We first saw the Alderfer's 442 at the NTOC Zone Show at Henry Butts Oldsmobile in the fall of 1989. What a beautiful car - a little too much undercoating underneath but probably the saving grace for a car that lived in Indiana for some time. It was gorgeous - under 25,000 original miles at the time - a real eye-catcher.
That day Richard told Randy if he ever decided to sell the car to please call. Over the years as members of NTOC we became good friends with Randy and his wife, Anne. We had the opportunity to drive the car part of the way back from the 1997 Oldsmobile Nationals in Atlanta when Randy showed it there.
After that show Randy did more work to the 442 in. He cleaned off the heavy undercoating and restored the undercarriage of the car. While he was at it he had the frame, radiator support, and inner fender panels ceramic coated. This made it very easy to keep clean and fresh looking. The car still had the completely original interior.
The 1999 Oldsmobile Nationals in Texas was one of the best national events we have participated in (our club hosted the show and did a great job). The 1964 442 took a "Best of Class" trophy. After that accomplishment, Randy had achieved his goal of winning that award and was ready to part with the Olds. In 2000 he made that call to Richard. The car had a little over 38,000 miles at that time. Randy even gave us his mom and dad's 60s style sunglasses which they wore when they went cruising.
We became the proud owners of the car. We enjoyed driving it to events and from the day we brought it home decided we would "drive" the car and have fun with it. We added a Centerforce clutch to take the edge of the rock crusher clutch and it was a joy to drive. We updated the steering box to a fast ratio and the car would turn on a dime. Of course we didn't end up driving it as much as we had planned since we didn't want to put many miles on it. Regular oil changes occurred more often than the car was driven. The car had 39,902 miles on it in January, 2009.
While Randy owned the car it appeared as the centerfold in Muscle Car Review (March, 1991). While we owned it we had the honor of it being featured in Hemmings Muscle Machines (November, 2004).
UPDATE: January 13, 2009. Sadly, Randy passed away in 2007. Such a good person to be gone so young. We and all the members of NTOC miss him.
UPDATE: In 2010 the car went to a new home. We still miss the car but we weren't driving it enough to devote the garage space to it. We know it is still being cared for.
