Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today, to memorialize, celebrate and commemorate the late, great, inordinate Rocket 88.
Oldsmobile was my dad’s brand. He was a part-time Baptist minister who worked full time at the Oldsmobile dealership servicing cars. As one of the perks of being the service manager, dad was given a demonstrator car to drive, and he would swap out for a new one every six months.
As a young lad, I remember that it was like an extra Christmas day when the entire family got to go to Joe King Oldsmobile and Cadillac and pick out the new family car.
My mother says her favorite car we rode in from the dealership was the one she ended up wrecking on a one-way street, a 1979 powder blue Oldsmobile Cutlass Brougham.
Usually, my parents went back and forth on which car we would drive. It was usually my mom who got the final choice. However, I did get to pick the car one time, and that remains a special memory for me.
The Oldsmobile brand is a part of my childhood and the logo of the brand causes me to smile to this day.
Oldsmobile, founded in 1897, was one of America’s first car companies.
The biggest hit song of 1905 was Bobby Murray’s rendition on vinyl of “My Merry Oldsmobile.
While Henry Ford gets credit for the mechanized assembly line, Oldsmobile was using the assembly line, in its infancy, first and the company pumped out some great vehicles. Even the Ford Museum recognizes the fact that the Olds “Curved Dash” was the first mass produced American motor vehicle.
John DeLorean and Pontiac generally get the credit for creating the first true muscle car with the GTO. Yet, the truth is that Oldsmobile beat them to it with the Rocket 88 engine that began its life in 1949.
While the mill only put out 135 horsepower, the revolutionary engine created 253 pound-feet of torque and that was enough to propel the car as fast as one dared to go in it.
Oldsmobile remained the in-between General Motors sibling resting above Pontiac and below Buick in the price range, but it consistently put out quality vehicles that rarely earned the “halo” designation of some of its peer’s offerings.
While Pontiac had the GTO and Firebird, Olds had the 1971 442 -W30, a car that was comfortable and even a bit luxurious, but would snap your neck if you hit the accelerator too hard. The 442 was a demon of a vehicle and that is why examples of the convertible version go for as much as $189,750 at auction.
By the late seventies, the brand found itself in the midst of the Malaise era, but it still, compared with other GM brands at the time, managed to put out quality vehicles.
Okay, with the exception of early 1980s diesel engines.
The Oldsmobile brand also tried to shake off its “old man’s” car image in the 1980s. But the fact is they really didn’t have to. The Cutlass marque was the biggest seller in the United States.
Sadly, though, the late 1980s and 1990s saw a total decline in the brand. As if on autopilot, the cars branded as Oldsmobile’s became nothing more than rebadged versions of other GM offerings and the Alero, released in 1999, was not enough to save the brand.
However, I remember the time I got to pick out the family car, and my pick was a 1980 Cutlass Supreme Sport Royale. My mother wanted for us to get a Delta 88, which had four doors and was more practical. In that instance, Dad said “Let the boy pick the car this time,” and we drove home in the Cutlass.
The car looked like a spaceship to me. The big ugly safety bumpers regulated by the government had disappeared with the new model under a full waterfall sloping grill design. And, while I have no idea what kind of an engine was under the hood, I am fairly certain it was powerful.
My dad drove Corvettes and Barracudas, and he had a healthy respect for that 1980 Cutlass and what it could do.
Out of the earshot of my mother, my dad said to me, “Driving that car will put hair on your b*****, son.”
I miss Oldsmobile and wish that they could have hung on and created the next generation of rocket models. Alas, it was not meant to be.
See you on the road!!
