Oldsmobiles are among the most overlooked musclecars from America. Mainstream types have always chosen Chevy’s, Fords, and Mopars over the mid-level luxury cars like that from Buick and Mercury. Thankfully things are changing; parts are becoming more available -both from the aftermarket and through restoration companies, and enthusiasts are now giving these luxo-musclecars the much needed attention that they rightfully deserve.

Here's what the Cutlass looked like when they first started. An overall solid body, but typically, the vinyl top was hiding some rust on the passenger side. Images: pro-touring.com

Such is the case of this ’71 Olds Cutlass S we found over on pro-touring.com, the go-to website for owners wanting to turn their classic musclecars into corner carving animals. Dubbed, “Project Sabre: A 1971 Pro-Touring Car For the Average Joe,” the Olds, like most cars, started life with humble beginnings.

In typical pro-tourng car style, the Cutlass will be going under the knife, receiving an LS swap and a T56  along the way. Now don’t mistake this as a “no-expense-spared,” mega-dollar build -it isn’t. The LS motor powering the Cutlass will be a used LQ4 sourced from a Chevy Silverado, and a T56 pirated from an F-body.

As everyone knows, the LQ4 is essentially an iron block version of the LS1, only with eighteen more cubes and a different head/cam/intake combination. The sky’s the limit for the potential of this engine, and Bulldawg Musclecars, the shop handling the build, have already taken the junkyard Gen. III powerplant apart and rebuilt it with an aftermarket camshaft and fresh internals.

Keeping the build on the cheap, however, the owner has elected to forego the FAST LSX intake, for a budget-friendly LS1 intake upgrade; swapping out the torquey, but ugly and tall truck intake the engine originally came with.

Also getting ditched will be the factory exhaust manifolds, being replaced by a pair of low-restriction headers for increased power and an improved soundtrack. Obviously, you can’t swap a truck version of an LS-series engine into an old A-body without replacing the oil pan, and the boys at Bulldawg did just that; by utilizing a brand new unit from GMPP (now renamed Chevrolet Performance).

The aforementioned T56 will be getting an overhaul too, and weirdly, arrived at the shop covered in florescent green paint. We don’t get it either, but anyone who knows anything about Tremec 6-speeds, knows that these can be built to handle quite a lot of power, providing the owner of this Olds many miles of fun around the bends.

Project Sabre will maintain the factory hood to avoid unnecessary additional costs, but the non-funtional air vents will be made fully operational, and out back they passed on the W-30 spoiler for a homemade, one-off unit.

The whole car will be sprayed in a unique shade of brown, however at the moment, the exact shade has yet to be determined. Sabre will be rolling down the street and on a quadrant of Rushforth Wheels wrapped in Hankook rubber, while suspension components ordered out of the Ridetech and Hyperco catalogues will be used. We will continue to follow the build on this potentially exceptional car in the following months as it progresses.