Oldsmobile Jetfire Turbo Rocket - It's Five O'clock Somewhere

We all have things in our attics, garages or basements we don't want to simply throw out or give away thinking they might be worth something. How else to explain why someone would think this 1962 Oldsmobile "Jetfire Turbo Rocket" would be worth $600. 

If anything, this is an interesting chunk of automobile history given that is one of the first turbochargers ever offered on an automobile. For 1962, Oldsmobile bolted this to their alloy, "Rockette" 215-cubic inch V-8 they first introduced on their new-for-1961, "F-85" compact. 

At about the same time, Chevrolet also introduced a turbo on a version of their rear-engine, air-cooled, flat-six Corvair. Depending on what you read, pundits of both claim their turbo came first. Does it really matter given they were both GM developments? 

At the risk of oversimplification, a turbocharger is a compressor driven by an engine's exhaust that forces compressed air into an engine to improve its performance. A "super" charger does essentially the same thing but it differs from a turbo in that it's driven by a pully on the engine. Turbocharging was nothing new by the early 1960's, they had been used on gas and diesel industrial engines for years prior, but the Oldsmobile Jetfire and Chevrolet Corsair where the first mass produced cars to use them. 

And to have one to say nothing of two GM products feature them at the same time speaks to how forward thinking GM was in the early 1960's. They weren't perfect, though. In fact, far from it. Especially our Jetfire Turbo here that required an ethanol and distilled water mixture to prevent pre-ignition in the 10.5:1, high-compression 215 engine. Many a Jetfire owner would neglect to fill the under-the-hood reservoir with the special go-fast juice thus reducing the engine's performance. Purportedly, a turbocharged 215 V-8 made some 215-horsepower (gross rated) compared to just 155 for a non-turbo 215. 

Perhaps the seller of this hunk of metal took a couple of big swigs of that special "Turbo Rocket Fuel". How else to explain why they would think anyone would pay $600 for this? Hey, it's five o'clock somewhere, right? 

To build this, GM had help from the Garret Corporation, that had considerable experience in building turbochargers for industrial applications.  Chevrolet got their schooling on turbos from the Thompson-Ramo-Wooldrige corporation that became known as TRW in 1965. 

Oldsmobile had other challenges with the 215 other than its wonky turbo. Being made of aluminum, the engine had cooling issues because they couldn't determine, at first, which type of coolant was best. Use of certain coolant clogged cooling passages in the engine leading to overheating and head gasket failure. 

While Chevrolet soldiered on with the Corvair turbo through 1969, Oldsmobile pulled the plug on the Jetfire Turbo Rocket after 1963 with just 9,617 ever made making today's Facebook Marketplace discovery quite rare. 

On a bright note, Buick used the 215 Olds engine as a blueprint of sorts to create it's 90-degree, iron block and head V-6 known at first as the Buick "Fireball". That engine over the years receiving a number of refinements and innovations eventually becoming the famous GM "3800" series of engines. 

 

By the way, no. I didn't search for this but based on Facebook Marketplace's algorithms of my past searches, it has determined that I need this. Well, I'm always on the hunt for things that will give my 1977 Corvette more power...could this be just what the doctor ordered? There's nothing in the ad that says the special turbo cocktail comes with it, though. Cheers.