To continue on the trajectory of early -’60s Oldsmobiles that continues to haunt me, I present this Dynamic 88, which I first met under the cover of night. While I continue my daytime errand-running drudgery, let’s pause to examine where Oldsmobile was in the early 1960s.
Oldsmobile entered the 1960s with sharply-styled behemoths that kept a footing in ’50s flamboyance but extended a pinky toe toward 1960s rationality. While the vista roof and skeg fins (the latter predating Cadillac’s use in mainstream models) would disappear within a few years, a more concentrated focus on economy remained undercurrent at Oldsmobile throughout the early 1960′s.
It may be hard to believe, but the 1961 big Oldses were actually downsized, ever so slightly, in length and width. Also, one gear was now missing from the Hydra-Matic, which had gone on a diet at Oldsmobile and gained the “Roto” name in the process. The new Roto-Hydramatic would be the first dim-witted transmission to hold that storied family name. The weight loss didn’t do wonders for performance–or economy, for that matter.
The 394 Rocket bulked up a little bit for 1962, producing no less than 280 horsepower for the most thrifty of Oldsmobile customers. Oldsmobile relied on a variety of axle ratios to achieve tolerable performance or maximized economy according to individual customer preference.
This was one step into the ever expanding “Goldilocks” tendencies of Oldsmobile in the 1960s. Zero-to-sixty times could be all over the map (from high nine-second runs to 12.5 seconds), as could fuel economy (as dreadful as 10 mpg, although the possibility of squeezing out 18 mpg remained a hope). What’s more, this was just for the Dynamic 88–we aren’t even considering the variables presented by the Super 88, Ninety-Eight, Starfire, or the “Junior Olds” F-85/Cutlass/Jetfire family.
If all this seems schizophrenic, wait ’til we get to 1964: I’ll say only “Jetstar 88.” I have to note that this was long before the Mustang was touted as comparably customized on the build sheet. At one time, this was typical of all American cars and led to some of the curiously optioned classics on the streets today.
No matter how you optioned it, a 1962 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 was a solid-citizen choice. There was enough good to be had to make up for its step-sister of an automatic transmission. However, according to a number of forums, other than the tendency to pee on the rug as it ages and its lumbering, sloth-slow 1st-to-2nd shift, it isn’t as bad a transmission as some think–well, at least compared with other efforts like the Turboglide and Flight Pitch Dynaflow. Granted, by the time this transmission made it into my family history books in 1963, it probably had been re-engineered to do the best it could.
Although it shares the basic B-body shell of the most basic Chevrolet Biscayne, it has enough unique styling details that say “Oldsmobile.” The “Red Spot of Jupiter” ovoid tail lamps, seen first in 1959, are among my favorite styling traits of the 1962 Oldsmobiles.
I’ve also grown to appreciate the “chin strap” layered front bumper. While not as extravagant as the 1961 version, it provided a transition to the peaked-fender look of 1963 that gradually softened as the 1960s marched on. These aren’t the most beautiful of 1962′s full-sized cars, but are certainly handsome in their own right. What’s more, this face is neither as extreme as a 1962 Chrysler’s nor as bland as a 1962 Mercury’s, assuming that Mercury Montereys and Oldsmobiles were being cross-shopped at this point.
Inside was middle-class comfort and quiet to match the suburban environments that most of these Oldsmobiles would occupy. Thus is the humble Holiday Hardtop largely forgotten today. Despite the ever-expanding sea of Mid-Century Modern artifacts, practically no one specifically cites any early 1960s Oldsmobile as an example of automotive excellence. Pity those fools. On the other hand, and thankfully, that keeps prices for the more workday versions of these beautiful behemoths quite reasonable.
![1979_Datsun_510_hatchback_(3)[1]](http://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1979_Datsun_510_hatchback_31-50x50.jpg)
To me, the 62 Olds was sort of the ugly middle child. I have always loved the 61, but maybe that is just a family thing from my Uncle Bob’s white 61 hardtop from when I was a tot. I was, however, old enough to remember that it was transmission ills that got it traded off in 1967 on a 3 year old Ford Galaxie 500.
The 63 was so much cleaner and crisper, just a more cohesive design overall. The 62 is complicated without being either really ugly or really attractive. The electric-shaver front end is just sort of odd, Also, those side creases that start and end from nowhere. The big chrome slab at the front of the door is also sort of strange. Stare at these pictures for a few minutes, and there is just one conclusion possible: there is just so much going on, and so little to show for it.
That lower side body sculpting is really strange. It starts from the front as an indentation, then out of nowhere, picks up a ridge at the rear wheel well. This car just looks like Olds stylists couldn’t decide what to do and at 4:30 on Friday afternoon, they decided to go with all of the unfinished ideas, stick them on the car, and go have a beer.
I suppose that every one of the 3 GM mid-price sisters was in an annual beauty contest. For me, Buick was the winner, Pontiac a close runner-up, and Olds was by far the laggard for 1962.
> The big chrome slab at the front of the door is also sort of strange.
I think that the long horizontal chrome strip bisected by the vertical piece at the leading edge of the door is supopsed to look like a giant Oldsmobile logo.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. It seems like the stylists were just trying to figure out ways to make it look different without any genuine inspiration. They were probably thinking about the ’63s…
From the receding gums headlamps to those big blobby tail lamps, I think Buick didn’t have any ideas to begin with for 1962. At least the Olds designers put down some ideas before they clocked out until the 1963s were due. If there were ever a “generic early 60′s big car” it was the 1962 Buick…
At that time, all of GM’s 1962 big cars were considered to be a breath of fresh air. The people who bought these cars brand-new remembered the 1958 models, which were only four years old when this car debuted.
This car looked very clean and modern compared to what went before. By the fall of 1961, your perfectly good 1958 or 1959 Dynamic 88 looked outdated, which encouraged a visit to your friendly Oldsmobile dealer.
Call me crazy but I loved the 62 Olds, then and now. As I recall, there was quite a bit of criticism of the 61′s styling even before it was released for sale – some stylists said that it looked as if the front and back were designed in separate studios. I think the 62 was an attempt to create a more integrated design in that regard. IMO these are handsome cars, especially the Starfire (yes the chrome is overdone but I kinda liked chrome back in the day:-)
A high school friend’s family had a very nice 62 88 4-door sedan in a light green. The quality of these cars was quite high and it was still in nice condition in 67 when we drove it around the drive-in circuit.
I agree, it’s complicated, yet MEH. Growing up, I never liked the ’62s -and growing up near Lansing I had plenty of opportunity to see them, for years and years. Over the years the design grew on me. The design is in keeping with the “space age” sensibility which was a big part of that era. The perfect car to park in front of a mid century ranch house.
I think the idea was to alter the ’61 design with relatively little fuss. The big chrome slab moves from the front to about the A pillar. Side indentations are altered a bit.
The ’62′s weren’t bad looking but if we’re talking 88s, my favorites are the ’65 four doors with their coupe-like styling.
I’ve never been able to make sense of the naming of the sixties Eighty-Eights. Dynamic, Delta, Jetstar, Delmont, Super, Holiday — it’s like they couldn’t make up their minds what they wanted to call these things.
I know that the Jetstar 88, when it came out in 1964, was a low end 88 with the 330 engine and the 2 speed Jetaway (from the F-85/Cutlass) in place of the 394 and Roto Hydramatic. The Jetstar 88 sat in the gap between the F-85 Cutlass and the Dynamic 88 (mid) and Super 88 (high). In 65 the Super disappeared, and it was just Dynamic 88 and Jetstar 88. In 66, the Delta 88 came out above the Dynamic 88. By 1967, the Dynamic 88 and Jetstar 88 were gone, and it was Delta 88 at the top and Delmont 88 at the bottom. By 1969, the Delmont was gone and all were Delta 88s, although in regular, Custom and Royale flavors. Holiday was the name Oldsmobile used for hardtop bodies. Now my head hurts.
And don’t forget the Starfires and the curious 1965 Jetstar I, which was sort of a budget Starfire.
The Delta actually arrived as a trim level in the Dynamic range in early ’65 and blossomed into a full series before the production year was out.
Well, that clarifies things.
:-/
Even weirder, there was a long period when the 88s offered in a given year (Delmont, etc.) used numerals, versus “Ninety Eight” (written out) for the C-body car of the same year.
(We had two Oldses in our family: a 1956 Super 88 two-tone green and white sedan, and later a white 1963 Ninety Eight convertible.)
The ’62 Oldsmobiles remind me of the ugly stepchild you keep in the attic when the guests arrive; it looks like a strange blending of late ’50′s flamboyance attempting to blend(unsuccessfuly) with ’60s rationality.
When I was a kid in the mid eighties, this was our family car. My Mom bought it after spotting it at a church carnival. It was almost exactly like this only it had a baby blue top. The interior was real jazzy in multi tone blues with tons of chrome and blue carpet with silver thread. It was a pretty cool car to be the family ride. We used it mainly form 1985 to 1988 or so. It got replaced by a 74 Cougar XR-7, and then a 84 DeVille. I missed the whole Taurus/Camry/Accord/Explorer era because we were tooling around in stuff like this. I think I saw this very car on the streets of San Francisco back in 1996 or 1997, can’t imagine there are too many of these 62 Dynamic 88 Holidays rolling around up there. It was a real pain to wash this sides of this car because the water would collect in all of those sheetmetal folds. If you didnt do a good job the car looked like the sides were weeping.
I used to see this 88 from Bart in Cherryland between the Bayfair BART station and the Hayward BART station years ago. Don’t know if the same people own it, but it now “works” the night shift at Children’s Hospital Oakland and runs errands around Alameda.
These cars are clean and nicely styled, but they were completely overshadowed by that year’s Pontiacs. Oldsmobile still had a good sales year, however, as the Mercury was too bland and “Fordian,” while the Chrysler was too odd for many people. As for the downsized Dodge Polara – I’ll bet that many potential customers drove to their friendly Dodge dealer, saw the front end of the Polara, and left without getting out of their car.
I’ve read that Oldsmobile did make some changes to the automatic transmission to improve reliability. The Oldsmobile units were supposedly better than the transmission used in the lower-level full-size Pontiacs, but were still inferior to the “old” Hydramatic and the Chrysler and Ford automatics.
Wonderfully atmospheric photography, Laurence. Your articles are always good, but the pictures are out of this world. I especially like these front three quarter shots.
Dynamic, Super and Holiday names date from previous decades. I never cared for Delmont, sounded like a kitchen product. Delta they got right. Started out as top luxo 88, and then for all 88′s by 1970.
Name got too long with Delta 88 Royale Brougham etc, etc, etc.
My grandfather was an Olds guy, and had the four-door sedan version of this car. Sadly it was his last car, as he died much too young. I have often wondered what he would have thought of the Brougham-era Oldsmobiles, and if he did think they were too gaudy and overdone, what would he have bought instead?
Wow, those front fenders must have been difficult to stamp. I kind of like it, though, wacky as it may be. George Jetson’s Olds, so to speak.
Believe it or not, they even made ambulances out of these things. Here’s one participating in my current hometown’s 2012 Fourth of July parade, originally posted to the Cohort.
Cotner Bevington made a lot of Olds professional cars over the years. There is a nice article on them here. http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/c/cotner_bevington/cotner_bevington.htm
I like the “chinstrap” front end, it’s interesting, but–seems to me that those corners would catch dead leaves and other moisture-retaining debris and eventually rust, which may explain why I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.
If side-by-side quad headlamps are set too far apart on a wide car you get a funny look like the green car has above. The headlamps need to be closer together like on a 61 Lincoln or 63 Riviera to look right, if there isn’t much prow.
Olds brought them inboard on the 62 and it looked better but somehow weak. When Cadillac, Buick, Ford and Pontiac went stacked in 65 Olds took a hit. They stuck with the wide-set eyes look too long, even the 67 Cutlass had it.
It’s a continuing variation of the Oldsmobile “Barbell” headlight arrangement. It started with the wide spaced ’59s and rotated in and out until the split grilles came in for 1969. And Plymouth and AMC Ambassador, not Buick, went with stacked headlamps in ’65.
I’m not much of an Olds fan so I don’t know the years. If that’s a 59 you posted it’s interesting they would have almost the same look in 67. I never made the association, at least not consciously.
Buick had stacked on the 65 Riv, that’s the car I was talking about. So did Mercedes on their new S-class. I forgot about Plymouth!
That headlight arrangement was something of an Oldsmobile trademark. One of the ways the division distinguished the 1967 Delta 88 from that year’s Delmont 88 was the Delta’s use of the “barbell” headlight and turn signal arrangement. Oldsmobile last used it on the 1968 Cutlass.
I saw the first picture and I had a deja vú. I had one 1962 4-door hardtop in 1991. It was a beautiful car, blue/blue, all power and air conditioned. In that time I was driving a 1979 Chevrolet Caprice, and the owner of the Olds told me to swap vehicles. Twenty two years later, I still can’t find a valid reason for him to do that. Few months later, in 1992, I sold it to a man in El Paso for 1,200 dollars. I regret soooo much to have done such a fool thing, but then again, I was 22 years less mature!
I had a ’62 Dynamic 88 2-door hardtop a few years back…absolutely *loved* that car. If/when I find another one, it’ll be tough to pass it up. 1962 was a good year all around for full-size GM styling, and the Olds is one of my favorites, even though it isn’t particularly well-liked around these parts…
I’ve always thought the ’62 Oldsmobiles looked too much like Chevrolets, much preferring ’61, especially in the rear, but this article (along with a friend’s recent restoration of a ’62 98) have given me a new appreciation. I never noticed how similar the taillights are to a ’59, even though they’re integrated very differently into the rear of the car. Lots of nifty details.Thanks for sharing this find.
The numbers, like 88 and 98, at least followed an Olds naming convention that began in the 1930s when the first numeral stood for the series and the second number idebtified the cylinder count. a cystomer could choose among a 66, a 76, an 88 or a 98.