On Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, a semi-permanent fixture is this gold 1957 Oldsmobile Golden Rocket 88 Holiday Sedan. Wow; that’s a mouthful!
I can’t really say that I have ever seen it move, but it looks driveable, and I don’t go down this street all that often. There is a little bit of detritus under the car, so it probably doesn’t get driven all the time, but it must get driven often enough to not run afoul of the street sweepers and their allies, the parking enforcement brigade.
Somewhat curiously, the one-year-only Golden Rocket 88 was the base trim level for Oldsmobile in 1957, replacing the just “88” in ’56, and to be replaced by the Dynamic 88 in ’58. Why “Golden Rocket”? Oldsmobile’s golden anniversary of its birth would have been back in 1947. Who knows? It must have sounded good at the time, but it was short lived.
In the brochure this same car is illustrated in a blue color, but our example in the flesh is appropriately golden, if a bit faded.
Higher trim levels like the Fiesta wagon, the Super-88 and 98 got little logos on the front fenders right after the headlights, whereas the plane-Jane Golden Rocket versions made do without. You could get your Golden Rocket as a 2-Door Sedan, 4-door Sedan, Holiday 4-Door Hardtop Sedan, Holiday 2-Door Coupe, Convertible, or Fiesta Wagon. The Super-88, again in Holiday 4-door Hardtop, 2-door Coupe, 2-Door or 4-door sedan or Fiesta Wagon, filled out the 88 line on a 122″ wheelbase, with the 98 Starfire going one notch further on a 126″ wheelbase, though deleting the 2-door sedan and Fiesta versions.
Speaking of the 98 and its longer wheelbase, it’s quite obvious from a close look at this 88 and 98 (top) that the extra length is in the rear, with the rear wheel having been moved back 4 inches. The 98 was 216.7″ long overall, compared to 208″ for the 88s, so the additional 4″ in length appears to be in a longer trunk, behind the 4″ set back rear wheels.
This was a departure from previous years, when the Olds 98 had a longer front end compared to the 88. And this 98 is obviously no genuine C Body, unlike what Wikipedia claims, as it’s just a lengthened B body with the exact same width, rear track, and roof structure; just a longer tail.
The Buick Super/Roadmaster/Limited and Cadillac’s C Bodies had a different roof structure, and their bodies were wider towards the rear, and had a wider rear track.
Let’s take a look at that “Sky-Line” roof. It seems a might affected to me, and it was gone in 1958. The Buick Special and Century had the same thing. Almost like a preview of the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray roof, in double. Bill Mitchell, I assume?
Here’s the new Rocket T-400 engine, painted gold, appropriately enough. It was the first more significant evolution of the original 1949 Rocket V8, now with revised combustion chambers and other changes, as well as an increase in displacement to 371 cubic inches. It packed 277 horses and 400 lb-ft of torque. Interesting that all Olds trim levels, 88 and 98 included, came with the same engine and the “Quadri-Jet” (Carter WCFB) carburetor. In 1958 and future years, there would be a lower output 2 barrel carb version for the low trim 88s, and the four barrel was standard on the 98/Super-88. And by 1959, there was also an optional 394 cubic inch version.
The horsepower wars were under way, and if 277 of them wasn’t enough for you, sometime after the start of the model year, the tri-power J-2 Rocket with 300 hp would hopefully do the trick. It made 312 hp in ’58, then went away.
Manual brakes were standard on the 88, with power brakes optional. This seems to be the somewhat notorious Bendix Treadle Vac, the same system I have on my 1953 Packard Cavalier. Single-circuit, booster and master cylinder combined in one assembly, quite tricky to rebuild – madness in comparison with modern systems. But no one had anything better back then.
All 1957 Oldsmobiles had a new frame, a semi-perimeter affair with a large X-member in the center. Oldsmobile called it “Wide-Stance”. An X-style Frame is also something shared with my 1953 Packard Cavalier. Olds used leaf springs in the back during this period, unlike the rest of the GM divisions.
I think those tires actually look good on this car, they make it look like it’s ready for anything – a fast getaway or a cruise by the beach, or both. In 1957 none of the Oldsmobiles came with fender skirts; I think it looks better without.
If you got dual exhausts (I cannot tell whether that just came with a Super- or a 98, or it was an option on all, or what), they came out in little “vents” crafted into the bottom of the bumpers. This one had to do without.
Here’s what they looked like on a 98.
So that’s how you put gas in it!
Pretty much everything is still there on this one, if not in the best shape. One more survivor blessed thanks to California’s mild climate. That Oldsmobile maw is both handsome and… not. It reminds me of those pictures of the Megamouth Shark. But Oldsmobile was always trying to figure out how to fit “Oldsmobile” into the grille in an elegant way. No matter what one did, it was never going to be something as easy to deal with as, say “Ford” or “Dodge” or “Tatra”.
Standard was a 3-speed column shift, but I am pretty sure this one came with the 4-speed Jetaway Controlled-Coupling Hydramatic, which was a much-smoother version of the original Hydramatic, if fiendishly complex and rather heavy. That’s a pretty beefy horn-ring!
The interior gives evidence, as does the rest of the car, of something that is driven regularly, if not particularly often. Everything looks in reasonable shape, if a bit worn. I would think the side glass isn’t too difficult to replace, the big curved pieces look in good shape. If this car is lucky, some day it may spend a bit of time in an upholstery shop. But the seats don’t look particularly caved in or anything, so they are probably still relatively comfy.
So there you have it – a Silent Golden Warrior, ready to take on all comers from its lonely outpost on Telegraph Avenue. Are you a Rocket-man or a Rocket-woman?
(Paul N. contributed to this article)
There was the GM “Golden 5” for ‘58, the 50 year anniversary, but this one’s a year off. Maybe it’s like those Spirit of America trim packages that came out before the bicentennial. 🙂
Interesting that Olds, Buick and Cadillac received a major restyle for 1957, while Chevy and Pontiac did not, having to wait a year. Same thing happened in 1954.
These ‘57’s were fairly attractive, much better than the overwrought ’58’s. Standard 4 bbl. with 271 h.p. impressive as well.
GM was clearly trying to get back into the A-B-C body program that had fallen apart after the war. Chevy and Pontiac were A bodies and were new for 55 and 58, the Olds and Buick B (& C for Buick/Cadillac) were new for 54 and 57.
The “all large cars on the B/C” that we grew up with in the 60s/70s did not exist before 1959.
When I owned a 1955 Roadmonster (like the others, decades old) I realized that the body shared with Cadillac was very different from the body used for Specials/Supers. Different greenhouse including windshield/A pillars – vertical instead of forward slanted – fender/body line a few inches below the belt line instead of right there, etc.. But they had the same dimension points (there’s a word for that – ?) so the same dashboard fit. But even the whole front end was completely different. They were spending a lot of money for not much – they were all dressed up as Buicks.
Maybe because the 1959’s were such a crash program all GM cars were versions of the same thing. No one cared.
’54-’55-’56 Buick dash’s were different, ribbon speedo’s on ’54-’56 Super-Roadmaster, circular on 54-55 Special-Century, changed to ribbon in ’56, but dash still narrower than big series
> But they had the same dimension points (there’s a word for that – ?)
“Hard points”
The “Golden Five” ad reminds me of the fortune magazine cover from the ‘80s….all 5 were way too close in design, which the graphics in this ad emphasizes instead of deemphasizes… In a few years, there was so much diversification in different car lines, but in ‘58 there were these last vestiges showing the limits of the Sloan ladder. Other than these, GM made the Corvette, trucks — other diversity was foreign – Opel, Vauxhall and Holdens…
Conceivably, the 1957 Golden Anniversary could be a tribute to the end of the marque’s famed Curved Dash model. What’s also odd is that the 1955 Olds piloted by Burt Reynolds in “W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings” is also called a Golden Anniversary model.
A ’57 Oldsmobile is one car I highly suspect of never having met. The airplane trim on the front fenders is a terrific touch.
In a weird sort of CC Effect, last night I was watching “Barn Find Hunter”. He was in Michigan and found a ’57 Olds convertible with the J-2 option of the triple two-barrel carburetors.
While the family resemblance is undeniable, these have so many more eye-catching traits than lowly cousin Chevrolet.
I wonder if the “Golden Rocket” name for the anniversary car was something that the marketing department thought of too late to have emblems cast.
You must work in design engineering, or industrial design. Clearly you have had experience with Marketing folks’ last-minute branding decisions.
One of my favorites. I would pick it as the best looking GM car that year, and the best Olds of the decade.
Best looking Oldsmobile of the 50s is an interesting question. I think I’m a 54 guy.
But the 88 saddlebag trim, or the 98 zig zag? A big difference, particularly if as typical two-tones, from year to year from 1954-56 Oldsmobiles was the side trim. They drew a different picture on the sides with the chrome (which followed no sculpture lines because there weren’t any) for different models and different years.
Great piece; thanks.
The rear “face” on that green 98 in the illustration, just screams 1950’s Robot to me.
Cool find! It is interesting that these are not seen more frequently than they are, as they were quite stoutly built cars. But I don’t think the 57-58 B body cars aged that well with collectors, and Oldsmobile versions in particular. Personally, their mechanical attributes (full frame, leaf springs, big Rocket engine and Jetaway Hydramatic) make this my favorite of the GM cars that year.
That color (Gold Mist) was an Oldsmobile exclusive in 1956-57. It looks good on this car.
Great car, very nice. Kudos to the owner who obviously cares for the car but still drives it.
As a kid in 1970s Toronto, we virtually never saw 50s cars in use as they all had rusted away. But in 1975, a dark blue 57 Olds appeared briefly in my neighborhood. I knew what it was and was enthralled by the style. It seemed so different and so ancient to me at the time, a relic from another age.
Of course it was only 18 years old at the time. Today, 18 year old cars are common around here and don’t stand out. But such was GMs planned obselecance of the era, the 57 would look dated in just a few short years and would be full of rust by that time anyway.
I still love the look, though.
The ‘Golden Rocket’ ’57 model naming was to evoke an association with the ’56 Oldsmobile Golden Rocket Motorama show car. Although there was little connection between the two, sales promotion never worries about such details.
I wouldn’t have suspected this is the poverty-spec model. It looks mid-range to me, with just the right amount of chrome.
For GM cars in 1957 and particularly 1958, too much chrome was the starting point.
Just give me a 57 98 convertible, J2, blue & white and I promise I’ll never bother you ever again!
My Dad’s best friend bought a new ’57 Olds and he was old school (no pun intended) enough that he didn’t want that new-fangled HydraMatic – even though it had been around for close to 20 years by then. Your copy says that the 3-Spd manual was “standard” and indeed it was on both 88 lines, but I’d suggest that it would have been almost impossible to find one, especially in dealer inventory. I remember the friend telling us that he had to special order his and even then it was over much resistance from the dealer. He was a State Representative and known as kind of hard boiled and a “tough cookie” around the area so maybe the dealer was concerned about ending up “stuck” with the car if our buddy decided to walk.
I’ve never thought about this until just now but it seems funny that in the very year that “Bunkie” Knudsen decided that Pontiacs no longer would have front “suspenders” on the hood (“You can sell a young man’s car to an old man but you can’t sell an old man’s car to a young man”) that Olds and Buick came up with “suspenders” of their own, albeit on the rear window. I have read that that “feature” was in fact at Bill Mitchell’s insistence just as on the ’63 Vette.
Thanks, too, for ‘splainin that the 98 was “not a true C body”; that I think is why it had the true divided light backlight while a “real C body” Roadmaster just had chrome strips overlaying the glass to achieve a similar look.
Hitchhiking in Florida, I was picked up by a man with a ’62 Olds with a standard transmission, the car was quite new, the driver was not. I still remember his awkward driving.
Throughout the 50s, Oldsmobile was the best all around car to own, styling, comfort, dependability and economy were at or close to the top.
I was a mechanic at a Caddy/Olds dealer back in the mid 60s,(yeah, I’m old!) and I can only recall one three-on-the-tree 62 or 63 Olds 88. I think either 62 or 3 was the last year for it.
Here’s a gold ’58 that I found:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/147108383@N02/37138167361/in/album-72157690078188245/
Matches the picture in the brochure.
Mr. Smith had an Oldsmobile… (Kathy Mattea, 455 Rocket)
Now this no 455 but I always think of that song when I see the Oldsmobiles of the “Rocket” Era.
It’s hard to believe anyone ever thought these were attractive. By the mid-sixties, when I was growing up, they looked so ponderous and dated.
Hi Jonathan E.,
“… It’s hard to believe anyone ever thought these were attractive…”.
It is all a matter of taste, the times, and one’s age. Especially one’s age.
In 1964 at the age of 20 I bought a 1957 Olds 4 dr Sedan in white over a red interior and to my mind it was a thing of beauty. It was much more powerful than my 1953 flat head 6 Chrysler convertible and the Olds exuded a sense of sleek design absent in the early 1950s Chryslers. Indeed Chrysler’s president K.T. Keller was quoted as saying “We build cars to sit in, not to pee over”.
My ’57 Olds had no power brakes and no power steering so it was a bear to steer when parking. It did have vacuum windshield wipers which made accelerating in the rain problematic, and got – maybe – 8 or 9 miles to the gallon.
But during the time I owned it, it was to me a thing of grace and beauty and power.
As always YMMV.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1957-oldsmobile-88-chrome-reflections-rockets-and-dog-leg-windshields/
Good to know they didn’t go unloved!
What did these things weigh? They looked like tanks.
That look of tubby heaviness is something that set those larger GM cars apart from the more lithe looking competition, and not for the better. Again, the culmination of an era, a little after it actually ended. I’m not sure if it was the Bill Mitchell era yet, but they look pretty Harley Earle to me. It was obvious that GM realized it and even though the completely new 1958 Chevy/Pontiacs were also heavy looking, every 1958 GM product had twice as much chrome as a 1957, as impossible as that might have seemed.
Then in 1959 they ditched even last year’s all-new Chevy/Pontiacs and joined the jet age. (I’m sure almost no one suspected that those bodies were on the frame of the 1958’s, although the frames did allow for foot wells, fortunately for GM.)
I even had this figured out as a kid in 1958. (Yeah, I was a little no interest in sports but cars instead nerd.)
Yes, it was the fall of 1956 when the Forward Look Mopars came out, so this Olds would have just started rolling out of factories too. These were late Harley Earl, and he favored that heavy styling which GM had been hawking since at least 1941. So you can imagine the panic that set in at GM knowing that their 58 models were already set in stone at that time.
How different the world might have been if the 57 Mopars had been built like the 53 Mopars.
What did these things weigh?
Almost exactly 4,000 lbs. Which is not all that much in today’s world.
Beautiful in its own way certainly. Look at the size of that steering wheel! It’s the height of a style that was nearing its end in many ways. I think Chrysler products were already shrinking the wheel. My 1962 Lincoln (owned several decades later) seemed more reasonable that way but of course by then power steering was standard and car makers/customers had a few more years to get used to not needing the sailing ship sized helm. GM cars also hung onto a lot of turns lock to lock even with power steering, while in 1957 Chryslers all went to 3.5 turns. My 1956 Plymouth with power steering (also owned decades later) was still in the big wheel/lots of turns era.
It’s hard to believe that anyone spending the bucks for an Olds by that time would cheap out on something like power steering and brakes that made such an obvious world of difference in driving them. And would later make a difference in resale, assuming that the owner didn’t keep it until the end.
That Oldsmobile chassis is (to me at least) evidence that an old-time engineer was running Olds Division. Harold Metzel had been with the Division since the late 20s (from memory, but I know its close) and was still there when the Toronado came out.
Pontiac was run by engineers who were really into performance, Olds was run by engineers of the old “if we overbuild it, we won’t have trouble later” school of design. Probably the most conservative cars GM was building at the time.
GM was doing an exaggerated version of the fifties in 1957-1958, particularly on their larger cars. It was clearly a dead end already by then. The 1957 Chrysler and Ford products were just as clearly the start of a new era.
Notice that while this Olds has a new perimeter frame (like Ford/Mercury) it also has an X member, so flat floors. No foot wells, even in the back seat, so a taller car for the same room inside. The new Chevy/Pontiac body in 1958 did allow for foot wells. The larger GM cars joined in with the 1959 models.
Chrysler was too cheap to design a new frame so the 1957-59’s just had a lack of legroom in the rear seat. The completely different Imperial body/frame had a straight through frame like the olden days, but with depressions that allowed for rear seat foot wells. (I always wondered about that and looked underneath one once.) Chrysler really blew a ton of money on those low selling Imperials, and stretched out the use of that basic body (with a completely new exterior other than the windows in 1963) until 1965.
Starting in 1957 the Imperials, until the 1967 unit bodies, used the same glass except for rear windows, same basic inner structure and frame design, one of the reason’s a low volume car could continue (I’m glad they did, still have five 1964-65-66 Imperials)
Well…nonpower ones, anyway, ‘cuz there’s no word such as “pedual”.
Ohhhhh! So that’s where Larry Craig got his “wide stance” idea! Well. Today I learned.
Seriously, tho: nifty car, well captured and presented and explained.
One of my earliest car memories (from when I was 8-9) is a pale yellow ’57 Olds convertible owned by a man who worked at my father’s store. It had a black top (and maybe a black interior, I don’t recall).
I’ve been partial to them ever since.
Nice review. My Arizona cousins visited us in the Midwest in summer 57 in their new 57 Olds, a loaded white coupe with white vinyl interior and factory A/C. As a little kid I thought it was the height of cool, literally and style-wise. Motor Trend tested a Super 88 for the February 57 issue. They did not like the distortion produced by the rear window design but noted that the car was put together well and zero to 60 at 9.7 seconds was pretty good for the time.
Great write up on rare find. I came across a Buick with that roof some years ago at a local gas station. Car was in super condition until someone drove it into a tree. Sad end for a then 40 year old automobile. Did anyone notice that the front engine mount is captured in the T-400 ad? Very odd.
A Buick in super condition – nicely done. 🙂
I used to go up and down Telegraph Avenue in Oakland all the time as a kid going to my elementary school, which was off 40th between Telegraph and Broadway. I suspect there were lots of these parked on the street back then …
Are you a Rocket-man ? Yes, has been for the last 25 years.
My Dad bought a ’57 Super 88 Fiesta wagon new. This was a 4 door hardtop with no post and the J-2 engine. The front seat was uncomfortable and the wraparound windshield made entry hard for me at 16 yrs, 5’8″ and 140 lbs. This was too much car and engine for its brakes and tires, both of which had a short lifespan. Dad only kept the car for about 2 yrs. It would not make the 200 mile round trip to Knoxville to Vols football games on a single tank of Golden Esso super premium gas. When you floored it to pass another car on the 2 lane roads of the time the vacuum operated end carbs were slow to shut when the pass was complete..The 2-3 shift was slow and mushy on the Hydramatic. It was a pretty car in spite of its problems.
I actually like the simple styling of the 1957 Olds, very elegant and yet the chrome accents still provide the “jet age vibe”. I also find (same as on the same vintage B body Buicks) the longer greenhouse of the pillared sedans and of the four door hardtop to be better proportioned than the short, stubbier two door hardtop’ s greenhouse.
Perhaps I would have just liked to see 1950s America.