Our eBay find of the day is one of those “muscle” cars that should have been made available from the factory, but most likely weren’t either for cost-related reasons or else because GM didn’t feel like getting that experimental at the time. It’s fast and color-coordinated, and the mid-motored 442 originally built by Bill Porterfield was Hot Rod’s 1978 “Street Machine of the Year.”

Back in October of ’78 when the magazine featured Porterfield’s late-model Olds as their cover car, they had a rather difficult time choosing only one ride, “Selecting the Hot Rod Street Machine of the [Year] was not an easy task; Hot Rod staffers see thousands of fine street machines over the course of a year.”

True, it is hard to pick just one favorite when it comes to our own personal “canons of cars,” but Bill Porterfield’s mid-engine 442 is ahead of the game by the standards of any generation, and for that reason it’s featured today in our own rodding enthusiast medium.

Currently residing in Gardnerville, Nevada, this clean piece of Olds street-and-strip history is stuffed with a 6-71 blown 403 mill chasing a Toronado transmission. Adorned in what has been described as a “metallic” brown with yellow and orange stripes, the car has a mere 1,100 miles clocked on the odometer and has recently been stripped and repainted while the car’s carpet, headliner and seats have also been refurbished.

Just the interior alone screams late-’70s drag racing, as the original Recaro seats installed by Porterfield have been maintained. The car’s rear firewall and engine compartment have been redone, and the bumpers have been rechromed while the rear inner fenderwells and headers have also been replaced.

Our featured 442 boasts plenty of water weight over the rear, and at a current bid of $20,099 it’s sure to be reliving its own legacy on the street and strip much sooner than any of us expect!