1963 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 - My Mother Was Right

General Motors market share of vehicles sold in the United States stood at a historically high 53.7 percent in 1963. Over the last fifty-eight years, basically, my lifetime, the confluence of circumstances and bad decisions has whittled that once all but monopolistic share down to just below 18%. 

Years ago I asked an older and sadly since passed away friend of mine, in his opinion, why he thought that GM had the market dominance that it did years ago. Without batting an eye he said bluntly, "Styling. GM just had the coolest cars." Based on this '63 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88, I'd say he was right on the money with his assessment. 

I came across this 1963 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 in Celebrity trim recently during one of my cheap car searches. It's literally, simply gorgeous with nary a bad line on it. That's saying a lot considering just five model years before it, Oldsmobile's were probably the most chrome-drenched of any GM make; the embodiment of everything I find off-putting about 1950's domestics. Like many things before I was born in 1964, it has a certain mystery, innocense and, dare I say, sophistication and sheer honesty that I find most alluring. Sort of like a Marilyn Monroe in her prime; a timeless, ageless beauty who's as contemporary today as she ever was.

For 1963, Oldsmobile slotted the "88" between the "98" that rode on a chassis with a slightly longer wheelbase and the "full-size sports car" Olds called the "Star Fire".  Subsequently, the 88's were available in either "Super" or "Dynamic" models in four distinct body-styles. Hard top models were called "Holiday", pillared models, like our subject here, were called "Celebrity", station wagons were "Fiesta". Convertibles were simply, "convertibles".  I guess the Oldsmobile marketing department ran out of catchy names for body designations when it came time to peg the drop-top. 

Super 88's were also available in the same body styles making for a dizzying and blurry array of very   similar makes and models. The only tangible difference between the Super and Dynamic 88 and the Star Fire was the horsepower rating of their 394 cubic-inch, "Rocket" V-8 engines. The 394 in the Super made three-hundred thirty, in the Dynamic it made two-hundred eighty. The Star Fire, which was similar in concept to the Pontiac Grand Prix, Buick Wildcat and Chevrolet Impala SS 409, made three hundred forty-five. Sounds like a ton of power and not that it's not, but keep in mind that up until 1972, brake horsepower was rated at the fly wheel with no accessories on the engine. That "gross" rating was often times exaggerated or even underrated depending on manufacturer wants and needs. "Net" horsepower ratings are measured at the business end of the transmission and with all accessories on the engine. Carve roughly 40% of a gross rating to get an approximate net. 

Personally, the Star Fire with it's range topping power and two-door styling would have been my Oldsmobile jam. That or at least a "Holiday" Dynamic 88 coupe. This Walter Mitty-esque Celebrity sedan wouldn't row my land yacht. Kind of reminds me of what my father would have driven back then. Well, make that should have driven. 

I wish he drove something like this and not the boorish, ugly Rambler he had instead.  Then again, what my father was and I what I wanted him to be were diametrically different. I wanted John Wayne for a dad and he didn't even come up to be a Willie Loman. Anyway, again, I love the simplicity of this design that could only have been borne out of excess. That simplicity, in my opinion, got lost with next generation of full-size Oldsmobiles come 1965; even the '64's which are quite similar to this '63 look fussy in the details. The cartoonishly big models after 1971 even more so. During the great downsizing epoch, full-size Oldsmobile's to me seemed to be wannabee's of Oldsmobile's from this generation. Let's not even go there with the whole, "This is Not Your Father's Oldsmobile" bullshit. 

Thanks to the miserable marriage of my parents that made for a frankly hellish childhood, I naively if wistfully longed to have been alive in the time period before I was born. A time period that my mother swore was better. If GM design was indicative of that like my late friend pointed out so succinctly, I'd have to say she was right.