I've got a 'hunch' you're going to like today's Olds Cutlass. It's got a 260 and a stick, and hopefully for the seller, a price that doesn't have you saying hunch-back, Jack!

There's this joke I like from when I was a kid, about a high schooler with a wooden eye who, because of his non-conformist appearance, is constantly teased by his insensitive peers. There's one girl who doesn't tease him however, the hunchback girl. She is likewise a target of classroom taunts, and she as well lacks an active social life owing to her own deformity.

One day our friend with the wooden eye decides that he's had enough of spending every school dance outside, looking - with one eye - in on the revelers. Seeing the hunchback girl as his compatriot in shun-dom, he works up the courage to ask her to go with him to the next school shindig.

So filled with excitement at being asked - for the first time mind you - to a dance, the girl claps her hands and responds, "Would I?! Oh, would I?!" Horrified that she too is now making light of his disability, the indignant boy shouts back at her, "Ohhh you hunchback! Hunchback! Hunchback! Hunchback!"

I bring this up because back in the '70s GM redesigned their entire lineup of mid-size cars - the A bodies - downsizing them and segmenting the marques into two classes: traditional sedans for Chevy and Pontiac, and cars that would never sell for Buick and Oldsmobile.

For some odd reason, GM thought that Americans - who had previously shown a general distaste for big cars with hump-style backends - would suddenly want to go to the dance with the so-equipped Cutlass or Buick Century. Needless to say, hunchback, hunchback, hunchback.

They say time wounds all heels and as such, this looks pretty cool in today's light. Perhaps much of its appeal comes from the appearance of it being a total time-capsule car. There's only a little more than 45K on the clock, and the whole car, in stunning Merlot outside and in, seems to be in remarkably fine shape.

It's also really interestingly kitted, in addition to the aforementioned fastback body style. This Olds sports a real Olds engine, the 260 V8. That was a de-bored edition of the Olds 350 and was intended at the time to be the marque's 'economy motor.'

This having been the '70s that means that horsepower is mostly absent, the 260 in '78 being good for only 110-horsepower with its punky 2BBL carb. Oh, and don't expect to hot rod the mill. These things are boat anchors, and things like intake spacing on the heads precluding the addition of a 4BBL manifold make pumping them up frustrating.

The good thing is, this one makes the most of that sparkly populated corral by having a BW T-50 5-speed gearbox. Olds didn't make too many manuals back in the day, a fact evidenced here by a shift boot so big and unsightly that it makes it seem like an elephant is trying to make sweet love to the car from below.

Still, it's a stick, and that - along with the car looking fabulous and having working A/C with crotch-coolers - makes this one interesting old Olds, and one that both you AND your father might like. You might want to call up dad and ask him for his opinion on the car's price tag. Bidding in the Olds is presently tickling the balls of the Buy-It-Now price, and for $7,000 you could avoid all that rigmarole and refreshing of the eBay page.

Do you think this Cutlass is worth $7,000? Is there no way you'd pay that much for it? Or, does it have you shouting, Would I?! Would I?!

You decide!

, or go if the ad disappears.

H/T to west-coaster for the hookup!

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