"Dr. Oldsmobile" Joe Mondello talks about the 442

[ezzzstang1]

MR.OLDSMOBILE thank-you for your hard work for us gear heads!...your legend will live forever! R.I.P. DR.OLDS.........

[smondello]

Thank you Greg. I have to say this video really gives me a lot of comfort. Just to hear his voice talk about the thing he loved the most. If you have any other videos, I'd love to see them. I don't know where you're located, but his funeral will be on Wednesday, April 13, @ 9:30AM at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, CA.

[gregjwelsch]

@smondello Stephanie: Unfortunately I am here in Nashville and won't be able to make the service. But I will definitely look for other videos. I had some other segments and a longer interview where he talks about his life and career but over the years I have had several drives go bad so I am not exactly sure what I still have access to at this point. I will look and be in touch. Hopefully I can get them for you. I would be great to be able to keep them and show the grandkids. Be Strong.

[gregjwelsch]

@smondello @smondello Stephanie: I am sorry it took so long but I have been able to find two videos of your pop from when we shot some stuff for a TV pilot several years ago. One is at the school and the other is the 442 piece that you saw on YouTube. Now you can have a good, higher quality copy for the family. I will keep looking. I think we have a long interview we also did at the School. Can you send an email address to where I can forward them? Thanks, Greg

[smondello]

Joe Mondello was my Dad. He died on April 6, 2011. I miss him already and forever.

[gregjwelsch]

@smondello Stephanie: So sorry to hear about your pop. He was a very nice man. I worked with him several times. I directed the 442 piece we shot in Bowling Green several years ago. We also filmed some stuff with Joe down in Crossville and also at the Drag Racing Hall of Fame in Florida. He was always fun to work with and it was obvious that he was held in very high esteem by everyone who knew him in the business. He will be missed. Greg

[signupsucksass]

@smondello your father is a legend and he will me missed. my condolences on your loss.

[smondello]

@signupsucksass My Dad was a really great man... Thank you... Stephanie Mondello

[gneric85]

I never got to meet him but spoke with him a few times over the phone about my wife's 442 and he always pointed me in the right direction. Good man. He will be missed.

[securitycat11]

such a sad loss and a truly nice man, I got to meet him while living in Paso and what a good guy. as an olds guy to the bone I loved what he did with flatheads he was the best port man on the west coast. as to small port ok we still kicked ass with small ports sounds like a honda guy to me dont slander the man.

[rondeco30]

RIP Joe Modello 

[DONDIVA1969]

Olds engine has the smallest valves and ports of all the GM big blocks and was the least powerful of all the 455 engines. They used big cams in the W-30 engines as a crutch.

[eewood455]

@DONDIVA1969 You Sir are a complete idiot< you know nothing about the true potential of a well built Olds engine and I see nothing on your page that even suggest that you ever owned a muscle car much less an Olds and explain why a Olds 442 showing up at a drag meet would create such an uproar especially with the Chevelle SS owners crying cause their precious chevy got their ass handed to them in a 1/4 mile race and I know this as fact as I was there back in the day, SO I Know!!!

[DONDIVA1969]

@eewood455 - Look at the “King Of The Hill” engine contest Car Craft did a few years ago of the most popular big blocks. The Olds 455 produced the least horsepower of all the engines not just GM but Ford and Chrysler. It was outclassed. The Buick beat the Olds by 50+ hp. Back in the day Kenne-Bell catalogs (Olds & Buick) had drag tests using KB's parts in the step by step build-ups. The Buick was always 0.5 seconds faster, stock to modified.

[1967PmdGto]

@DONDIVA1969

I love Olds but love Pont slightly more, so this isn't biased.--> The highest rated Pont 455 was 370hp, strongest Buick was 360 or 370hp. The Hurst Olds saw 390hp, the Toronado 400hp. The only stock 455 to run 12s was a Hurst Olds (with an Auto & AC) 12.87 in a magazine test. Yes it had a big cam, but about the same as a 1973/74 SD455 Trans Am which averaged around 13.4. The 73/74 SD had low 8.4 compression. I estimate if it was over 10 like the Hurst 455, they'd both tie/run 12s.

[DONDIVA1969]

@1967PmdGto - Those old magazine tests are nearly useless as a means of comparison. So are factory hp ratings. Manufacturers would routinely provide ringers for magazines to test. Pontiac was notorious for that. The Hurst Olds you write about was a tuned test mule. The cam was a non-stock W-31 grind, it had headers, performance jetted carb and re-curved distributor. In addition it ran those times with open exhaust. Far from representative of what you could drive off the showroom floor.

[1967PmdGto]

@DONDIVA1969

I'm always saying HP ratings don't mean jack unless you are comparing say a Pontiac engine to a Pontiac engine, or know how to read between the lines of DIFFERENCE. --I know that 390 Pont/Olds HP is more than 390 Chevy HP. Pontiac used to rate theirs in a 100 degree room, Chevy in a 60. Even if two engines truly are 390hp, still doesn't mean jack unless they are both say Pontiacs. It's only peak HP, not average power across a broad rpm range.-A 350hp 455 will kill a 350hp 4banger.

[smondello]

Joe Mondello is my Dad.

[naderchaser]

As far as I'm concerned....Joe Mondello is a national treasure.

[deannaber]

Nice to hear and see "the" mr mondello speak,never seen just heard of you ,good video...

[guitarzero]

SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[IndyFan53]

370 horses my ass! It had to be closer to 500! I want one soooooo badly!

[xtremestitan]

Joe Mondello, you are the true DR. OLDS and I bow in front of you. I currently own a 1969 Oldsmobile 442 which is a numbers matching (400 ci motor) and (TH400 trans.)

This is one hella fast car, and coming off production lines sitting at 350 HP was awesome...

Thanks for clearing up the four forty two and the four four two....I told everyone I was saying it was right.....

THANKS FOR THE GREATEST CAR EVER BUILT, WELL EXCEPT FOR THE W-30's ..LOL....:")

[vistacruiser67]

This was filmed in July 2007 in Bowling Green Kentucky at the Olds Nationals. I was in the room when this was being filmed and have since posted a couple of videos on youtube of the 2007 Nationals which include this W-30 and a couple of the other cars in the room. My dad bought a 70 442 new (non W-30) with the glass hood (which was an option without the W30) and traded it away in 72. He was in his late 30s and always called it FOUR FORTY TWO and had me mispronouncing it all these years.