Herbie

Hello all. It's been a while since I posted here. I would like to hear some of your expert thoughts on a pretty rare Cutlass that we just picked up to add to the Oldsmobile stable.. The car is a 1980 Cutlass Supreme Brougham coupe. What makes this car unique are a number of things.. First off, the car is an all original unrestored survivor with only 40k original miles. Second, it's also a factory 5.7 350 Diesel, third, the car seems to have been a special order car with every single option I could look up including two tone black and silver paint with a beautiful flawless deep red leather interior. The car also has the super rare fiber optics, cornering lamps, power everything including twin power seats, yes, on both sides. I have never seen another Cutlass with a passenger power seat and going by what the books show, it was not listed as an option on any Cutlass. However, it is correct and original to this car. The hood on this car is made of aluminum which you can lift with a finger. I was told this hood was only offered with the Diesel engine as part of some light weight option package? The car came from the collection of one of Mike Tyson's trainers. I would rather not disclose who since we are still trying to buy more cars from the collection but I do have all the paperwork in his name that came with the car. He had a passion for big loaded up GM and Lincoln luxury cars from the 70's. My question is, has anyone here ever seen another Cutlass with the options that this car has? Thank you for reading this.

1970cs

Neat set up not the norm for sure! All those goodies and no tilt column.

Pat

lunaboy

like the seats, looking at a rare Diesel factory sunroof car next week. you correct about the aluminum hood on diesels but i have also seen them on small gas eng cutlass 79 & 80
cars.

svnt442

It's missing the delay wipers as well (I had them on the 80 I owned years ago).
Interesting car to be sure.

Herbie

Yes, the delay wipers and tilt wheel seem to be the only things missing which is strange. Well, a sunroof/t top too. The car had not been run in many years until today. I changed both batteries and checked all the fluids which are very clean, turned the key, waited 60 seconds for the wait light to go off and the car started on the first try and runs like brand new. No smoke or noise. I can not believe the good luck because we bought it non running condition..

svnt442

Nice. Also no gauges, but not a big deal.

Olds64

Very cool!

If you want the engine in that car to last you need to put a fuel / water separator on it. The Oldsmobile diesel engines got a bad reputation because they blew head gaskets. Water is uncompressible (s.p. ) so it is definitely not supposed to be in the fuel of an engine with 20+:1 compression.

Check it out!

http://ph.parker.com/us/17583/en/eng...filtration-rcr

jaunty75

It is a well-deserved bad reputation, at least for the earlier diesels. I think they got better as Olds moved into the 1980s, but my father's '79 Toronado's diesel blew its head gasket at 22,000 miles. Ultimately, the dealer bought the car back. A class-action lawsuit was filed against GM, and my father received a settlement from this.

My father did buy more Oldsmobiles after this experience, but he swore he would never buy another Olds diesel, and he never did.

http://www.autosavant.com/2009/08/11...mobile-diesel/

Olds64

x2

Unfortunately, the technology just wasn't there in the 70s and 80s to make a decent diesel engine for a passenger sized vehicle. The GM 6.5L diesel and the Ford IDI diesels were "dogs" on a good day.

jaunty75

I don't think this is true. Mercedes, for one, began offering diesel-powered automobiles as early as the 1940s, and I think GM could have been successful in the '70s if they had invested the money. I think GM was a victim of trying to do it on the cheap as a fast response to the oil shortages and fuel price increases of the early and mid-'70s by adapting an existing gasoline-engine design that wasn't up to the rigors of a diesel system, rather than designing a diesel engine for these cars from the ground up.

Herbie

The main reason we bought the car was because it's a diesel and the low miles. My friend who has a private collection of rare Oldsmobiles has been on a diesel kick and has been looking to buy a few. The other reason is because of all the rare options. Has anyone else seen another Cutlass with a passenger power seat? I can not find this option anywhere in the books. Anyway, after putting the car on the lift and checking everything over, I took a chance and drove it to work today, about 10 miles. No problems, even the air blows ice cold and the original stereo sound great. This was the first time the car was used in years. After a good bath and a wax, the paint looks good except where it's flaking off the hood. I am really surprised how well this car held up. You can tell the car spent it's life in the garage so I guess that helped too.

Herbie

We just got hold of another rare Olds from this collection last night. A beautiful black on firethorn red 77 98 Regency with only 34k original miles, also loaded to the hilt like the 80 Cutlass including twin power seats with recliners, tilt and telly wheel, the 403 and the original wire wheels. It smells new. I will post photos after we clean the dust off and get it started

Olds64

Awesome! We look forward to seeing the pics.

Inline

Nice looking car!

But i have to ask; what option is fiber optics? No need for the option code, explanation is what im after, thanks.

Olds64

I believe fiber optics refers to the indicators on top of the front fenders. You can BARELY see one in the last picture. The indicator lamps illuminate when your lo beams are on, when your hi beams are on, or if a blinker is activated.

I had a 1990 Buick Estate wagon that had fiber optic indicators on the front fenders.

Check it out!

https://gbodyforum.com/threads/if-yo...p.54684/page-2

Inline

Thanks for the link.
Seems like a really neat option, but at the same time pretty useless. But if you got the money..

1970cs

Not really! It will tell you when you have an inoperative light/lamp.

Pat

Inline

Thats exactly what i meant. It should be common practice to keep checking your lights on car for operation. I call this just lazy.
And on the other hand, i could bet that most would check for burnt lights only when starting to move with car, not during the trip. And if their eye would catch during the trip they had burnt their lamp, how many would anyways a) stop to change it until destination, and b) will even carry nowadays spare lamps. Until they stop at gas station to buy one.

Just my opinion, cool thing nonetheless.

farmer52

Jaunty - I agree with your comments. I spent most of my career (40+ years) working with "real" Diesel engines. The story I heard about the first GM 5.7L Diesel is...a gas burner 5.7L was converted to run on Diesel fuel. GM engineers ran it on the dyno until a component failed. They redesigned the failed component and again tested the engine on the dyno until the next component failed. They did this until their "performance/durability" goals were met. I knew a few people who bought the "first" generation GM Diesel and had good luck. They routinely changed the oil/filter and as was mentioned, installed a water/fuel separator. Although not as "peppy" as the current Diesel engines but not bad for an economical vehicle back in the day. The 5.7L GM Diesel will however go into the history books with a "black eye".

rustyroger

The first diesel passenger car offered for sale to the public was indeed a Mercedes, but in 1934 if memory serves.
Rattling asthmatic Mercedes taxis were a common sight in German towns and a fair bit of western Europe too.
Peugeot diesels were also common both in France and former French colonies after WW2.
Opel (Germany), Standard and BMC (UK) also sold diesel cars, often as a taxi pack special.
All these cars were woefully underpowered but served their purpose of transporting people and luggage reasonably cheaply.
They also came at a hefty premium over gasoline equivalent models, so unless they were going to rack up lots of miles it didn't make much sense for most people.

GM really laid an egg with their Olds engine, though I understand the later ones had most of their bugs sorted. Too late to save its reputation though.

Roger.

Ancient Iron

Mercedes had a Diesel powered car in 1934.