1964 Oldsmobile Starfire Convertible: Tempted By A Forgotten Rocket

There’s a certain panic that sets in when you’re presented with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Let’s say, for example, that you see a 70,000-mile 1964 Oldsmobile Starfire Convertible, one of 2,410 made, parked on the side of a road twenty miles from where you live, and there’s a “For Sale” sign on the windshield. What do you do?

In my case, I was on my way home from “up north” in my ’53 Buick Special, and traffic was busy enough that I didn’t want to be merging into it from a standstill. So I made a mental note to go back to check it out later in the week after doing a little bookwork on what the Starfire badge meant to the upscale Oldsmobile buyer in 1964. Most importantly, it meant the hottest 394-cubic-inch “Rocket” V8, which produced 345 horsepower and 440 lb.-ft. of torque via a 10.5:1 compression ratio. The 394 was in its last year before being superseded by the 425-cubic-inch Oldsmobile big-block, which in itself was based on the new-for-1964 330-cubic-inch small-block. The 394 had a lot in common with the original Rocket from 1949, but because it was still powerful and still had a good reputation for durability, there was little need for serious change during that fifteen-year span.

I’d love to have a car with a 394 in it, so that’s good.

All Oldsmobiles had a perimeter frame in 1964, which wasn’t a universal General Motors feature, as Chevrolet and Buick still used an X-frame design. The IIHS’s 1959 Chevy vs. 2009 Chevy Malibu offset head-on crash test video has made many a car collector wary of the X-frame, although it’s unlikely that a perimeter-frame car would do much better in such a test. Still, the perimeter frame isn’t a bad thing either.

Car Life magazine tested the Starfire’s very similar but decontented linemate, the Jetstar I, in May of 1964; they praised the 394’s willing acceleration (zero-to-sixty in 7.5 seconds, the quarter-mile in 16.3 at 86 miles per hour), which was aided by the standard 3.42:1 gear ratio. The gear ratio also helped mask the deficiencies of the Oldsmobile’s biggest shortcoming: its transmission. All 1961-64 Oldsmobiles had the Roto Hydra-Matic, better known as the “Slim-Jim,” which has a bad reputation among collectors. Here’s how it worked, according to Car Life:

Oldsmobile causes a good deal of confusion among the ranks by calling this transmission a “4-stage” unit. In actuality, it is a 3-speed Hydra-Matic with a small torque converter, which Olds labels the “Accel-A-Rotor.” This Jetstar roto-rooter gives a small amount of multiplication at low engine speed, to provide more of what the engineers call “breakaway.” The boost amounts to about 1.13:1, which is just enough to do the job by giving the 2.93 1st geared section a total multiplication of 3.32:1. As the Accel-A-Rotor is a rеaction stator placed between the coupling pump and turbine, and geared to the rear wheels, its effect quickly diminishes as car speed builds up.

 

Car Life continues:

Happily, we noted that with the 3.42:1 axle ratio, the transmission does less “hunting” at low engine speed, although there are still those distressing surges into 1st gear when the car is moving about 5 mph. This has been a frequent complaint about this transmission, and one which has been aggravated by those long, long (like 2.56:1) axle gears Olds has used in the past. What happens is that the shifting mechanism, which partly depends on engine-driven oil pump pressure for its instruction, becomes confused at low engine speed (a common condition with the low axle ratio) and tells the transmission to shift into Low, which it does with a lurch because the car is still moving.

Oldsmobile’s salesman specification guide tells us that the Roto Hydra-Matic was standard on the Starfire, but an “M37 Heavy-Duty Hydra-Matic” was a $16.14 option. This was not the four-speed unit, but some kind of upgrade to the Slim-Jim.

Other standard features on the Starfire included leather-trimmed bucket seats, which are certainly original in the case of this car, and the “smart sports console.” Power steering, power brakes, power windows, and a power seat were also standard features on the $4,753 Starfire Convertible; the dubiously useful console-mounted tachometer was de rigueur on early-to-mid-1960s General Motors products with a console, and the Starfire had it, too.

By the way, the interior smells exactly as you think it does, and if you like old cars that have been sitting around too much, there’s really nothing better.

There’s nothing wrong with the styling aside from a vague feeling that it might be a step behind some of its competitors in its price class. This car has the $47.34 “Simulated Wire Wheel” covers rather than the neat “Custom Sport Wheel Discs.”

The styling is typical of Bill Mitchell’s early 1960s studio, although Oldsmobile held onto a fin motif a little longer than the others (aside from Cadillac). The Starfire even has small “fins” on the front fenders.

Like many big GM cars, the Starfire uses lower-body trim to make the car look even lower than it is, although it may be a little too slab-sided.

On the other hand, the brushed rear cove is always a neat touch, as are the horizontally and vertically bisected taillights. From a buyer’s perspective, I’ll make a note of the discolored rear window; I could most likely polish out the haze, but the scratches will remain. It could probably use a new window altogether.

The paint is also old and not quite as smooth as some would like, so I’d assert that it’s seen at least one paint job in what appears to be “Holiday Red.” Paint like this has never bothered me; in fact, for some twisted reason I prefer it. Like many CC readers, I like my cars to have a story to tell, a few battle scars here and there, and I’d call this one a “ten-footer.”

All this being said, the Starfire is a rare find; in addition to the aforementioned 2,410 convertibles, only 13,753 coupes were sold, a number that was undoubtedly affected by the cheaper Jetstar I, which was available only in hardtop form (16,084 were sold). By comparison, Pontiac moved 63,810 examples of its gorgeous Grand Prix (shown above), Buick sold over 37,000 Rivieras, and Ford sold 92,465 Thunderbirds. It seems that Oldsmobile simply had a hard time figuring out the sports/luxury concept until they released the Toronado, and even then, it wasn’t much of a sales success in its original form, as cool as it was (and is). Also, some argue that the Starfire didn’t directly compete with cars like the Riviera and Toronado, but instead, buyers would have cross-shopped Chrysler 300s, Mercury S-55s, and maybe even bucket-seat-equipped Galaxies and Impalas.

Nevertheless, I completely geeked out over this one, but I’m at a point where I’m only buying my absolute favorite cars; there’s no more room to buy things that simply strike my fancy because there are too many cars that do that. It’s too bad, because this Starfire wasn’t a terrible buy at $15,000, especially if the seller were willing to do some haggling. (By the way, I’m not posting the phone number because the car is not for sale online, and I have no idea if it’s still for sale at all; these pictures were taken over three months ago.)

If I had more room and lived a completely cost-no-object lifestyle, however, I’d take my chance on the Slim Jim and be cruising around in a really solid Starfire as soon as the salt was washed off the roads by the spring rains. As the brochure says, “High adventure starts right here!”

 

Related CC Reading

Cohort Classic: 1964 Oldsmobile Starfire – Mission Aborted (by Paul N.)

Car Show Classic: 1965 Oldsmobile Starfire Convertible – New Engine, New Body, Old Idea (by me)

Our 1965 Oldsmobile Starfire 425 – Rocket Action (by DougD)