Yes, yes; you are seeing one of the last of a dying breed of car, the Broughamus Terraceti Automobilius, The Greater Brougham Land Whale. Vehicles like this once covered the streets like Passenger Pigeons once covered the sky. Sadly, those times are no more, and aren’t likely to come back.
Both the Greater Brougham Land Whale and the Passenger Pigeon were partly driven to extinction by over hunting in various forms. The Brougham Whale was over hunted by greedy and thoughtless scrapyards that wanted nothing but money. These scrapyards would often not sell any usable but non-essential parts the Brougham Whales still had on them, much like the greedy and thoughtless men that hunted the Passenger Pigeon just for target practice and not for meat.
Unlike the pigeon, the Brougham Whales were considered to have very tasty red meat (interior) by some (Carmine, Tom Klockau, Richard Bennett), but sickening and poisonous meat to others (Syke, Lawrence). I don’t think it’s exactly sickening and poisonous, but I do consider it to be a lower grade cut of meat knowing the grades of plastic used in the interior.
But this is no ordinary Brougham Whale. This is an Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale, the top-of-the-line model 88 for that year. It is a very rare beast if it hasn’t yet faced cosmetic surgery (being turned into a hideous Donk Whale or Scraper Whale/Low-Rider Whale). Sadly, it has beached on a used car lot and left to rot. Look at its sorrowful and saddened face above and feel the pain it has gone through. Join the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Automobiles (ASPAC)! Save The Brougham Whales!
(Mr. Edward Mann, aged 13, is CC’s youngest Contributor – Ed.)
Well, I won’t cry over this example. It’s beyond the point of keeping, and it’s brown. Also, GM really botched the roof/side window treatment on their big 2-doors in 1974-76.
Just today I did see a very nice dark red ’75 Delta 88 Royale convertible with matching dash and carpets and white seats and top. THAT one is worth saving! Alas, I did not have a camera!
Though the roof is a bit odd, at least its a hardtop, you could still roll down the rear quarter glass.
I don’t think this is a brown car, but a burgundy one with an extreme case of chalking on its lacquer paint. GM must have changed its paint formulas in the early 70s, because starting around 1973 or so, their darker-colored paint jobs chalked like crazy, requiring regular applications of polishing compound and elbow grease to keep looking decent.
I agree with 210 about the roofline on those 1974-76 B body 2 doors. There was just not much attractive about these cars. I know that the mechanicals were excellent, but the bodies and interiors were just horrid. Still one of my least favorite cars.
Agreed, that was a burgundy car. One of the most advanced cases of surface rust I’ve ever seen!
That super thin C-pillar and MASSIVE B-pillar have the potential to look decent…but the shape of those windows just absolutely kills it. Add to that the proto-80s front end combined with the bulbous 70s body…
I don’t mind seeing these in demolition derbies.
I too agree that this was a burgandy car. In the early ninties a friend drug a 76 from an old barn that had this exact hue which with a days polishing brought back most of its burgandy hue. With only 60k km on the clock that car was a whole bunch of fun, odly enough he called that old girl grimace and told everyone it was no maserati.
Proof that it really is possible to polish a turd. 🙂
I love the roofline of the mid 1970’s GM full size cars. I love the square headlights of the 1976 versions.
meh, never liked the 74-76 full sized Olds.
These cars just leave me cold for some reason.
Maybe it’s because they’re ugly as sin.
How come most people who gotta get a Yank go for vast leviathans like this?
Ugly lookin critter there are a few of these whales here thankfully very few usually the subject of a powertrain harvest to repower something else.
Too many of these were raped of their excellent drivetrains & put into ragged out pickup trucks, A-bodies and (barf) X-bodies. I’ve seen many big-block Olds, Pontiac, Buick, and even Cadillac-powered POS pickup trucks and shudder to think of what fine automobile was destroyed to keep some worn-out deathtrap on the road.
This isn’t my favorite big Olds bodystyle but I’d choose it over any overrated mercedes/porsche for reasons such as aesthetics, operating cost, reliability, and overall comfort. I like how these resembled their little brother ’76 & ’77 Cutlass Supremes in the front.
Gotta love those enormous heavy GM doors!
I can’t quite tell from the photo, but if they’re rusted out enough at the bottom you can get that classic GM slam-the-door sound:
Creeeeaaakk! Thud! Wap-wap-wap-wap….
As opposed to the classic Mopar sound: SLAM clunk. SLAM clunk… repeat.
Many 71-76 GM tanks ended up in Demo Derbies, they are beloved and tough in those competitions.
Guilty as charged. It’s a long way from the grille to the radiator on these tanks, and that’s what kills you in demo derby. Not saying I’d do that today, but back then these were worth whatever scrap metal sold for and no more.
Knowing that these vehicles cannot be replaced makes this sad for me to see. I especially dislike the demolition derbies. Ruining a 30+ year old vehicle for a few minutes of smashing and crashing is ridiculous.
100% in agreement. It’s one thing to use old cabs or patrol cars for this purpose, but I’ve seen too many nice vehicles (Imperials for example) destroyed unnecessarily.
Mr. Mann, you are wise far beyond your years.
I’ll be a dissenter here as I have grown to like this roofline — I think because it is so bright and airy. A couple months ago Hemmings Classic Car had a feature on a ’76 LeSabre coupe which is really the better looking design, as the Olds has the problem of mixing the sporty looking greenhouse with the stodgier looking bulging fenders. The aforementioned Buick had the factory mag wheels and was absolutely drop dead gorgeous.
Having driven in a 24 Hours of LeMons race last month, I now see any car like this as a potential LeMons racer candidate. No way will it keep up with the E30 BMW’s and the Miatas on the track, but those who want to keep LeMons closer to its weird roots just eat up crazy entries like this.
“Mr. Mann, you are wise far beyond your years.”
Thank you.
I would agree, oh young one 🙂
I’d be rather proud to have a son like you!
Thanks.
You know a car has been sitting for while when the tires are sunken into the ground! This one really does look beyond saving. I’d call it a Brougham Fossil. These weren’t exactly the prettiest cars when they were new, anyway. I don’t care for the way the rectangular headlights were grafted onto a very rounded body, and a car this big really looks better as a four-door. Make mine a 1974 four-door hardtop!
I can understand someone restoring this as a collector car, looks like it would only need a bit of bodywork & paint, chrome etc. Of course not an economic proposition, but it is rare to find a restoration project that is – it is beside the point. Ican’t see it going back to daily-driver duties.
May it be melted down into a couple of dozen Tata Nanos. I can think of no more fitting an end. Just kill it.
How ’bout it get damned to a few demolition derbys then have it get burned maliciously, crushed, shredded, melted, & then exported to make a couple dozen Tata Nanos? How well would that fulfill your dark & sadistic intentions?
Oh wait, I forgot, GM & the other carmakers only used the thinnest steel available to counter inflation & still make a profit. Knowing that, this would probably only be able to make 1 or 2 Tata Nanos after being scrapped.
+1
For $300 I’d buy it.
Last week, I just barely missed a ’74 Olds 98 Regency 2-dor hardtop coupe marked down from $1500 to $500 by a desperate seller.
Funny article! Must’ve been an attractive car when it was new in that color, too bad it’s beyond saving. To me the idea of a “sport coupe” on something this big is kind of lost. I’d love to test drive one of these to compare to the downsized models that replaced it. I think this car shows just how durable that velour is, the rest of the car has been sun damaged to the point of rusting but the interior still retains it’s color for the most part and I don’t see any tears.
What are these like to drive? I’m 5’7″ and I feel like it’d be sort of a handful. The closest I’ve come to such a car is a ’95 LeSabre. I LOVED it (I’m a true enthusiast and love all sorts of cars for all sorts of reasons. The Buick was the cushiest thing I’ve ever driven and had rewarding torque and a smooth transmission) but I felt like I had to grasp the thin wheel too much in turns and my body hurt after a very short period of time on those cakey seats.
In my mind, these cars are only nice if you are tall and can sit far from the wheel. Anyone care to explain the driving experience to an import-minded gen-Yer? Because I’d really love a 71-76 GM full-sizer at some point soon.
Preferably a ’71-’74 88 hardtop sedan or an Electra 225 sedan.
They are large cars but my wife at 5’6″ never had a problem driving our 75 Limited Coupe. Of course she mainly just drove it on the open road and didn’t have to park it much.
Hmmm, I’m just a hair under 5’6″ and I too had a 1995 LeSabre. I loved the car, and never had a comfort issue when traveling great distances. My only complaint was that I wished the seats would have been about two inches higher off the ground. Oh well…
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/my-curbside-classic/my-new-curbside-classic-1995-buick-lesabre-my-father-approves
The closest you’ve come is a ’95 LeSabre? That’s like saying the closet you’ve come to New York City is San Antonio. My first car was a ’71 Skylark 4 door sedan, and it was faster and much better, well … just better, handling than the subsequent ’71 Impala 4 door hardtop, ’72 Impala 4 door sedan, and Dad’s ’76 Caprice 4 door sedan. But those full-sizers could cut a mean donut, the proportions and weight distribution were fantastic for slinging around an outfield, or an ex-girlfriend’s front yard. And safe! Those Impalas brought me home in one piece countless times, when a lesser car would have brought a state trooper there, instead. Those ’70’s GM full-sizers were classic American steel.
Sit on the floor at one corner of king size bed and imagine driving that….
Now once you get used to the extremities, they are very easy to drive if you are a decent driver, you have to remember there is a lot of car to the right and behind you.
I am imagining swinging open the huge door on that Delta 88 and getting a whiff of hot aged velour, old plastic and probably cigarettes.
I bet that sums it up pretty well! I doubt it would have that musty old car smell inside with how much time it’s baked in the sun. The closest I have is an ’83 Olds 98 with the 119″ wb so I would love to compare from behind the wheel. I sat in a ’71 Electra I was considering buying and like many have said, the interior wasn’t all that big compared to the outside of the car. I could be wrong, but the main thing that keeps me away from using one for a daily driver is what the gas mileage must be, just too costly for that kind of use. There’s still something I find intriguing and mysterious about these cars though that makes me want one.
Sitting on the floor at the corner of a king-sized bed is exactly what turns me off. I drove a mid ’80s Caprice around the block once, and that’s how it felt, along with the ’95 LeSabre.
I want to believe I could own one of these as a daily and be happy. Of course, there are enough redeeming qualities to offset the seating position.
Well, if the 6 way seat is working, you can resolve that. Me, personally, I’m a fan of low seating positions.
There is a nice 225 for sale by me. These cars are like riding someplace on a comfortable couch. They aren’t always the most responsive, but god are they fun. I had an 87 Caprice that could rip doughnuts all day, and now I have one of these 76 Delta 88 Royales with a 455 that can burn them and spin a doughnut with the best of em.
The poor thing looks pitiful in that first picture….
While this wasn’t my favorite of B-body designs, I still find them fascinating in that they are so different compared to anything available today.
Oh, by the way, when you go to take interior pics, put the lens of your camera up against the glass, and shield the glass with your hand, and you will be able to get clearer pics of the interior 🙂
I’ll keep that in mind.
Hey! At least it’s a 2-door HT so Zackman shouldn’t mind it, right?
You know what’s interesting to me about this? I never knew these existed until one of our next-door neighbor’s kids bought one in the early 1980’s!
I credit Olds with keeping a pillarless H/T, but having the giant C pillar glass and a relative sliver of a back window really puzzled me, design-wise. At least it WAS a true pillarless H/T – the last of the full-size GMs, I believe. All the others had the even larger C pillar glass.
After the 1968 models, however, I no longer liked full-sized cars until the 1977 models came out.
Probably the best opinion on these barges I ever got was a very strong one from my father. Chevrolet salesman, later dealer, 1940-1965 (time off for WWII, of course). Had a new Chevrolet every year while he had the dealership. Once he left, he stayed with the full-sized Chevrolet, every other year, minimum.
He had a 1970 Caprice. His next new Chevrolet was a 1977 Caprice, bought two months after the car was introduced.
He looked at new models, did a bunch of test driving in the interim period. Any time I’d ask him how long until he got a new Chevy, his answer was, “When they start building good cars again. What they’re building now is complete garbage.”
Pshoar asked what it’s like to drive one of these. Well, today I put 35 miles on Ford’s version: a 1976 LTD Landau. And my wife inherited a ’76 Chevy Impala two-door that (I think) shared the body shell with the Olds. Driving a big (OK, really big) car of that vintage impresses one with how much cars have improved since the 70’s. Poor build quality, over-ornamentation, grossly space-inefficient for occupants and luggage, poor acceleration for such huge engines, difficult to park or even thread through close traffic, wallows in turns, gas hogs (12 mpg), need air conditioning even on mild days.
On the other hand, the ride is smooth (at least on smooth roads), and they bring good money at the crusher. So appreciate them for what they are, artifacts of a time and place forever gone.
The 76 Olds 88 actually had a very respectable 0-60 time for the time. With the 455 it was a bit over 8 seconds, but they also had a 2.56 rear gear that hindered that a lot in the name of fuel economy. The 455 could get 18-19 on a nice highway drive.
I just picked one of these up… with a factory 455. It’s been in the family since new, I traded my Harley for it.
Another angle…
i need this front clip,i hit a deer wanna buy ,i have a 76 that my grandfather left me
I purchased the car out of the old car lot. Call me at (810)-625-8345 if anyone needs any parts.