The sight of a W-31 decal on the front fender of a 1969 Oldsmobile, supposedly a Cutlass but actually an F-85, started Tom Palasty's heart to pounding. Could this decal be real? It did appear factory. Palasty's enthusiasm waned when he noticed bogus W-31 decals on the hood and decklid. They sure weren't stock.

"I thought, Oh somebody bought a bunch of stickers and stickered this car up."

But his enthusiasm revved to redline again when the hood was popped open.

"That's when I saw the 4-inch hole in the driver-side inner fender," he says.

Next, he noticed two fuel lines running down the frame—one main line and one for return—"plain as day."

Palasty runs a business called Muscle Cars and More out of Mt. Morris, Michigan, where he restores and parts out "a lot of 1968-1972 Cutlasses." He was aware of the features unique to Oldsmobile's high-performance W-31 muscle car. Being an F-85 made the W-31 even more desirable and rare.

He says, "The F-85 originally had a bench seat and rubber floor mats. And there would be no chrome moldings to speak of—not on the drip rails or windows."

Lighter weight is why drag racers chose the stripped-down F-85 instead of the Cutlass as the best starting point for a W-31 build, which was the small-block option.

"Oldsmobile started with the Ram Rod 350s in 1968. This was a high performance small-block car to get around the high cost of insurance on the W-30s."

The W-30, of course, was the high-performance big-block 400 production option. The Ram Rod 350 of 1968 became simply W-31, straight speak from the option code in 1969.

W-31 was, however, much more than an engine option and even included a rear stabilizer bar. The big deal was ram air, which entered through scoops situated below the front bumper and ducted to a specially calibrated Quadrajet four-barrel carburetor via a truly impressive dual snorkel air cleaner assembly with flexible tubes. With larger intake/exhaust valves (2.005/1.630 inches) and a special high-lift cam, the 350 pumped out 325 hp.

These erudite facts went through Palasty's muscle car mind as he contemplated how he might buy the car. The adventure began 3 1/2 years earlier when a guy named Will McCallum called up looking for parts for a 1969 Cutlass.

Palasty says, "He came to my shop, then called me a few days later to say, 'Hey, this car has got some weird things. Can you come over and take a look?'"

The vintage Oldsmobile was 10 minutes away. Palasty drove to the house to see, in the driveway, a 1969 coupe looking its age with a patina of surface rust. He told McCallum that the Cutlass was not a Cutlass but rather an F-85 with the rare W-31 package. The original 350 was long gone. Under the hood was a 400 Oldsmobile big-block. Furthermore, lettering on the body was evidence of a drag racing past.

W-31 and a possible racing heritage did not seem to make much of an impression on McCallum. He remained intent to paint the car to use as a daily driver and to take to cruises, no W-31 mania present. Meanwhile, Palasty looked up production numbers for 1969 F-85s with the W-31 option and found that 212 were made. Enthusiastic to restore this rare muscle car, Palasty did his best to buy the F-85, but McCallum wasn't ready to sell.

McCallum had just acquired the Oldsmobile from a friend of his family. The owner had passed away, and the family sold the car, which they had pulled straight out of a real barn. (No pictures taken, apparently. )

Over the next 3 1/2 years, Palasty made numerous attempts to purchase the W-31. None succeeded. During this time, he found an original picture of this very car drag racing.

He says, "A friend of mine got some microfiche from Tri-City Dragway [in Saginaw, Michigan] and found about a dozen black-and-white pictures of Oldsmobiles. He printed them out as 8x10s and gave them to me."

Incredibly, Palasty noticed one of the photos happened to be the W-31 owned by McCallum. The odd locations of W-31 decals matched, as did "Oldsmobile" in big letters painted across the quarter-panels that are still visible on the F-85 today, "G/S" classification on the C-pillar, and two tow tabs under the front bumper.

Palasty became even more enthusiastic with this W-31 find, but the car's relative obscurity didn't help. He gave a photocopy of the drag racing picture to McCallum, who "still didn't do anything with the car."

Then, in late March of 2017, "his father showed up at my shop and said, 'Hey, the boy is ready to get rid of the car,' and threw me a price."

Palasty did not want to reveal the dollar amount, but did say he "got it cheap." His patience and persistence had finally paid off. Rather than launch into a restoration, he is working with Olds expert Stephen Minore to take the barn find to the 2017 Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Chicago.

Palasty is taking his time to enjoy his rare find. He has deferred sanding the body to find traces of lettering from the car's drag racing days. The old Tri-City drag racing photo revealed driver Dick Davis' name written on the doors. As of this writing, Palasty has yet to uncover this driver's heritage. But by MCACN 2017, perhaps through our readers' help and with more research, we will soon have much more information about this car. He has turned up a second drag racing photo from the same source and the same dragstrip. Labadie Olds of Bay City, Michigan, apparently raced the car when new in F/Stock with great success. Palasty plans a frame-off restoration to return the car to its earliest drag racing configuration.

At a Glance

1969 F-85 W-31

Owned by: Tom Palasty

Restored by: Unrestored

Engine: 400ci V-8 (original W-31 missing)

Transmission: T10 4-speed manual (original M20 missing)

Rearend: GM 12-bolt O axle with 3.91 gears and Anti-Spin

Interior: Black vinyl bucket seat

Wheels: Unknown

Tires: 225/70R15 Goodyear Wingfoot HP

See all 14 photos

See all 14 photos Microfiche from the Tri-City Dragway revealed two photos of the Oldsmobile in its drag racing days. The first, from the mid 1970s, was when Dick Davis was the driver. The second is from when Labadie Olds in Bay City, Michigan, campaigned the car. If anybody has any more pictures and information on the drag racing history of this W-31, please write us and we will pass the information on.

See all 14 photos When Tom Palasty drove 10 minutes to Flint, Michigan, to see a "Cutlass," he instead found a 1969 F-85 adorned with W-31 stickers. But were those stickers real? In some cases, yes. Amazingly, this factory-applied W-31 sticker was still affixed to the top of its original Trophy Blue paint above the driver-side marker on the front fender.

See all 14 photos The interior has been upgraded to bucket seats and console. Steering wheel is the standard unit, as came in an F-85. The four-speed on the passenger seat is a T10 from a Corvette. Stock was a Muncie M20 four-speed.

See all 14 photos Somebody added a W-31 decal to the driver's side of the decklid, but the center ornament and Oldsmobile script came on the F-85 series.

See all 14 photos Under the hood, Palasty found a 400ci big-block. Somebody did not respect the very rare and special 350 W-31.

See all 14 photos Palasty found this 4-inch hole in the driver-side plastic inner fender, a sign of W-31 heritage. Oldsmobile routed ram air from scoops beneath the bumper up through holes in special plastic inner fenders. (The passenger-side inner fender had been replaced due to a wreck.)

See all 14 photos These two fuel lines, specific to W-31, remained from the factory. When a past owner installed the 400, he used the main line and plugged the return line.

See all 14 photos Tow tabs, added for drag racing, were still under the front bumper.

See all 14 photos Faded quarter-panel lettering matches the lettering seen on the rear quarters in the old drag racing photo of Dick Davis.

See all 14 photos Tom Palasty will bring the W-31, as found, to MCACN in November.