1965 was a year of change amongst the stables of the NHRA. Racers were altering wheelbases, building fiberglass bodies & parts, and implementing tubular frames. It was the age of the “Funny Car”. A few of the most memorable cars of this age were created under the leadership of Hurst Performance Products located in Detroit. Hurst Performance Products, founded by the legendary George Hurst, was a predominant name found at drag racing shows in the sixties. Beyond his exceptional performance products, George Hurst was an entertainer, and a damn good one at that. He knew how to reach into the hearts of fans & racers alike, by putting on a good show. One of his most memorable showpieces was the 1965 Hurst Hemi Under Glass. The Hemi Under Glass was not only a rolling billboard for Hurst, but it was a showstopper with it’s outrageous wheelstands. In a very short time, the Hurst Hemi Under Glass was a hot item. It was booked on a very tight schedule at drag racing events across the country. Hurst wasn’t interested in taking trophies away from its customers; he was only interested in the title of drag racing’s “Exhibition King”. For that purpose, Hurst needed a second act to accompany its current overbooked shooting star and take the stage show to the next level. Enter perhaps the wildest drag car ever built, the Hurst Hairy Olds.
The Hurst Hairy Olds was a collaborative idea between George Hurst and “Doc” Watson. Hairy would be built on the hot, new for ‘66 Olds 442 body and would incorporate TWO blown and fuel injected Olds 425 cubic inch V8’s each mated to it’s own Toronado transaxle. Hairy’s 425’s were blessed with the talents of many well known gearheads of the era, equipped with Isky cam shafts, Scheifer magnetos, and Mickey Thompson special forged pistons and roller rockers. Each 425 was then incorporated with a GMC 6-71 supercharger. Both of these monsters perched themselves atop a custom built tubular frame chassis that interestingly also served as Hairy’s cooling system. A whopping 33 quarts of coolant were circulated through the Hurst Hairy Olds tube frame in order to keep both fire-breathing dragons “chilled”. The result of all this hard work was a 1,000 horsepower, four wheel drive pavement pounding two lane blacktop blazing beast that was capable of synchronized slick smoking down the entire length of the quarter mile.
Hairy made its debut at the 8th annual United States Fuel and Gas Championship Drags in California on March 5th, 1966, with Top Fuel familiar “Gentleman” Joe Schubeck taking the helm. However, getting Joe to take the reigns was not an easy undertaking for Hurst. Doc Watson & George Hurst needed a talented driver to tame Hairy, knowing full well the difficulty at hand any driver would face with dual accelerators, dual shifters and enough torque to tear the car apart and leaving it laying on it’s backside. Joe was no dummy, but neither was the entertaining Hurst. When Hurst mentioned the beautiful Linda Vaughn would be part of Hairy’s on track program, the tuxedo-wearing gentleman couldn’t resist.
Joe & Hairy gave the fans a rip-roaring hell of a show. Hairy impressed the crowds with it’s ability to achieve speeds in excess of 185mph, while spinning all four tires!! Hairy would leave four impressively large patches of black rubber all the way down the track while huge thick billows of smoke made at each wheel filled the air and lingered for a considerable amount of time. Joe brought Hairy to a halt by means of the Kelsey Hayes four wheel disc brakes & dual Simpson chutes that were released from the rear tail light housings. Then, as if the primary run wasn’t enough show, Hairy would perform a 1,000-foot encore back to the starting line. This entire showing off routine came with a considerable amount of work from Joe & Hairy’s crew.
On the track, handling the Hurst Hairy Olds was like riding a wild bull. When Hairy was at full acceleration, the massive amount of torque produced by the blown 425’s combined with the traction of the slicks had adverse effects on the steering which resulted in a severe tow-in condition that made Hairy virtually uncontrollable. Hairy’s crew added a few strategically placed braces on the steering mechanisms, and adjusted the front-end alignment with a toe-out setting to counterweigh the toe-in when accelerating. With these adjustments, handling the reigns of the Hairy monster became an easier task for Joe. That was as long as nothing else went wrong.
Unfortunately, things did go terribly awry for Joe & his Hurst Hairy Olds companion. Their final act was in Buffalo, NY. Joe & Hairy were looking forward to a show stopping performance, but instead the show got stopped on them abruptly when the magneto on the front engine quit, cutting all power to the front end. This caused the front-end alignment to regress back to its toe-out setting that instigated a situation that could not be controlled. Hairy veered off the track in the direction of nearby spectators clueless to the danger they were faced with. A cable that stretched the length of the track was the only thing in place between Hairy and the targeted spectators, but it was just enough to keep what could have been a horrific situation from culminating.
After that unfortunate event, Hairy was returned to the Hurst garage and was later ordered to be disassembled by George Hurst. George certainly knew how to produce a good show, but his first and foremost concern was safety, and safe, Hairy was not. Joe left the Hurst team and went on to devote his attention to his own company, Lakewood Industries. The rest was history, until now. The powers-that-be decided to resurrect Hairy from the dead after an over 30 year slumber. Under the close supervision of Joe Schubeck & Bob Lathrum, Hairy’s original chief mechanic, the Hurst Hairy Olds was rebuilt to the faithful design of the original. Hairy made his re-debut at the Oldsmobile Quad States Show in Iowa on September 23rd, 2000. Hairy’s tour across America has continued well into 2002, making several appearances at several events. Hairy’s final stop will be the NHRA museum in Los Angeles, scheduled to arrive in November 2002, where it will survive to entertain generations of racing fans with it’s exciting history.
Thanks to the mega talented folks at the Highway 61 division of Trademark Diecast Promotions, the Hurst Hairy Olds has been reincarnated once again, this time in grand 1/18 scale, destined to entertain an equally large crowd of diecast enthusiasts. The folks over at Highway 61 know how to build “museum” quality models, and the 1/18 scale Hurst Hairy Olds is no exception. In fact, Hairy’s 1/18 likeness is quite exceptional when compared to it’s other stablemates in the Highway 61 shed. In their preliminary year, the folks at Highway 61 have done an outstanding job of delivering what the consumer wants, a high detail car at a mid level price. The Hurst Hairy Olds is the zenith of that successful formula. The Hurst Hairy Olds is worth every dollar it requires, and then some.
Hairy comes packaged in a handsome box with the now signature Highway 61 display case that premiered on the Supercars Sox & Martin GTX. The curvaceous clear plastic display window is reinforced with hard plastic borders that are locked onto the hard plastic base with plastic tabs. The look is finished with another Highway 61 signature, a mirrored base that displays all the wonderful details on the underside of the Hurst Hairy Olds. You can display the car in this case, or easily take it out and display it on your shelf. But Hairy looks like he wants to entertain you with his details, and we can’t do that if we don’t take it out of the box.
The Hurst Hairy Olds from Highway 61 is a beautiful replica of the original that rolled down the two-lane blacktop in 1966. The paint quality is higher than most other diecast with it’s coat of metallic gold & black. The professional quality paint job on Hairy is complemented with authentic sponsor & race day decals along with the bare-metal-foil chrome treatment in accurate places. All of this is sealed in a high quality clear coat that makes everything smooth and gives the Hurst Hairy Olds that showroom shine. The proportions are dead on accurate with great shut lines. Real steel cast pins that are set into Hairy’s mold hold on the hood and trunk. They lift off to reveal the highly detailed 425’s both in front and in back.
Speaking of which, what could possibly be better than a Highway 61 detailed engine? How about 2 of them. This is one of the real treats on the Hurst Hairy Olds. We get double the plumbing, double the wiring, and double the fun. Both of these 425’s are equally detailed with full plumbing and wiring, along with detailed supercharger & blower units with even more wiring. The black & yellow wires were backwards on the pre-production version, but have since been appropriately swapped. The rest of the engine compartment is detailed with several metallic & flat black paint accents to the gears & pulley’s, transmission housing, and the supercharger/blower unit. Several parts on the underside of the 425’s including the oil pan, and gear housing have also received these paint treatments, along with the handmade metal headers that have been finished in flat white paint. They drop down and twist below the frame rails, exiting behind the front & rear valve stemmed Toronado wheels wrapped in black-wall drag slicks. You can even see the yellow painted & detailed shocks clearly in the rear engine bay. The shocks themselves function, though not to the variable range of its other Highway 61 brethren.
The interior is no exception to Hairy’s high level of detail. The entire cockpit is floored with a layer of tan carpeting that rests below a pair of detailed racing seats. The seats are soft to the touch, accented with a pair of woven racing harnesses finished with photo etched clasps. The dash is detailed with an opening glove box and legible gauges set in a face of electroplated chrome that overlooks a detailed steering wheel and set of detailed & functioning brake and dual accelerator pedals. The console on the floor is a neat little gadget with Hairy’s signature dual Hurst shifters & levers that also work. It’s an astonishing sight to look into the miniature scale Hurst Hairy Olds and view the almost ominous looking leading edge of the rear mounted Olds V8 snarling closely behind the racing seat that ‘ole Gentleman Joe once occupied. The interior is finished off with a handmade roll cage finished in red paint that surrounds the cockpit of the Hurst Hairy Olds, exits through the firewall and joins itself to the similarly painted red tubular frame that runs the entire length of the car.
It seems the fine folks at Highway 61 share George Hurst’s knack for showing off, and they’ve done so with their 1/18 scale replica of the Hurst Hairy Olds. The original left us in awe with it’s huge rolls of billowing smoke and lighting fast speeds, the 1/18 scale replica leaves us equally in awe with it’s immense amount of detail & incredible accuracy. The 1/18 scale Highway 61 1966 Hurst Hairy Olds is a must have, so grab one before they disappear off the shelves in a cloud of billowing enthusiasts.
