(first posted 6/10/2015) Tear the highly practical metal roof off of one the more boring big American cars like a 1963 Olds Dynamic 88, and suddenly it becomes the key ingredient of an intensely romantic scenario: a hot summer day, a full-size ragtop, a beautiful woman to share it with, and the open road. What could be better? It’s got to be one of the top “relive the youthful automotive memories/dreams” recipes for guys my age or so. Except in my case, it’s a nightmare.
It’s 1972, I’m nineteen and couch-surfing in Iowa City. A tall and statuesque former high-school classmate has flown out from Baltimore to visit me – on a one-way ticket (it’s all she could afford). We had a fun week or so, but it wasn’t a viable situation, for a number of reasons; one of the more pressing ones being another girl in the picture. How to get her back home? (I was perpetually broke too, then). Solution: I would hitch-hike the thousand miles back to Towson with her, and then turn around and thumb it back home. Perfectly logical too; yes, times have changed.
I was a highly seasoned hitchhiker back then, but with a strong aversion to “doubles”, because the success rate usually plummeted. So the strategy was for me to keep a low profile sitting in the weeds, and let Tracy’s profile do the thumbing. Well, she stopped the cars on I-80 mighty quickly, but not the kind that would typically stop for me.
Almost instantaneously, two guys driving an open ’63 or ’64 (I was too distracted to notice which year) Olds 88 rag-top pulled over.Undoubtedly, their intention was to share the big front bench seat with Tracy. When I jumped out of the ditch, the two disappointed-looking guys at least showed us the back seat instead of their taillights. They were going all the way to Gary Indiana, some 250 miles, no less; a very good ride, normally. I’d never really ridden much in a big convertible before. How cool was this!
My hair back then was almost as long as Tracy’s, and by the time the Olds was up to the then posted limit of 75, I started having serious doubts. Sitting in the back seat was like the point of convergence of four Level 5 Hurricanes: the wind ripped at me from all quarters. My locks were whipping into my face; I could hardly keep my eyes open. Our dream ride quickly turned into a four-hour long CIA-approved torture session. I suddenly understood why the elegant double-cowl touring car had been invented.
Tracy and I crouched and huddled on the seat pretty much the whole way, but out of desperation rather than affection. In fact, that brutal ride pretty effectively beat any lingering warmth right out of me; for convertibles as well as Tracy. And it took me weeks to get the tangles out of my locks.
Makes you wonder what motivated the six percent of Oldsmobile buyers in 1963 that picked the six-seater convertible. It sure as hell wasn’t for them to take the family on vacation to Disneyland in. Or for a long freeway commute on the smog-choked freeways. More likely, especially given the conservative image and styling of the Olds, they were already reliving their youthful memories spent in an open-top Model A or the like. And there was enough money for wifey to drive a matching Olds wagon to haul the kids in.
In the sixties, Olds was consistently in last place among GM’s B-O-P (Buick, Olds, Pontiac) mid-range trio. Buicks had more prestige factor, and were generally better looking (than Olds) during those years. The Olds is a nice-enough looking car, but not inspired in any way. And Pontiac was on a tear, ripping Plymouth out of the coveted number three spot behind Chevy and Ford. For a good reason too: Pontiac was the styling leader of the whole industry. The 1963 full-sized Pontiacs shocked and scared the competition; it was light years better than anything out there. The 1965 Fury was Chrysler’s desperate attempt to imitate the ’63 Pontiac. And the ’65 Fords aped it just as badly.
In Chapter Four of my Auto-Biography I wrote about the brothers across the street gripped in endless (and mostly futile) exertions getting their old beater Ford hot rods to run. They had a buddy who would came by driving a pristine new black ’63 Pontiac rag top (Dad’s, I assume).
It had the same basic body as the Olds, but what a difference a bold new face, a little curve in the hips, and a few other tasteful details made. It makes the Olds look mighty plain and uninspired. Anyway, he would watch the hapless mechanics, but from a distance, and kept his hands clean. He was also the only one of the bunch with a girl friend, and she did justice to the beautiful Poncho. She sat there waiting on the shimmering Morrokide upholstery and did her nails. I sat in the grass, between the Pontiac and the greasy old Ford, watched quietly, and took notes. But I must have lost them somewhere along the way.
The Dynamic 88 was Old’s bread-and-butter car, the Biscayne of their full size range; just the basics in terms of chrome and ornamentation. That was sometimes a good thing back then. It cost $3,379 new ($26k, adjusted), which was a 10% premium over a Chevy Impala convertible.
But the Dynamic had that big 394 cubic inch “Sky Rocket” V8 standard. As well as a much nicer dashboard.
I’d seen this nice original but-not-overly-pristine 88 parked repeatedly with the top down at our non-profit recycled building supply store. I hung around at closing time, and caught the owner as he was leaving. He’s about my age, and is a volunteer there. He and his attractive wife/SO got in, and she slid over the seat and sidled up next to him. And as I watched them burble slowly down Franklin Boulevard, my convertible post-traumatic stress syndrome finally melted away in the golden glow of the late-afternoon sunshine.
Wonderful story, Paul!
I can understand why Buick and Pontiac were outselling Olds in the ’60s. This is an utterly bland and uninspired design, from the slab sides to the generic front. Lovely dash, though.
I’m too dang-blasted pragmatic to buy a convertible but I can absolutely see the romantic allure of a full-size convertible and their relative practicality. My convertible of choice, though, would be a ’75 Grand Ville.
Yeah a style free car, long hair beards and ragtop cars dont mix that well Ive only owned one but have ridden in and driven several roofless vehicles and I guess they have an appeal though not to me I prefer a tintop everytime just to get some decent shade if nothing else.
Paul, I always enjoy reading your memoirs. And yet more reasons as to why convertibles fell out of favor. These certainly weren’t freeway cars.
The fact that convertibles fell out of favor after the interstate highways were built is probably no coincidence. Rising crime rates and a cloth top didn’t help either. Times change. That air cleaner decal would look great on a rockabilly band’s bass drum.
I love the AAMCO transmissions sticker on the firewall! 🙂
Paul, you’ve led an interesting life…we should all be so lucky!
I agree about the BOP styling order in the ’60s…Pontiacs, Buicks, then Oldsmobiles (most of the time; there were exceptions). Of course, it’s a lot like pizza; it’s pretty tough to have bad pizza, some slices are just better than others.
Ha! Good catch on that sticker. No Roto Hydramatic would ever have lasted this long without a rebuild or two.
It wasn’t just the big boats that suffered from back seat hurricanes. I remember as a kid being whipped by the winds in the back seat of Mom’s VW convertible as she drove on the highways. I also had occasional complaints from rear-seat passengers in my ’65 Mustang convertible.
I agree about the external blandness of this Oldsmobile’s styling. The only points of interest are the little finlets blending into the taillights.
I loved my Chevy Impala convertible while in the service in NoCal and cruised top-down all the time, but I never sat in back.
Once, there were five of us on a day trip to San Francisco, and those three guys in back on I-80 out of Sacramento riding along at 85 mph (with everyone else) with the top down on an August, 1970 day, must’ve really enjoyed themselves back there!
Then, at the end of the day, we had to do it all over again to get back to base!
However, nobody complained. Good times, young days.
Not having shoulder length hair was a prerequisite for enjoying a convertible.
Exactly. AFM 35-10 dictated proper air force grooming, and if you knew what was good for you, you stuck to it!
Come to think of it, in recent years, I’m basically back to that reg…
Growing up in an Oldsmobile family, these always looked so normal and right to me, so I am one of the minority who puts the 63-64 Olds right up there with it’s sisters. My grandmother Cavanaugh had an 88 Holiday hardtop in this same shade of blue, but probably the higher-level Super 88.
I got the same convertible experience with a friend bought a Volvo C-70. Three of us drove downtown to a lunch meeting. On the way back, I got the backseat and part of the trip involved 65 mph Interstate travel. I could see the two in the front talking, but could not hear a sound from them. I can only imagine how awful 4 hours of that would have been. A full motorcycle helmet would have been a nice thing to have.
Great story, as always.
“Normal and right” is a good way to describe the Olds. It was handsome, but in a mature way; a car for older drivers. The Pontiac had a decidedly more youthful appeal. I’m sure there was a bit of a gap between the average age of an Olds and Pontiac buyer in those years.
Maybe because I am now one of those “older drivers” whom Paul alludes to, I find the Olds (no pun coming!) nice looking. Because of its plain, drama-free styling, it’s held up well over the years. Think of the way a Camry will look decades from now and you get the picture.
Dad had a ’63 Dynamic 88 Holiday 4 dr. HT, the car I took my drivers test in. Always thought it was a manly, handsome car, in a crisp, clean angular sort of way. Maybe not as nice as a Pontiac, but better then a Buick or Impala of similar vintage. Please don’t confuse the entry level 88’s LeSabres and Catalinas with Biscaynes. They were all nice cars with big engines and prestige.
Btw, the featured Olds has the optional 4-bbl. SkyRocket 394-V-8, (std. on Super 88’s and 98’s) which put out a whopping 330 H.P. and 430 lbs. of torque. The standard engine in the Dynamic 88 was the 2 bbl. Rocket 394 V-8, which still had 285 H.P. and 420 lbs. of torque. I recall a guy at high school bragging about how fast his dad’s 327 Impala was and kidding how the Olds was a stodgy old man’s car. A suitable contest was arranged and after the first 100 feet or so all he saw were those crisply styled taillights.
Some things I still remember was the rare for ’63 remote control mirror, which was useless as it was strangely mounted way down on the fender. And there was the slim jim Hydra-Matic, with the noticeable decrease in rpm’s between first and second.
Great story and similar to mine. When I was in high school, my grandmother had a ’63 4-dr hardtop with the 2bbl 394. I embarrased a few classmates with that thing. They usually got me off the line but when the Olds hit 2nd gear, it was bye-bye for the Chevys.
We had some convertibles in our family, and their tops stayed down while in the city. When we hit the open road, though, the top came up and we unzipped the isinglass rear window. It was a pleasant way to travel in the pre-AC era. Also, my parents never used what few miles of Interstate that existed then. We always took secondary roads. More fun!
This ‘top-up, rear window down on the highway’ is a good explanation for the Mercury Breezeway models. Unfortunately, it seems most people preferred the soft-top version.
Interesting observation; the last time I’ve ridden in the back seat of a convertible with top down, I was 13 years old. So I don’t remember any unpleasant wind effects, but maybe I was keeping too low a profile. Or maybe it was the fact that we were tooling around a small island at 35 MPH or so…
I wonder if the buffeting is just a fact of life in a large convertible back seat, or if it had something to do with the design of that Olds in particular? One wonders if the Lincoln Continental 4-door convertibles had the same problem. I do remember that a roommate’s girlfriend had a Mustang notchback in college, and when riding in the back with both windows all the way down, the wind was quite unpleasant.
On an unrelated note, that metal detail between the two rear seats is pretty fabulous. I believe the Impalas of the era had a similar piece. Purely decorative, or was that a speaker grille or something?
Yes, that was a speaker grill-or something.
It’s a fact of life in the back seat of any convertible. At 35 mph, no problem, especially as a kid. At 75 mph it’s a different story. Have you ever experienced a 75 wind from a storm or hurricane? It’s hard to stay standing up in one.
Leaving the top down may have been your punishment for hiding. A couple of rubber bands or hair ties could of helped. I rode in the back seat of a ’67 convertible Beetle for about an hour, it was fun only for about the first 10 minutes. It had a aftermarket header/muffler system that hid behind the tire and fender, and was rubbing the hot muffler into the tire and the burning rubber smell was the pits. Oldsmobile was the plain Jane of the BOP trio that year, although the interior and dash are nice. I have to admit driving off in a similar situation back in the ’70’s, but it was the hitchhikers that gave me the one finger salute. Your misspent youth stories are the best!
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. “Oh, you want to play games with us? Well, looks like you two clever hippies get to ride in the back with the top down all the way to Gary…”.
And worst of all, when you finally get out, you’ll be in Gary. 🙂
every full size GM had that speaker grill area in the backseat even if the car was not optioned with the rear speaker. My Electra has one as well.
Another great story. Kind of reminds me of the time I was invited along for a boating excursion and was given one of the bowrider seats. Fun for the first 30 seconds, then relentless wind whipping and wave pounding for two hours.
My own hitchhiking attempts have been rather feeble by comparison, but I guess I was trying it 20 years too late..
Back in the summer after high school graduation, I made a trip to Nantasket Beach on the South Shore of Massachusetts in a Skylark convertible surrounded by classmates I didn’t know well, but had a blast despite the wind blasts in the back seat. Radio on, sunshine, laughs. Our hair wasn’t long yet (that would come in a year) so the wind was a problem for the girls only (who tied babushkas around).
Later that summer, we tried it again, and found ourselves in “you can’t go back ” syndrome when the day dawned chilly and wet. Stuck with the roof up, we ran out of conversation half way there.
If it’s possible, Hollywood had a better idea of how to use the convertible: drive them slowly, for maximum comfort and profile-ability. There’s no better example than in the opening for Orson Welles’ “Touch of Evil” where the camera stalks a ’56 Chrysler for over 3 minutes (without benefit of CG) across the Mexican border.
Of course, as that scene plays out, messy hair is the least of problems for the people in that Chrysler…
The long, unbroken tracking shot of the convertible at the beginning of ‘Touch of Evil’ is considered to be one of the greatest takes in cinematic history. Welles certainly had his moments of genius.
FWIW, they had to redo it multiple times all night because, at the very end, the actor who portrayed the border guard kept flubbing his lines. You can actually see the sun starting to come up. It goes a long way to explaining why those types of shots are rarely attempted.
Goof: The Mayor in Animal House owned an Olds dealership. But the film sported Buicks.
Dean and Marion Wormer along with Mayor Carmine DePasto and his wife arrived at the homecoming parade in this Buick. What’s interesting about that is DePasto, who supplied the cars for the parade, owned an Oldsmobile dealership. After the riot, Bluto hijacks the Buick, grabs Mandy Pepperidge and drives off into the sunset.
http://www.acmewebpages.net/animal/cars.htm
…and also a ’64 Lincoln in a film set mostly in 1962
I don’t see this find car as ‘ bland ‘ , I see it as a pleasing balanced design .
-Nate
I think the 63-64 Oldsmobile may have been an answer to some questions that few people were asking…
“Do you like the looks of a Lincoln Continental? Ok, those blades on top of the fenders are pretty awesome, but maybe you’re not ready for those flat surfaces–would you like a little more contour? Would you like your car to cost less than a Lincoln? And maybe have a Rocket engine? Well, then, sign right here!”
In my estimation of the 61-64 GM B-bodies, Pontiac’s Bonneville comes first, not just for the styling but also the absence of “Slim Jim” transmission risk. But between Chevy, Oldsmobile and Buick, I’d probably go for Olds…except the 1962 Oldsmobile is quite ugly.
I like the look of these. I don’t think anyone handled the square as well as Olds during this period, but the Pontiac is a better shape.
Sounds like physics was telling you to cut your hair.
If I’d had a crew cut in 1972, undoubtedly Tracy wouldn’t have come to visit me all the way from Towson. There’s a price to pay for certain things.
Auto-biography? Is one of those a real thing that you’ve done other than in CC?
I’m not sure what you mean. Maybe Canadian English is more different than I thought.
Not really.
“…In Chapter Four of my Auto-Biography I wrote about the brothers across the street …”
Would make a good read, I believe.
Aha. They’re all right here, in the COAL/Auto-Biography Portal, on the right sidebar. Do you ever check out our archives there?
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/auto-biography/paul-niedermeyers-auto-biography-series/
Here’s that chapter, previously posted here a couple of times by now:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/auto-biography/the-facts-of-life-revealed-auto-biography-part-4/
Thanks Paul, I have some catching up reading to do with these.
Before the late ’60’s most men had short hair and might be wearing a hat. Women would pin their hair up and use a scarf over their hair to keep it neat. I’ve got no problems in the front seat of my little convertible, though I’ve never sat in the back. Back in the 70’s I took a carload of friends to Golden Gate Park in SF for a concert, in my ’64 Cadillac convertible. They got blown around, but they had a good time,the girls had pinned up their hair beforehand. Being young helps.
I fantasized about a convertible years ago, and got over it by remembering real-world experience. Instead, I got a sedan with a moonroof.
It hit me while I was reading this what an ironic injustice it was that Oldsmobiles got stuck with the Roto-Hydra-Matic, when it was Oldsmobile who had triumphantly introduced the world to the wonders of the original Hydra-Matic. Did the Roto-Hydra-Matic actually have any redeeming qualities?
Hopefully other CCers can confirm or deny this, but Oldsmobile was able to advertise a smaller transmission tunnel because the Roto Hydramatic was narrower than the Dual Coupling Hydramatic used by Cadillac and Pontiac.
Chevrolet and GMC light and medium duty trucks also used this fantastic slush box .
-Nate
And “this” is which box?
The aforementioned dual hydramatic .
-Nate
I do love the gearshift lever and dash. Seems very modern and space age but not over the top like Chryslers of the same era. This speaks to me more than the Pontiac but maybe I just like boring.
My mother always left my hair to grow forever. I was born in 1971, so by 1981 it wasn’t a good look and I got made fun of a lot at school. When I’d pester my mom for a haircut she’d get mad and absolutely butcher my hair. A gifted barber she was not. So I usually just had to look like a wannabe/1976/Bob Seger most of the time.
It wasn’t until I was 12 and had my own paper route money that I started going to the barber regularly. Never tipped. For years. Had no concept of what it was as we never went out to a restaurant or anywhere involving tipping. I’m surprised I got decent haircuts from the barber. Around 16 I learned about tipping when I became a bus-boy and after that I tipped the barber.
To this day I overtip to get Karma points.
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I never liked convertibles. One of my favorite parts of a car is the roofline. The only topless vehicle I like is an old Jeep CJ. The only convertible I’ve driven was a ’97 Sebring. In a sort of butterscotch color. Not the best example perhaps.
Whenever I post a comment I genuinely like, it vanishes.
When I half-ass it like the Death Cab one, it always remains.
This is halfassed, so it should be okay.😀
The decklid badging is strange – it’s like there’s two different logos, the big one in the center (which is shaped like the taillamps) and the rocket off to the right. Also, I thought ill-fitting plastic filler panels were just a ’70s/80s thing at GM, but this car appears to have them in front. Usually the sheetmetal reached all the way to the grille in this era. Still, I find this to be one of the better styled cars of 1963, cleaner more more elegant than Buick or Chevy that year and only slightly behind Pontiac (inside and out).
Hitchhiking stories, even unpleasant ones, leave me a bit wistful. When I grew up in the 1970s, we were literally taught in school not to hitchhike, and were shown a film (3rd grade or so) called simply “Hitchhiking” that showed a hitcher being picked up by a maniacal driver (who IIRC barely uttered a word but drove crazily), making hitchhiking out to be incredibly dangerous. (despite a few highly publicized incidents, hitchhiking then or now is as safe as it’s ever been). Many roads had “no hitchhiking” signs by then. I did eventually hail a few rides as a college student but only in emergencies. Closest thing to hitchhiking I’ve done was when I somehow convinced someone in Virginia i only knew online to drive me to a gathering in Boston, a 10 hour drive each way.
Was hiding until a car slowed down a common tactic for male hitchhikers who had a woman with them?
“Was hiding until a car slowed down a common tactic for male hitchhikers who had a woman with them?”
It was for Benny Hill.
You know it’s going to be good when a story starts: “this one time I was hitchhiking…”
Can only be matched by:
“This one time I picked up a hitchiker…”
I had a buddy, -please don’t report this in the safety thread- one of his many motoring pastimes was picking up hitchikers and scaring the crap out of them.
Of course as usual it’d start that his right leg would cramp, that would open wide as many carburetors as he had.
Then he’d have to let go of the wheel to pull his leg up… LoL
When the guy would get in: “Far out! I’m going there too. Great, 500 miles in one ride, cool dudes…”
About three miles later: “Hey, thanks a lot, this is close enough…”
When we got our Mustang convertible our kids were young. I thought they would love riding in the back with the top down. They hated it from day one.
My small kids love to ride in 69 Dodge Polara convertible, for 20 minutes. Just to get the ice cream within city area. If want to cruise longer, had to stop for the french fries in fastfood and it works only until they finish them. So have the same experience, hands down second row in open top, is torture.
I’ve always liked the idea of top down motoring. The idea.
The trick to driving fast with the top down is to keep the windows up and the heater going full blast. In hot weather you don’t really want to be driving with the top down. You’ll burn up. Driving in the heat of the day I would keep the top up and the back window down. Having air-conditioning in my 67 Cutlass Supreme convertible seemed like luxurious and decadent luxury. I would use it for really humid or muggy weather but otherwise we liked having the fresh air flow. With the top up and the windows down both of my Olds convertibles were surprisingly quiet with little wind buffeting.
I regard the 63 Olds as an extremely handsome car. By the way, the engine picture shows this car to have the optional high compression engine.
Friend have a 65 Oldsmobile Delta 88 2 door in spectacular condition. Both engine and transmissions were redone and works strong. He does import classic cars to Europe for the living and had such cars in 3 or 4 examples. None did run so strong as the one kept, in deep blue colour. His only complains was, engine being thirsty even by classic cars standards, taking 23-25 liters per 100km = circa 10mpg. But that roar Flowmasters can make, is worth it.