JAMES GARNER AND THE GOODYEAR GRABBER BAJA AND BANSHEE OLDSMOBILE 442

We put together a video of the off road baja Olds Cutlass and 442 cars that Garner drove. There seems to have been at least three of these cars made as one of these photos shows two 69s and a 70. Im thinking 350 Olds engines were used in the two 69s and a 455 engine were used in the 70. From what the info I found these cars were raced for three years until 72 and then a Banshee was built as a mid-engine, rear-drive behemoth, and the handiwork of Baja legend Vic Hickey. Hickey built the car for the desert racing circuit. His driver was a Maverick, also known as Rockford. The Banshee's pilot was actor James Garner. ''We'd run a regular Cutlass, stock configuration with beefed up suspension, for three years," recalls Hickey. "Garner was doing a good job, so I figured he could use a quicker car."
If Oldsmobiles seem to be rather strange material for off-road racers, it's stranger yet that Hickey ran them without any official affiliation with the company. He had been a manager at GM, and he'd had a long relationship with George Hurst (as in shifters), who was a key Olds supplier at the time. Those connections gave Hickey access to some of Olds' hottest parts. Hickey was a senior research engineer at Chevrolet from 1959 to 1969, when he developed the first Blazers. Today Hickey is 77. But at the height of his off-road days, Hickey worked out of a shop in Ventura.

He built the Banshee quickly - just 45 days from start to finish. Its fiberglass body was based on a stock metal Cutlass, which customizer George Barris had shortened 14 inches. The skin covered a frame made of 1.75-inch tubular steel. The engine was built from an experimental Oldsmobile 455-cid aluminum block designed under Olds engineer Dale Smith. It was originally developed for drag racing. Mated to a 400 Turbo HydraMatic in the Banshee, the 455 made 480 horsepower at 5000 rpm. Although the aluminum engine was 140 pounds lighter than a cast iron version, a traditional front-engine, rear-drive configuration would still have caused a front/rear weight imbalance. Hickey moved the engine back 27 inches, next to the driver, to prevent the Banshee from nose-diving when it was airborne. "With Garner's weight on the left to balance out the engine, the thing flew pretty even," says Hickey. The Banshee frame used a short/long arm suspension; Hickey fabricated the control arms, and using leaf springs in back and coils in front, found 11 inches of suspension travel. Goodyear made tires based on a tread design and rubber compound used for tractors. ''At first we had some cooling problems due to the desert temperatures, so I added a second radiator core," Hickey recalls. ''After that, so far as I know there were no mechanical failures in 25 or 30 races."

It first raced at the Seven-11, a desert race in Las Vegas that evolved into the Mint 400. "I had known Jim Garner for years," Hickey says. "He was a friend of Bob Bondurant, and Bob and I were friends. The thing about Garner was that, while he wasn't the world's most fearless driver, he had the best retention of any man who drove for me. On a prerun, if he hit a bump, he'd come back five days later and tell you where it was within 10 feet." Garner only won one race in the Banshee. That was the Riverside Grand Prix, run along a river bed near Riverside, Calif. But he usually ran near the front of the pack, and often placed high in the final standings. Oddly, his only competition accident came in the race he won. According to Hickey, Garner momentarily took his eyes off the course near the finish line at Riverside to look at the crowd, and flipped the Banshee into the river. Garner crawled out and threw his helmet in the mud in disgust. Yet he was so far ahead that he was eventually declared the winner. The actor had one other wreck in the Banshee a big one, in an early shakedown, when the car was going at least two-thirds of its 144-mph top speed. "He went into this corner at about a hundred miles an hour, lost it in the sand and flipped the car about five times,'' Hickey says. "I was relieved to learn it was strong enough to protect Garner from injuries. The last thing I wanted to do was buy a movie star." Hickey straightened the frame, added new fiberglass and had the Banshee ready to race.

Mickey Thompson drove the Banshee circa 72 and later in several races without a win .

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[PanchoVanilla1]

What a fine man! Garner was so nice to me while he raced the Stroppe prepared Ford F-150s; I did not meet him until 1972, but talk about sheer guts! A famous Hollywood actor braving the Baja in those days???

No phones, agents, showers or schedules - just pre-run and race hard. BTW: Sorry about the audio getting scrapped - this copyright B.S. infringes on individual creativity - see the remedies available under Section 107 under the U.S. Title Code - it works for me! No sales; just history!

[Oldsfunguy]

Car Craft or Hot Rod did an article on this car. It turns out the engine was an all aluminum 410 cubic inch Olds. Based off of the small block. In effect and aluminum 403. There were three engines only and the restorer found one someplace and traded truck loads of cash. The car is restored and the guys gonna drive it like the original in one of the Baja races.

[badterrain]

SWEET!

[AGTW31]

he put a listing on an Olds board,said he had a bunch of NOS w-31 stuff,never heard from him again.that was a long time ago

[AGTW31]

some guy in cal is redoing one of these cars.

btw,i had a 77 delta 88,and it came with a 350 chevy.

[vistacruiser67]

I saw a 301 Pontiac engine in a 77

Delta in the late 80s so I knew of this engine possibility as well. Olds engines burned cleaner than Pontiac and Chevy and were better suited to pass emissions. If this was not the case why was the Pontiac 400 banned in California Trans Ams and Formulas from 77-79 and replaced with the 403 Olds? By 79 the 403 Olds was in about 94,000 of the 109,000 79 TAs produced coast to coast. 79 was the highest production year for the TA.

[vistacruiser67]

I dont think the starter was an issue with GM. They surely have a 305 Chevy engine otion in 78 and 79 Cutlasses. The first Chevy motor appeared in some 77 Deltas. There are documented lawsuits as a result of this. Thats why on all the 80s GM ads you the disclaimer " GM CARS HAVE ENGINES THAT ARE PRODUCED BY OTHER GM SUBSIDIARIES." The reason these engines showed up in Olds is because there was a shortage of 350 Olds in 1977. Olds sold over 1 million cars in 77.

[musclecrsrock]

So AWL3rd, is your uncle incoherent too?

[musclecrsrock]

First, please take your Chiltons manual and throw it in the trash where it belongs. Anybody in the car repair business knows Chiltons is loaded with unreliable info and printed for the backyard mechanic. There were only 4 engine options on the 1977 Cutlass: the Buick 231 V-6, the Olds 260, The Olds 350R and the Olds 403. There were absolutely NO 1977 Cutlass models released with Chevy 350L engines from the factory

[vistacruiser67]

Well I would love for that to be true but the Chilton manual for 70-87 Cutlass list not only one but two Chevy engines available.  VIN code L for the 350 Chev and VIN code U for the 305 Chev. Other engines included VIN code C for the 231 Buick v6; VIN code F for the 260 Olds V8; Vin code R for the 350 Olds; and VIN code K for the 403 Olds. No breakout of the production of each engine is available that Ive come across.