Normally I'd start this off with promises of your name appearing online, but seeing as we're already here I guess I'll just narrow it down a bit.

I've been asked to contribute to a few new online content providers and am scrambling to get twice as many features than usual (at least) out in the same time.

Normally this would just mean I'd stop fact-checking, picture-finding and the like, but my mom raised me to be a real automotive journalist, and--seeing as how she ALREADY lies to anyone who asks what I do for a living--being a HACK one would just be too much.

[Sorry. Point follows.]

My latest life-stealer is VintageCarTalk.com [http://www.vintagecartalk.com/]. It's pretty meager pickings at the moment, to the point that I'm getting more useful car information here than over there.

SO, I just KNOW there are a few of you out there who want to spread the Olds gospel, and as nobody at the SITE seems to, I'm at a crossroads.

Instead of picking a few Oldsmobiles to cover because they are shiny, or green, or a combination of both, or--God forbid--just covering Chevys like everyone else, I'd like to see whatever Olds-related story ideas you can come up with.

Your work, of course, will pay nothing.

Welcome to journalism....

 

For a wealth of Oldsmobile and R.E. Olds info, check out the Saved62 web site -
http://www.freewebs.com/jeandaveyaros

 

Because Olds is different. They weren't afraid to stick thier necks out when GM's other divisions didn't. Olds employed class and style with a nice combination of power and grace.

 

How about registering on Wild About Cars www.wildaboutcars.com and pick Oldsmobile as your "Brand"; then when you come to the Dashboard, look in the upper left corner next to the Rocket logo.

There are only 3,000+ page images dedicated to Olds, so you may have some trouble finding anything :-)

 

What does this mean exactly?

 

Olds engineering was in the forefront of the industry. In racing/performance, in 1966 Olds showed Pontiac how to build a real ram air car. In the '80s, Olds showed Chevy how to design a big block. These are just two examples.

 

x2?? Not bashing, just realistic, and IMHO:

Olds basically was a step thru GM's premium brands, marketed for luxury not many performance products. Yes, they had a few heydays over the years, but come on, there are only a few years and models that are truly collectable!

All the rest are just really nice, comfortable cars!

 

It is what it is... and that's what it is.

 

Was it really? Ford used the 66 style ram air back in 64. Front inlets, to hoses running to a box on top of twin Holleys. The Thunderbolt had it before Olds did.

Im not poo-pooing what Olds did, it just seems we like to romanticize what they were doing. Like it was never done before.

 

What big block did Chevy design in the '80s?

 

I think he saying Olds built a big block and showed Chevy how it was done, the DRCE.

 

Didn't the 63 Ramchargers do it first on a "factory" car? I could be wrong.

 

They used a very large hood scoop!

 

I also was referring to the last years of olds too. Like the 3.5 V6, the Smart-Trak drive trains in the Bravada. The development and execution of the Aurora. The pure sales numbers of the 70's models, all of them. The shear numbers of the models produced compared to their counterparts.

I was not implying that Olds was a huge player in the motorsports world. As a pure performance brand, it isn't the first one I would chose. But even in the dark days of the 70's 80's and 90's there was still a sense of pride in the construction and ownership of the brand.

Personally, I am the generation that grew up in the back of Custom Cruisers and Cutlass Supreme G-bodies. I'm just barely older than my Holiday. I missed the Muscle Car hey-day. In fact, my Mom had a Pinto wagon and my dad a Mustang II. I always looked at Olds as a different class of vehicle. Having had 4 78-88 different Cutlasses and a couple B-bodies, I can say I truely enjoy my Olds. I feel like Frank Sinatra behind the wheel. It's different, its special.

 

What's so great about Oldsmobile? (I have heard that question one more than once.) Speaking only for myself, I always liked the styling of Oldsmobile, especially the mid 60's to early '70's models, and not just the Cutlass/442. There are other reasons too.

There is a bias that I have that some on here may share. Many people in my family were Oldsmobile owners (on one side, the others were Dodge people). I even remember my great-grandparents 1965 88 parked in the barn (which was also the garage, parked next to the John Deere tractor) along with my grandparents 1969 88, 1975 88, 1981 98, my uncles 1972 Vista Cruiser and my aunts 1972 Cutlass Supreme among others. When looking for a car in high school it just made sense in my mind to go with a Saturn Gold 1971 Cutlass S with the 350 2bbl that I found in the local paper (that was soon built up to be a screamer). Everyone in my family had nothing but good things to say about Oldsmobile.

When I was in high school in the '80's, everyone wanted a Camaro/Trans Am, anything with a SBC, or a Mustang. These cars in their own right are good cars, but I never really wanted a Chevelle, Camaro (or TA for that matter), or Mustang because it seemed that everyone had or wanted one. When everyone was bragging about their SBC/BBC (usually over cammed and way over carbureted) I had a friend in high school who had a 1969 442 W-30 that would simply blow the doors off of everything that dared to challenge it. It was a black, 400/4sp, 4:11’s, sounded mean as hell and was scary fast. I was in total lust for that car the first moment I saw it and it was sealed the first time I rode in it.

After that it seemed that most couldn’t connect the dots between “Oldsmobile” and “Performance,” during the ‘80’s at least. Oldsmobile had a “grandpa’s car,” marketing image coupled with the literal image of a 98-Regency lumbering down the road at a leisurely pace. That probably haunted Oldsmobile in the performance arena from the 1970’s to the bitter end. Looking back over 20-years+ now aside from the performance that I had, the style was always to my taste; Straight forward clean design with some luxury thrown in for good measure. I thought that Oldsmobile was underrated and after owning mine, I knew that it was underrated! Too bad Oldsmobile didn’t survive. Imagine the possibilities that could have happened. With the resurgence of retroesque cars, like the Dodge Challenger for example, the 442 of today could have been an awesome thing to behold.

Other makes that I like are Pontiac GTO's, T-37's, Buick GS's and Wildcat’s, among others, but Chevy has never really excited me. I have driven probably 2 dozen or more Corvette's, Chevelle’s, and Camaro's, most of them were fun, but for some reason they never excited me more than about 10 minutes. Not to mention when you drive down the street, you always pass one that looks just like it. My interest in Chevy to this day not very high, except for the Volt, but that is only because from a financial perspective it makes sense since my commute is about 75 miles each day. It would be nice to have a fuel bill of darned near $0.00 every month.

Have other manufacturers done things equal to or better than Oldsmobile in the same class for style and performance? Sure. The '60's Ford Fairlane 500's, and late ‘60’s – early ‘70’s Mercury Cyclones/Ford Grand Torino’s were not slugs and were very cool looking, the Dodge/Chrysler/Plymouth’s in the '60's and early '70's were outrageous to look at and fast as hell (though their quality control was real crap back then), and of course the GTO's, GS's, Chevelle SS's that were fast and easy on the eyes. Even odd-***** like AMC put out some interesting limited editions that were unique and fun to look at.

With all that said, I suppose that it comes down to one thing at least for me: I am a car guy. I can appreciate many different makes and models. Even cars that I personally consider to be ugly as a mud fence, if I see a great example at a car show I can appreciate how much time, care, and passion that the owner put into it to bring it back for everyone to enjoy. I certainly don’t want to own a ’69 Chevelle SS (yawn) or late ‘50’s early ‘60’s Dodge, (ack!) but I still identify the owners love expressed in their efforts. It may be an ugly rolling bucket of bolts in your opinion, but someone may think the same about your Concours-grade 1967 442 Convertible.

What's so great about Oldsmobile? What’s so great about Buick, Chevy, or Plymouth? What’s so great about Ford, MG, Mercedes, or Aston Martin? What’s so great about Fiat? Well, nothing with Fiat that I can think of…

Biases notwithstanding, I don't think there is a simple answer to the question. I can only point to personal preference. Hell, I have a friend of over 20-years that it is in love with the Ford Maverick! He still has his first one that he bought in high school and until recently dozens of parts cars. I say recently because his wife finally broke him and made him get rid of some of them - I tease him relentlessly about it.

It doesn’t have to make sense. It is just the love for a car that you can only really feel down in your soul. Sometimes it just simply defies explanation, but when you feel it, you know it.

 

One word : TORONADO

First MASS produced front wheel drive car(which 90% of vehicles are now).

 

Next word, Wrong!!!!! That would have been the Cord!!! Front wheel drive and hide away headlights!!

The Toronado was the first since then.

 

So Cord MASS produced front wheel drive models? What are there production numbers for the FWD?

 

Technically there was a German car before that! But Cord, built in 1936 was the very 1st American FWD car, btw it also had headers, and some were supercharged, they also had a V8.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cord_Automobile

 

I know what a Cord is. You didnt answer my question.

 

Read the link! Jeez do you want to sit on my lap with cookies and milk, while I read it to you. You have PC, there are many sites with info out there!

 

Why would i? I asked a simple question based on your rude response to another members post. Im asking for proof of your statement that Cord was the first manufacture to MASS produce FWD cars. Thats all. No reason to act childish.

 

I don't believe I was rude. Just pointing out an error. Read the link or google it. Re-read your post if you want to see rude and childish!

 

I was drawn to Oldsmobile because they where just different. Different as in not a Camaro or Mustang, not different like they where a totally different machine. I liked that most of them came with more creature comforts standard versus a bare bones ride. I like the looks, I like that people notice it because its less common, and I like being in the minority in a sea of Chevy and Ford cars!

 

I can only speak from my experience. I bought a 72 cutlass supreme NOT expecting it to run because it had been sitting for 10 years and I honestly thought I would be buying a crate engine for it. Now I've heard from the forums that if you can turn the oldsmobile engine than you can probably get it running even after a long sit. Mine had a rats nest on top of the motor and chewed wires sunk in loads of droppings.
Now I changed the fluids bought a new battery, can of starter fluid and as my buddy cranked it I sprayed and WALLAH! That olds 350 started right up... of course there was some wiring I had to do but I did not rebuild.
In short, Im impressed with the how long it sat and how easy it was to get running. I believe Oldsmobile made some solid cars and engines
downsized_0308001359a2.jpg

 

Before WW1 various manufacturers had built overhead cam engines, planetary transmissions, self starters, disc brakes, FWD, 4WD, independent suspenion, and working windshield wipers to name a few innovations.

By WW2 practical automatic transmission (Oldsmobile) and air conditioning (Packard) was available for a handful of cars, power steering was being rapidly developed, hydraulic brakes were commonplace as was synchromesh gears, then innovation seemed to stall for a while, of course all the foregoing was constantly refined and developed.
Unitary construction was also developed in the '30s, by the '50s it was how most European cars were built.

Self levelling suspension (Citroen) and radial tires (Michelin) were developed in Europe in the '50s, America came up with the alternator by the early '60s, a British company (Ferguson formula) was experimenting with ABS in the mid '60s by which time the French and British were mass marketing FWD cars (Citroen, Renault and BMC) and the rest of Europe followed in the '70s.

Up until then the majority of American cars had settled to a pattern of cars with a large lazy ohv engine in the front driving (frequently via an automatic transmission) a solid rear axle. Only GM offered alternatives, Pontiacs ohc engined Tempest, Chevrolets rear engined irs corvair and irs equipped Corvette, and fwd from Oldsmobile and Cadillac. At the time the Big Three could sell all the cars they made and saw no reason to change a winning formula.
So they sold on style and performance, with annual appearance changes enticing the public to buy the newest model.
They created teriffic brand loyalty with their customers, Olds buyers regularly returning to the dealers to trade for new models, as did other brand loyalists to other dealers.

So why Oldsmobile for us?. In my case it was a matter of chance, the first American car I owned was an Oldsmobile that happened to be the right car at the right price, if it happened to be a Buick, Dodge, Ford or anything else for that matter I might not be on this forum. It's fair to say any old school American car turns heads in England, and of the 10 American cars I have owned 4 have been Oldsmobiles, I suspect because they were (and are) cars that fulfilled my hopes and expectations at an affordable price. I'd love to own a '59 Cadillac or '57 Chevy but such cars are way out of my price range, my Olds is both practical and fun to drive.

How many are on this forum because they has an Olds when they were at college, or because Dad always had one?. Or because they were interested in the old car hobby and an Olds turned up that suited them as in my case?.

Roger.

 

And that's different how? OAI is OAI... they all scooped air.

But if one has to ask about what's so great about Oldsmobile, you've never owned one.

 

The poster was not talking about OAI he was talking about the earlier version of an airtube style ram air system.

The reason I have my current Olds is because my very first car was my aunts, 1967 CS, 2 door hardtop, that was hit more times than Joe Louis. I bought this one as a father n son project that was basically more work and time consuming than my son could handle. I put both the 63 Fury and the Cutlass up for sale with the intent of toying with the one that did not sell. The Plymouth was priced 3 times higher than the Cutlass and 10 times nicer, it sold first. So guess what, $14-15k (including the price of the car) and 2 years later I'm still playing with it. I get to do to this one all the crazy stuff I didn't get to do to my Gutless Cutlass back in HS. I grew up during the muscle car heyday and have had plenty of really nice cars of all different makes. They all had good points and bad points, but I had a blast with each and every one of em. They all put a smile on my face when cruising around, and some even more when I mashed the large pedal.

Did Olds build some nice cars from it's inception to its demise. Yes they did! On the other hand just like the others they built some real crap too!

The reason I like mine is because it was inexpensive (at least in the beginning), they don't make them anymore, and there are not a whole row of em at car shows all different colors. Thats also the reason I had my 63 Fury! I'm a sucker for orphans.

My next car might possibly be an AMC, who knows??

 

Ah, thought it was ram air in general. Thanks for the clarification.

 

There are a ton of things I've always liked about Oldses. Even thought they were highly romanticized in the 50s and 60s, with the big increase in advertising dollars, they did have a good product to begin with.
It was produced and sold with pride; but the further along it got, the more the miserable GM corporate bean-counters got into the act, and thus, the Chibby V8 found its way into the 88s etc. around '78 or so. That, to me, was the beginning of the end of the Olds I grew up loving, since the heart of the beast was the engine.
I always loved those Olds Rocket engines. Learned to drive partly on a 63 Dynamic 88, and I thought I was $#1+ on a stick! Sure left my Dad's '66 Polara in the dust, as far as I was concerned.
But one of the biggest rewards for driving a Rocket was the mellow tone that issued from those sooty tailpipes. Before catalytic converters and the intermingling of the GM gene pools, there was not a sound sweeter from the back of any car than the one that eminated from the back of an Olds V8. Not necessarily loud; just sweet, and very distinctive!
So among many other nice attributes, that Rocket racket ranks way up there in my book.

 

I couldn't agree with ya more. I love the sound of a Rocket V8.

 

.....there was not a sound sweeter from the back of any car than the one that eminated from the back of an Olds V8. Not necessarily loud; just sweet, and very distinctive!

Gotta agree with you! Oldsmobiles do have a different sound. We could always tell when my older sister was coming down the road in her 88 back in the day, lol. It just had a different sound to it.

I took my drivers test in a 72 Cutlass and I fell in love with the car! I loved the way the body looked. The ride and comfort, the way it drove, the sound. I just loved it! Ended up buying that car off my bro-in-law, lol. I've always owned and driven Oldsmobiles. I drove my sister's Chebbies and Furds a few times in my younger days, and they just couldn't compare with the Olds, to me.

 

While I've got you all riled up, here's another one:

Recently "the public" voted on their favorite/"the best" Chevy in that company's 100 years of production, with the winner named as the '69 Camaro.

Well, here's YOUR chance to "vote" on what you would've named had this been Oldsmobile's anniversary instead. Choose "favorite", "best", whatever works for you.

The winner will be the 1989 Custom Cruiser, of course. But in the spirit of objective reporting, you can all fight for the number TWO slot....

 

Wow, you are trying to start a s**t storm aren't you

Hard to choose really...but:
1967 442 W-30 would be my choice.

 

Funnly, Gal, 'cause when I was in college, a friend of mine's parents had a '72 88 350-2V and that thing ran like there was no tomorrow! I'm (almost) ashamed of the stuff he used to do that car, aided and abetted by one or two watered-down drafts while dancing on the Riverboat Admiral.
But we'd have 6 people in the car and he'd floor it from a green light and I swear that thing would chirp the tires! And the sweet sounds... if I hadn't heard it w/my own ears, I'd have never guessed a "smog" 350-2V could ever sound like that mighty little mill did... Brian and his family wound up putting about 170k miles on it --- all hard, fairly neglected miles. It actually had a Turbo 400, too, so the tranny lived the life of the car & engine. It was ultimately towed from their driveway in the late 80s and never seen again. A sad ending for a true battleship --> What guts those Oldsmobiles had!!

 

This is EXACTLY why I hesitate posting here......always stirs up a storm.

I wasn't inferring that the Toro was the FIRST FWD, just the first SUCCESSFUL FWD. With Auburn Cord producing approx 4,400 "coffin nose" cars over 4 years, I hardly consider it much of an influence on todays FWDs. The Toro WAS.
It's that type of thinking outside the box, that got me hooked on Olds, 35 years ago.

Auburn Cord also had torsion bar suspension, just like the Toros.

I've seen Toros that could climb snow/ice covered hills that a 4 wheel drive truck couldn't. BALANCE.

 

You aren't stirring anything and I enjoy, as most, an intelligent civil conversation. There are many different opinions on this site, and I respect almost all!

Btw, I restored 3 Cords back in the early 80's They were a pretty cool car way ahead of their time. FWD, factory headers, supercharged, and hideaway headlights. Man these cars were sweet!

Most people think that all the performance stuff that we use today were developed in the 60's, but the majority of it came out in the 20's and 30's. It was just improved upon over the years.

All issues aside the Toranado was an interesting car!

 

I grew up at Englishtown Raceway from the late 60's through the late 70's when I entered the military and later settled here in Texas. The most memorable Olds for me has to be the 1st Hurst Olds with Linda Vaughn. Those for me were the true muscle car years!

 

Don't be so silly, clearly the winner will be the '87 88 Royale Brougham.

The Olds I would most like to own is the '58 Regency, not for the dynamic driving experience or the innovations of that years model, but because it is dripping with chrome and is a fine example of American cars of the time.

BTW the Toronado was the first successful fwd AMERICAN car, and a big one too. The largest mass market fwd until then was I think the Citroen DS with a 2 liter engine.
Citroen introduced the fwd Traction Avant in the '30s.
Chrysler had been using torsion bar suspension for years before the Toronado as had several European car makers.

Roger.

 

Speaking to the engineering aspect of it, they were ahead of the curve with CO2 emissions. When other companies were screwing around with air pumps Olds re-engineered they engines to be compliant. They also built a true small block performance model in the W31 and thought about things like handling.

What speaks to me about Olds is the true balance of the cars. They offered a balance of power, luxury, handling and their performance models had enough flash to be noticed. I think Buick went for the same thing but the GS package was more subdued.

Throw in the SX for the business man's muscle car.