DIALED IN
Work Of Fate
Stuart Patterson finds his dream car in the midst of hardship
By Van Abernethy
It’ s extraordinary to consider how a hardship in life can potentially set you back for a little while, but in the end, something unusually satisfying emerges from the whole ordeal. Such was the case when Stuart Patterson was injured on the job roughly 10 years ago, after which, he languished through a period of recovery and was finally able to return to work.
The real bright spot to all this was when he received a well-deserved chunk of change by way of workers’ comp. He figured the best way to spend his windfall of cash was to buy his dream car: a 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass... more specifically, of the tube chassis variety!
“ I first saw the car for sale online and then every time I logged on to the computer it kept popping up on my screen. I told my wife, Donna, that this was the car I was going to buy!” says Patterson.
It sure seemed to be the work of fate that Patterson and the Oldsmobile came together, and so he wasn’ t about to let a nasty snow and ice storm slow him down in the least, as he and his brother, Gary Holmes, braved the winter weather while
June 2018 traveling to West Virginia to pick up the car from racer Larry White.
Upon their safe return, Patterson wasted no time carrying the race-ready Cutlass to his local tracks without altering much of anything on the car. In fact, Patterson found the Oldsmobile to be exactly what he was looking for.“ I’ ve hardly changed a single thing on the car for the entire 10 years I’ ve owned it,” confirms Patterson.
The Olds is motivated by a 565 ci big-block Chevrolet engine, anchored by a 2-speed Powerglide with a 5500 converter and 410 gears. The car weighs roughly 2,495 pounds with driver, and has clocked 5.20s when the wick is turned up, although they normally have it dialed for mid-5-second elapsed times for bracket racing on the eighth-mile. When Patterson first brought the car home to Virginia, he often raced the car on the quarter-mile, where it has clocked a best of 8.43 at 167 mph, but as the shorter distance trend continues to gain popularity, most tracks in his area compete almost exclusively on the eighth-mile.
It’ s actually Patterson’ s brother, Gary, who does the bulk of the driving these days, and it’ s not uncommon for various people to get some seat time in the Oldsmobile.“ I once won $ 10,000 while driving the Oldsmobile at Richmond Dragway back in 2014,” beams Delton Hairfield, who’ s yet another racer who’ s had a turn wheeling the Cutlass.
A variety of capable drivers has enjoyed winning many rounds and more than a fair share of races in the car.“ We call our group the Wild Bunch!” explains Patterson, who’ s a founding
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