Photos: V8 Speed & Resto Shop

In and of itself, the third-generation Cutlass is arguably one of the coolest muscle cars Oldsmobile ever gave us. The only thing that tops it is, of course, the 442 (check out this Keeper of Cool if you don’t believe us).

Aside from the OE mill, the owner’s done a great deal of upgrading to the car’s suspension and brakes; the car has everything it needs to drive like a dream. Not satisfied with the lack of power, however, the owner took this 442-clone to V8 Speed & Resto Shop in Red Bud, Illinois with the intention of ditching the factory powerplant for the trusty LS-platform.

LS-swapped restomods are a dime a dozen these days, but its less often that you see a classic muscle car fitted with the supercharged LSA – the same 556-horsepower engine under the hood of the Cadillac CTS-V. Before swapping the motor in the Cutlass, however, V8 Speed & Resto put the car on the dyno to get some base numbers for the original engine. Testing revealed only 230 horsepower and 333 pound-feet of torque – definitely sub-par by today’s standards.

With its new LSA, however, the 442-clone will more than double its power output. And with the 4L80E automatic transmission getting installed behind it, the owner of this car is guaranteed to have all the car he wanted and more.

You can check out part 4 of 6 videos planned below, or follow along on their install series on YouTube.