CVC June 2013
A Touch of Glass, June 2013 Central Valley Corvettes
A Touch of Glass, June 2013
Central Valley Corvettes
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passenger sports convertible, the F-88 was<br />
Oldsmobile's legendary dream car. A<br />
beautiful dynamo on wheel, the F-88 was<br />
Oldsmobile's experimental convertible that<br />
GM's stylists incorporated scores of striking<br />
innovations into. This spectacular sports car<br />
featured natural pigskin upholstery, lowpoised<br />
fiberglass body, unusual rear deck<br />
design, sparkling interior trim and a special<br />
250 hp ‘Rocket' engine. The elliptical grille<br />
mouth, ‘hockey stick' side trim and bullet<br />
tail lights were designed purely period<br />
Oldsmobile style.<br />
Harley Earl, the legendary automotive<br />
stylist, designed the F-88 under the belief<br />
that it would have outsold the Corvette and<br />
forever changed automotive history.<br />
Unfortunately Chevrolet, which produced<br />
more GM products than any of its other<br />
divisions, convinced the GM board of<br />
directors to cut the Oldsmobile project. The<br />
F-88 never went into production due to that<br />
sabotage combined with lukewarm Corvette<br />
sales. The 1954 Oldsmobile F-88 was<br />
strictly ever a dream car.<br />
Meant to compete with the similarly sized<br />
Corvette, the F-88 was one of the most<br />
significant concept vehicles ever designed<br />
by GM. Lightweight; the F-88 would have<br />
outperformed even the Ford Thunderbird.<br />
The Oldsmobile F-88 featured a Rocket 88<br />
V8, 4 speed automatic hydromatic<br />
transmission, power windows and door<br />
latches, bullet tail lights, large vertical<br />
exhaust outlets for its ‘Rocket' V-8, and a<br />
distinguished wide-mouth grille, unlike the<br />
Corvette, which only had a 6-cylinder<br />
engine, a 2-speed automatic transmission<br />
and no windows.<br />
Powered by hopped up 324-cubic-inch V8<br />
from the '54 Oldsmobile Super 99, the F-55<br />
engine used a stock four-barrel carburetor<br />
with a tiny flat air cleaner. The engine's<br />
9.0:1 compression ratio plus additional<br />
modifications boosted the Super 88's 185<br />
horsepower to 250 horsepower and an<br />
undisclosed amount of torque. With no<br />
trouble handling the Oldsmobile's V-8<br />
torque, power flowed through a four-speed<br />
Hydra-Matic transmission to a 3.55:1<br />
Corvette rear axle. The F-88 took its off-theshelf<br />
components, its instruments, from a<br />
1953 Oldsmobile. Humbert turned the<br />
speedometer into a combined speedo/tach<br />
and gave the other three dials custom faces.<br />
Only four cars were ever built, and one<br />
survives today and set a world record when<br />
auctioned in January 2005 at the Barrett-<br />
Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona for<br />
$3,240,000.00. The founder of the<br />
Discovery Channel, John S. Hendricks is the<br />
proud owner who has is displayed in its own<br />
room at the Gateway Auto Museum in<br />
Colorado.<br />
By Jessica Donaldson<br />
(Ed. note: Greg Krebs forwarded an E-mail<br />
he got re: this car that said “the ’54 Olds<br />
could have ‘Killed’ the Corvette”. What do<br />
you think?)