GM’s 1965–1970 version of GM’s full-size B platform was one of the General’s greatest successes, with nearly 13 million cars produced. Each of GM’s U.S. car divisions (except Cadillac) had its own B-body during these model years, starting with proletarian Chevrolet Biscayne all the way to the opulent Buick Wildcat. Doing business just one little rung below Buick GM “The Ladder of Success” in 1968 it was the Oldsmobile division and that year it was the king of Olds B-Bodies Delta 88 Custom Holiday Four-Door Hardtop Sedan. Today Junkyard gem it’s one of those cars, found at a drive-thru in Denver last winter.
There were lines of prestige between GM divisions It’s starting to get a little blurry in the slow 1960s, when car buyers could buy a Chevy Caprice at a list price higher than an Olds Delmont 88 and then choose it for a price higher than a Buick LeSabre. But ultimately, your neighbors in 1968 would still know that the Oldsmobile had more flair than its Chevy or Pontiac siblings and that a Buick owner might look down on an Olds driver.
However, most GM cars in 1968 were still powered by engines produced by their own divisions in those halcyon days before Chevymobile lawsuits. (if they at least had a V8). This meant that when you bought an Olds 88 this year, you got the original Rocket V8 engine under the hood. In this casethe engine is monstrous Quadrajet-powered rocket with a capacity of 455 cubic inches (7.5 liters) and an output of 365 horsepower, awe-inspiring 510 foot pounds. The ’68 Tornado By the way, it came with an even hairier 455 that made 400 horses.
Yes, they are gross power numbers rather than the more realistic net numbers we’ve been using it since the early 1970s, but it was a relatively quick car at 4,155 pounds for its time. Buyer 1968 Chevrolet full-size he could get a wild cube of 427 large block V8 with 425 horses as an option (very steep), but equal Buick 430 it couldn’t beat the torque of the 88 Delta (this changed two years later with the introduction of the 510-pound Buick 455).
Naturally, this car required premium gas and probably never achieved double-digit fuel economy, but few Oldsmobile customers cared about that until certain geopolitical events took place in 1973. If you bought a 1968 Delta 88 with the basic three-on-the-tree manual transmission – that’s right, you had to pay extra for an automatic transmission, even for such an amazing machine – you could get a 310-horsepower 455 that would run normally gas.
Speaking of options, this car has tons of them, which would boost its cost significantly All right over the MSRP of $3,721 (approximately $34,214 in 2024 dollars). The four-cylinder 455 was $57 ($524 today), the three-speed automatic was $158 ($1,453), power steering was $98 ($901), air conditioning was a heroic $411 ($3,779) and… you get the idea.
This is what the original buyer of this car wanted loadedso it even has optional power windows.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Oldsmobile very enthusiastically borrowed names from American fighter planes, and the Delta series was inspired by the moniker F-102 Delta Dagger. The Cutlass borrowed its name from F7U Cutlass naval fighter also with Christmas Fire paying tribute F-94 Starfire. Apparently Convair, Vought, and Lockheed chose not to make a legal fuss over a car company’s appropriation of their product names for their products, perhaps because the car company was one of the most powerful corporations in the country at the time. F-102 anyway suffered from massive cost overruns in development, the F-94 became obsolete shortly after entering service, and the F7U was a hazardous, overly elaborate vehicle known as the “Soulless Cutlass”. There’s plenty of history in the junkyard if you know where to look!
Speaking of aviation history, the design label tells us that this car was built at GM the original Fairfax Assembly in Kansas City. That’s where North American Aviation built B-25 Mitchell bombers during World War IIselling it to the General in 1945. F-84F tracers they were assembled alongside cars by GM in the early 1950s.
Worth restoring? It’s not rusty, but the interior is destitute and even four-door hardtops of this era don’t get the same enthusiast love that the two-doors and convertibles got.
Oldsmobile has something for senior people for 1968 AND adolescent! 38 years later The Oldsmobile Division got the axe.
