Focus On My Family
Red, White and Blue 442 Turned Heads
By Heather Ziegler By HEATHER ZIEGLER t was the 1970s, the beginning of the end of the popularity of those beautiful machines we called “muscle cars.” At least that is my opinion as I have lived long enough to observe the auto industry’s idea of vehicle development. I grew up in the age of baby boomers, when cars and trucks were made of steel and chrome and glass, not plastic and composite materials. Open the door on any of the favorite muscle cars of the 1950s through 1970s, and you knew you were entering a solid machine built in the good old U.S. of A. My experience with the muscle cars began when I was barely a teen. It was when my older brother Herk drove one of the most sought-after vehicles of the time — the Chevrolet Corvette. He acquired the 1968 L-88 Corvette by trading a new MGB he was not happy with due to engine issues. The convertible Corvette had one of the biggest engines that were made for racing as opposed to street driving. Although it became too impractical when he married, the same car today has been known to sell for $760,000 at auction. There were only 300 to 400 made by the manufacturer with that size engine. I was happy to just sit behind the wheel as he instructed
I
Photo Provided
This 1966 Oldsmobile 442 sports a custom paint job as shown by its owners Heather and David Ziegler in 1973.
me on shifting gears. Those early experiences provided me the basic training of driving a stick shift, a talent sorely lacking in the youth of today. The art of driving anything other than a vehicle with an automatic transmission is akin to asking a teen today to operate a rotary phone. Anyway, by the early 1970s, I had been exposed to various vehicle transmissions via the expanse of muscle cars of the young men in our community. Each of the muscle cars, trucks, vans and even motorcycles that graced the streets of the Ohio Valley brought their own personalities along with their drivers. You could tell who was about to enter the Burger Chef or Elby’s parking lot by the roar of the engine about to turn the corner. And those custom paint jobs and
modified motors turned heads, too. Whether it was the jacked up Dodge Charger, sleek Pontiac GTO or tricked-out Volkswagen Beetle, you knew who was coming down the street. Motorcycles with exaggerated pipes — from the popular Sportster to the full-grown Harley — held their own place of popularity among the muscle car generation. In 1973, I was looking down the aisle of matrimony. Taking me there was my future husband who recently purchased what would be our “family” car. No, it was not a station wagon (I rode in enough of those in my youth!). It was a red, white and blue custom-painted 1966 Oldsmobile 442. The 442 refers to a four-on-thefloor, four-speed transmission, four-barrel carburetor with dual
exhausts. And it had the sweetest sound as the transmission slid smoothly from first to second gear and so on. It was a grand feeling to sit behind the wheel and feel the power of that man-made machine. It was an easy-riding vehicle despite its tendency to want to fly as opposed to having its wheels planted firmly on the ground. At least that’s what I experienced while driving it to the laundromat or to Foodland. That straight away on National Road between Washington Avenue and Wheeling Park just begged for me to open it up and hit fourth gear. For the record, I never got a speeding ticket in that vehicle. Like any muscle car of the era, especially one that saw modifications, there were some problems. The day of our 1974 wedding, the groom was under the vehicle repairing a leak of some sort. It was salvaged in time for the walk down the aisle. When our wedding party left the church, there was a procession of muscle cars. Our 442 led the way with groomsmen and guests driving several gorgeous Corvettes and other notable machines. It was a memorable day and time in the lives of people and cars. As time and necessity said we should give up the 442, our style of vehicles ranged from green Ford pickups to the original tiny canary yellow Honda Civic. But we will always have fond memories of that Oldsmobile 442.
Supplement to THE INTELLIGENCER and NEWS-REGISTER - Wheeling, W.Va. - Thursday, May 21, 2020 - 13
