Photography courtesy Bring a Trailer
Factory-built race cars didn’t only come from Porsche, Ferrari and Shelby. Oldsmobile played in that space, too.
And it offered one with rather humble roots.
The year was 1992, with the now-shuttered brand conjuring up something special for the day’s professional street stock endurance racers–think IMSA’s Firehawk series, the predecessor to today’s IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge.
The starting point for Oldsmobile’s creation? The Achieva SCX, its garden-variety, mid-sized coupe fitted with the W41-spec 2.3-liter Quad 4 engine.
Total output? Are you sitting down? We’re talking 190 horsepower. At the time, that was a lot.
A five-speed manual box came standard, while the included FX3 package added stiffer suspension, a shorter final drive and 14-inch tires that better worked with the day’s offerings.
This model was only available for the 1992-’93 model years, with the listing noting that it’s one of the 1146 copies built.
Find this 1992 Oldsmobile Achieva SCX 5-Speed for auction on Bring a Trailer.
Not rare enough? Fewer than 16 of these special Achievas received the C41 option code: no a/c, no tape deck, factory Torsen diff. These were the cars doled out to race teams. We also had an Achieva SCX C41 back in the day–JG trophied at SCCA Solo Nats in it–making it perhaps one of the rarest cars to ever pass through our hands.
[An Oldsmobile Achieva is one of the most exclusive cars we've owned?]
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