My brother and I purchased this 1975 Cutlass Supreme 4 door sedan in December 2002 from a friend of ours.

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The original idea was to make a “sleeper” drag car out of the Cutlass; something totally stock appearing with a built 455 under the hood. The Cutlass was the popular then but not so popular now pea green color with pea green interior. It also had a white vinyl top that was very deteriorated.. The pea green was not really our color of choice, so we decided a color change was definitely in order. Since the exterior and interior colors were going to be changed, we got to thinking about different paint schemes. We must have watched too much Adam-12 on TV when we were growing up because we started discussing a police car paint scheme. Our dad had a racing buddy back in the `60's that would always describe fast cars as, “Don’t it run!” We all got to thinking about that phrase and changed it a little, and we had the name for the car, “DONUTRUN,” a very appropriate name for a police car!

Since the “sleeper” idea was out the window, work began in earnest to take out as much weight as possible. The factory curb weight of the car was approximately 4,100 pounds. The interior was completely gutted including the dash. The bumper liners were removed. The 5 mph bumper shocks were removed. All unnecessary items for a drag car were removed from the firewall - a/c and heater components, windshield wiper motor and linkage, etc. A quick sanding of the old paint and some bodywork, and DONUTRUN was headed to the paint shop for a black and white paint scheme. Some decals, the correct “dog dish” hubcaps, an antenna, a couple of roof lights, and an early 1970's siren from Dad’s shed that he got from who knows where, and we had ourselves a respectable police car!

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Because of the name, it had better run as good as it looked! My brother had saved the engine and rear end from his 1977 Oldsmobile 442 that was totalled in an accident, and we rebuilt these (with some modifications) and installed them in DONUTRUN. The 455 was bored .030" to 461 cubic inches. TRW Forged 10.5 :1 compression pistons were used. A Comp. Cams Xtreme Energy.541/.544 high lift camshaft with Comp. Cams hydraulic lifters and roller rockers were used. Factory Olds “big valve” C code cylinder heads were used with hardened valve guide seats and Comp. Cams valve springs to work with the high lift camshaft. Other performance engine parts include a Milodon gear drive, an Edelbrock Performer RPM aluminum intake manifold, an Edelbrock 750 cfm carburetor, a rebuilt factory HEI distributor with an MSD module, distributor cap, and coil. The FlowKooler aluminum water pump and a Modine 4-row radiator helps to keep the engine nice and cool! The factory Olds dual exhaust manifolds are used. The remainder of the system is 3" with Flowmaster 2 chamber mufflers.

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The TH-400 transmission was rebuilt with heavy duty sprag and racing clutches, and an Allison 1,800 rpm stall torque converter. A Hurst V-Matic II ratchet shifter provides precise shifts. My brother rebuilt the rear end and converted it from a 3.08 conventional differential to a 3.73 posi-traction unit. Other performance parts of note are a Hurst Roll Control (a device that locks the front brakes at the push of a button to perform burnouts), an Auto Meter tachometer with shift light, KYB performance gas shocks, RCI safety harnesses, and a Summit Racing 8 gallon fuel cell to hold the $5.25 per gallon Sunoco 100 octane race gas!

We have just finished the car and have only run it at two test events and one race event at Bandimere Speedway, our local NHRA track which is about 5,600 feet above sea level. The elevation doesn’t help performance but we can’t do much about that. We now have Mickey Thompson ET Street “drag” radials on the rear of the car. We learned the B.F. Goodrich street radials were no match for this big block Olds torque monster! The tires would spin like they were on snowpack for the first 80 feet. Our best time so far with the M/T tires is 14.94 seconds at just under 94 mph. There is a car scale at the track. DONUTRUN tips the scales at 3,710 pounds without a driver. That is still a lot of metal to move! Future plans include a VFN fiberglass pin on hood. With the fiberglass hood and some more tuning and tweaking, we are expecting the car to run low 14 second times at approximately 100 mph. Pretty respectable for such a heavy car at this elevation. The pictures we have sent to friends have somehow made it to various law enforcement agencies and so far we have received very positive reactions. It seems people like something that is different. As far as the name, some people get it, while others are still trying to figure it out!

UPDATE: My brother and I changed the torque converter to a TCI Streetfighter with a 3,000-3,400 rpm stall speed. We also have installed a VFN Fiberglass ram-air hood and changed the rear end gears to 4.10's. DONUTRUN also now has a modified Rochester Quadrajet carburetor. The best run to date at Bandimere Speedway is a time of 14.06 seconds at 98.67 mph. Converting from 5,600 ft. to sea level, the car would run approx. 13.04 seconds at 104.70 mph. Our goal is to get the car into the 13 second bracket at our altitude.

You may also want to take a look at my 1973 Olds 442 and my 1974 Cutlass Supreme that are on this site.

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