cams were factory stock, notice the lumpy idle...for a 4 banger.
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A close friend of mine had a 91 Calais quad 442 W41. Bought if off of his dads friend back in 2003 for $600 and it only had 90,000 miles on the OD.
I remember the call “dude, you gotta come check this thing out. It’s pretty quick”
I laughed and headed over and was blown away at the performance and handling of that little car. It ran side by side with my old 4.6 GT, we spent a whole summer cruising the streets looking for ricers to whoop on.
I remember the call “dude, you gotta come check this thing out. It’s pretty quick”
I laughed and headed over and was blown away at the performance and handling of that little car. It ran side by side with my old 4.6 GT, we spent a whole summer cruising the streets looking for ricers to whoop on.
I had the later quad 4 called "twin cam" in a 1997 sunfire GT. Not as potent as the quad 4, but was torquey as hell and ran with my buddies 175hp Integra GSR all day long.
Good times..
Good times..
Now that sounds really good. If I didn't know it was a 4-cylinder I'd swear I was listening to a healthy V8.
Ah, the days of the Quad-4. That was a darn good engine back then. Turned a lot of heads when GM introduced it. Back then, it was exactly what GM needed to compete with the imports. Which it did, and very well.
Im surprised the olds supreme indy pace car wasn't mentioned. It had a turbo Quad4 in it that made 250hp back in 1988.
Olds/GM had a chance to be really innovative but they really let everyone down. A 250hp ANYTHING in 1988 was amazing. Iirc Corvettes only had around 250hp until the early 90s
There's no way an Olds family car was going to have the same hp/straight line performance as a Corvette in GM at that time and it was a damn shame.
Olds/GM had a chance to be really innovative but they really let everyone down. A 250hp ANYTHING in 1988 was amazing. Iirc Corvettes only had around 250hp until the early 90s
There's no way an Olds family car was going to have the same hp/straight line performance as a Corvette in GM at that time and it was a damn shame.
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Damn...... Im gonna have to go search that up lol
That sounded nice for a 4 banger.
All I ended up doing to my GTZ was a custom-piped exhaust with no cats. I couldn't even find a basic high-flow filter. Shocked the shit out of my buddies with their VTECs though, lol.
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my favorite memory in the Calais International Series was when i ran the 9.70 in the 1/8th. that was like early 2000s so the FnF craze was at its peak. i was up against a civic with a 75 shot of nitrous. he ran like a 9.90 or something and after i circled back around to the pit lanes, a pile of kids walked up to the car and had all kinds of questions. the first question was "where is the nitrous system?" lol. i had to pop the trunk and let them look all around lol. thats when i found out the civic had nitrous. the mods then were a homemade CAI, a 2.5" exhaust, and a W41 chip that really only changed the redline from 6800 to 7400. the guy next to me in the slicks lane told me he bought a Quad442 new and he remembered that theyre were fun back then too.
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this is not my car. the cams in this Quad4 are what was in my GA though. my engine had 1.5 points more compression and a bunch of other stuff but it sounded exactly like this at idle. never dyno'd my car. the oem W41 cams were 219/.410 lift and that engine made 190hp. i would imagine with more compression, a 226/.410 lift cam, a header, and cleaned up head, my engine probably made around 230-240hp. pure bench racing of course but thats my best and honest guess.
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