1983-84 Hurst Olds 442

From the late 1960s on, Hurst, the shifter and accessories company, provided kit for special limited edition Oldsmobile Cutlasses called the Hurst Olds 442. By the 1983 and 1984 model years rolled around, Hurst was fitting these 442s with multiple shift levers called Lightning Rods. They appear to be little more than automatic transmission pre-selectors, which had been first fitted in higher-end cars of the 1930s, but once the operator got the hang of it they would have made the upshifts and downshifts of the GM Turbo 400 much more precise than they could by simply letting the transmission shift itself. A similar Hurst 4-stick system was used by certain drag racers running in the Pro Stock category during this same era.