An Olds for the Ages

Jay Sletten can relate to that often-recited quote from the famous film “A Christmas Story:” “Some men are Baptists… others Catholics…My father was an Oldsmobile man.”

Sletten’s father, Norris, had a long string of Oldsmobiles starting way back in the 1950s. The last Oldsmobile to catch his eye was the 1954 Super 88 two-door sedan on these pages, and it was probably the Olds he kept the longest.

“Dad was always an Oldsmobile guy,” Sletten recalled. “He had a ’49, the first overhead-valve one — a 1949 88 two-door Club Sedan, the torpedo back one. Then he had a whole string of them every year or two or so, including another ’54 from ’56 to ’61.”

Oldsmobile created a lot of “Oldsmobile men” when it came out with its overhead-valve V-8 in 1949. Along with Cadillac, Olds made a new kind of performer by building a V-type eight-cylinder with overhead valves and an over-square design in which the bore was greater than the stroke. Oldsmobile dubbed this new engine the Rocket, and with a very responsive 135 hp in 1949, the engine earned its name.

The hot new 303-cid V-8 engine replaced the straight-eight engines Oldsmobile had used through 1948, although Olds also kept a straight-six available in its smaller body for 1949. When this smaller body was built with the new V-8, it was christened the 88.

The 1949 Olds 88 used the sleek, new Futuramic style that debuted on the 1948 Ninety-Eight with a lower hood that nearly met the fender tops. Colorful Oldsmobile ads sold the new 88 as “The New Thrill” and! The first time you see that sleek Futuramic hood sweep ahead of the field, you get a hint of that ‘Rocket’ Engine power. But to appreciate an ‘88,’ you’ve got to it! Then — and only then — can you feel for yourself that swift-surging ‘Rocket’ response...so smoothly delivered by Hydra-Matic Drive. Only then will you experience the maneuverability that goes with the ‘88’s’ compact Body by Fisher. And only then will you know the unique ‘88’ sensation — that soaring, airborne ease of travel!”