As far as I know, the transmission was not harmed. Full instrumentation is standard Olds had not yet succumbed to the allure of warning lights. As the diagram below illustrates, an L-head engine has its valves in the side(s) of the block. The cookies are not set at all unless you select that option when submitting a comment. Many customers did not keep the reservoir filled, or had mechanical problems with the turbocharger system which resulted in many of the turbo-charger installations being removed and a conventional 4 barrel carburetor and manifold installed in its place. Big-block and Diesel versions also increased the 2.5in (64mm) main bearing journal to 3.0in (76mm) for increased strength. The iThemes Security plugin may also set the itsec-hb-login-xx cookie, which helps to protect the site against "brute force" hacking attempts; that cookie normally expires in about one hour. (Author diagram). You are correct its even a Studebaker Avanti, not the later Avanti II. It used a 4.126in (104.8mm) bore and 3.975in (101.0mm) stroke. Popular price guides put Lansing's mid-1950s cars at an average of $16,500 for a four-door all the way up to $72,900 for a two-door convertible. An 88 also won the first grueling Carrera Panamericana, the 2,176-mile (3,500-km) Mexican Road Race. It was advertised with gross power and torque ratings of 312hp (233kW) at 4600 rpm and 415lbft (563Nm) at 2800 rpm. Off.).) Using the 5 liter Rover block and crankshaft, a maximum displacement of 317.8cuin (5,208cc) is theoretically possible.[14]. [2] [3] In 1929, Oldsmobile installed a 90 degree monobloc flathead V8 engine in the Viking companion brand before the monobloc was used in LaSalle and Cadillac vehicles from 1929-1931. The Oldsmobile 350s made from 1968-1976 have heavy castings, beefier crankshafts, and better flowing heads. The following year, 88s won 10 out of 19 Grand National races and set a new speed record at Daytona. In an OHV engine, by contrast, the valves are a fair distance away from the crankshaft, which makes operating them far more complicated. The engine built in the 1955 Super 88 and 98 models delivered 295 horsepower. This is incorrect, in the context of wider vs. narrower bore sizes with the same displacement. Simplified diagram of the cylinder of a wedge-head OHV engine. in. The Turbo-Rocket V8 was offered exclusively on the Oldsmobile Jetfire, a special version of the Cutlass compact hardtop coupe, which is noteworthy as it is one of the world's first (in fact the second) turbocharged passenger car ever offered for public sale. hi, i have a engine with thename oldsmobile rocket on it, where can i see what sizethe engine is, 305, 394 plse i need this info as i want to rebuild this engine, thanx. From 1961-1963, Oldsmobile manufactured its own version of the Buick-designed, all-aluminum 215 cubic inch (3.5L) V8 engine for the F-85 compact. Cadillac used a distantly related engine which appeared in three different sizes through to the 1962 model year; though the Oldsmobile and Cadillac motors were not physically related, many lessons learned by one division were incorporated into the other's design, and the result were two engines known for their excellent power-to-weight ratio, fuel economy, and smooth, strong, reliable running. I just wanted to know if I have a rocket engine and how can I check if its a 394. This 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 has the Deluxe trim with a dashboard clock; Deluxe models cost $78 more than the standard-trim version. It was the only GM engine to meet US emission standards using a carburetor all the way up to 1990. or is that not an Avanti peeking into the frame on the right side of the last photo? This was the only engine offered in 1923, when the Model 47 continued alone. The popularity of the flathead Ford engines depended heavily on the first two qualities. The 1954 88 and Super 88 V8s used an 8.25:1 compression ratio for 170 and 185hp (127 and 138kW) and 295 and 300lbft (400 and 407Nm), respectively. Classic Car Deals (844) 676-0714. Yup Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Pontiac plus some GMC vehicles, some 1954-on Chevrolet pickups, 19501954 Lincolns, a bunch of independents (Hudson, Kaiser, Nash), Rolls-Royce, and Bentley, among others! Big block Oldsmobile Rocket 442 crate engines are also available. Both are well-documented, albeit relatively short-lived. Concord, NC 5 years at carsforsale.com 3 27,900 1955 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight - Concord, NC sedan automatic You can hide the "Support Ate Up With Motor" box and prevent the loading of its embedded content by going to the "Consent Management" tab and switching the "Allow PayPal Button" toggle to "OFF." Around the end of that year, the project nearly ground to a halt due to objections from Cadillac. What I would recommend that I actually suggest for anyone considering a collector car is that you join a club for that marque in your area, if you havent already. That July, Burrell was promoted to chief motor engineer for the division. (Valve spring, spring seat / retainer placement too? A few years later, the Chevrolet engine started taking over the flathead Fords role as the cheap-and-easy hot-rodder choice. If you correctly enter the password, the site saves this cookie on your device to allow you access to the password-protected post or page. The Rocket, along with the 1949 Cadillac V8, were the first post-war OHV crossflow cylinder head V8 engines produced by General Motors. However, the only badging identifying it as such was a simple "88" underneath each taillight. 10-17, 56; Richard M. Langworth, 1954 Packard Pacific: Last of the Great Straight Eights, Special Interest Autos #51 (May-June 1979), reprinted in The Hemmings Book of Postwar American Independents: driveReports from Special Interest Autos Magazine, ed. If you delete or disable these cookies, your existing preferences will be lost and you may not be able to save your privacy settings for this website. Your email address will not be published. The wild rocket hood ornament was technically a $5 option. Features Power Transmission: 4 Automatic Hydra-Matic Production Figures Handling 1949 Averages If we have enabled multi-factor authentication (which requires an authentication code as well as a password to log into the administrative dashboard), the iThemes Security plugin may also set the itsec_interstitial_browser cookie during the login process. Since the advance design group envisioned a 1949 introduction for their new engine, the project was dubbed SV-49. Its a super 88 sedan 4 door. Deciding Burrells ideas had promise, Wolfram and Skinner organized a new advance design group to develop a new overhead-valve (OHV) V8 engine and assigned Burrell to lead it. The second generation of Oldsmobile V8s was produced from 1964-1990. Two-door fastbacks, like this one, were known as Club Sedans; the four-doors were called Town Sedans. in. Submitting a comment signifies your acceptance of our Comment Policy please read it first! [5], This engine was used in GMC heavy trucks as the "370" of 232 gross HP at 4200 RPM and torque 355 gross lbs-ft at 2600 RPM from 1957 to 1959.It had hardened valve seats and other features for heavy duty usage. Enables the Support Ate Up With Motor box (which contains an embedded PayPal payment button see the, gdpr[allowed_cookies], gdpr[privacy_bar], gdpr[consent_types], cookieconsent_status, _ga, _gid, _gat, _gat_gtag_UA_6113964_2, comment_author_xx, comment_author_email_xx, comment_author_url_xx, wahFontColor, wahBgColor, a11y-desaturated, a11y-high-contrast, a11y-larger-fontsize, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE__k, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE__default, YSC, YEC, _Secure-YEC, PREF, GED_PLAYLIST_ACTIVITY, CGIC, DV, CONSENT, SOCS, AEC, exchange_uid, id, pm_sess, pm_sess_NNN, aboutads_sessNNN, remote_sid, test_cookie, use_hitbox, _gac_gb_, __gads, _gcl_, _gcl_au, _gcl_aw, _gcl_dc, _gcl_gb, _gcl_gf, _gcl_ha, __gpi, __gpi_optout, __gsas, Conversion, 1P_JAR, ACLK_DATA, GPS, NID, ENID, ANID, AID, TAID, IDE, APIS, SAPISID, DSID, HSD, SID, HSID, SSID, SNID, SIDCC, FCCDCF, FCNEC, FLC, FPGCLAW, FPGCLDC, FPAU, GAPS, GLC, N_T, OTZ, PAIDCONTENT, RUL, TAID, UULE, LOGIN_INFO, Permission, yt.innertube::nextId, yt.innertube::requests, yt-html5-player-modules::subtitlesModuleData::display-settings, yt-html5-player-modules::subtitlesModuleData::module-enabled, ytidb::LAST_RESULT_ENTRY_KEY, yt-player-autonavstate, yt-player-bandaid-host, yt-player-bandwidth, yt-player-headers-readable, yt-player-lv, yt-player-quality, yt-player-volume, yt-remote-cast-available, yt-remote-cast-installed, yt-remote-connected-devices, yt-remote-device-id, yt-remote-fast-check-period, yt-remote-session-app, yt-remote-session-name, application_server_key, AuthKey, DeviceId, Endpoint, HighPriorityNotificationShowCount, HomePromptCount, HomePromptTime, IDToken, IndexedDBCheck, LogsDatabaseV2, P256dhKey, Permission, PromptTags, RegistrationTimestamp, shell_identifier_key, TimestampLowerBound, yt-serviceworker-metadata, _abexps, aka_debug, clips, continuous_play_v3, embed_preferences, has_logged_in, is_logged_in, jsessionID, player, search_click_position, Searchtoken, stats_end_date, stats_start_date, sst_aid, uid, v6f, vimeo, vuid, _ceg.s, _ceg.u, optimizelyBuckets, optimizelyEndUserId, optimizelySegments, _ga, _ga_, _gac_, _gaexp, _gaexp_rc, _gat_, _opt_awcid, _opt_awgid, _opt_awkid, _opt_awmid, _opt_utmc, _opt_expid, __utma, __utmb, __utmc, __utmt, __utmv, __utmz, _dc_gtm_, AMP_TOKEN, FPID, GA_OPT_OUT, adsense, adsenseReferralSourceId, adsenseReferralSubId, adsenseReferralUrl, adsenseReferralUrlQuery, S_adsense, Conversion, _gac_gb_, __gads, _gcl_, _gcl_au, _gcl_aw, _gcl_dc, _gcl_gb, _gcl_gf, _gcl_ha, __gpi, __gpi_optout, __gsas, id, pm_sess, pm_sess_NNN, aboutads_sessNNN, test_cookie, CONSENT, SOCS, GED_PLAYLIST_ACTIVITY, 1P_JAR, ACLK_DATA, GPS, NID, ENID, ANID, AID, TAID, IDE, APIS, SAPISID, DSID, HSD, SID, HSID, SSID, SNID, SIDCC, FCCDCF, FCNEC, FLC, FPGCLAW, FPGCLDC, FPAU, GAPS, GLC, N_T, OTZ, PAIDCONTENT, RUL, TAID, UULE, wordpress_test_cookie, itsec-hb-login-xx, itsec_interstitial_browser, wordpress_sec_xx, wordpress_logged_in_xx, wordpress_xx, wp-settings-UID, wp-settings-time-UID, wp-saving-post, wp-donottrack_feed, (Archived) Privacy Policy for the Facebook Page for Ate Up With Motor, Rocket Bomb: The Oldsmobile Rocket 88 and the Dawn of the American Horsepower Race, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license, Information Collection and Sharing Notice, Magnificent Kludge: The Rope-Drive 19611963 Pontiac Tempest, Contrary Compact: The Life and Death of the Chevrolet Corvair, "How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services", "Google Analytics Cookie Usage on Websites", "Our advertising and measurement cookies", "Privacy" section of the Optimizely Trust Center, "Cookies and localStorage in the Optimizely snippet". Many believe it was deliberately underrated to avoid offending Cadillac, which was concerned about its sister division outmatching the new Cadillac V8. Completely restored it, all original. Lakeland, FL 5 years at classiccars.com 3 28,500 1955 Oldsmobile 88 gasoline blue manual New interior paint and re-chromed bumpers. [1] 400cuin (6.6L), 425cuin (7.0L), and 455cuin (7.5L)[1] V8s have a higher deck height (10.625in (27.0cm) versus 9.33in (23.7cm)) to accommodate a 4.25in (108mm) stroke crank to increase displacement. in. Google, Google Analytics, and other related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC.). (The basic Eighty-Eight was rarer, accounting for only about 35,000.) (I quess that would be total Olds minus Olds 76 model.). Displacement swelled from 303 Ci or 5 liters all the way to the gargantuan 455 Ci 7.5 liter V8 in the early 70s. . 303CI ROCKET V8, 4SPD AUTO, COOL, ICONIC 50S STYLING, 4-DOOR CONVENIENCE, CLASSY. The 403 Oldsmobile was generally painted "Corporate GM Blue" on every model line it was equipped in. To mitigate these problems, both Oldsmobile and Cadillac adopted an overhead-valve (OHV) layout. Brand new box. Output for 1983-1985 was 180hp (130kW) and 245lbft (332Nm). These cookies manage your cookie and privacy preferences. Second, the combustion chambers of a flathead engine have a lot of surface area; more surface area means more opportunities for the heat of combustion to escape (which engineers call heat rejection) before its had the chance to do any useful work. Nice Article thank you for preserving our history. From the 1950s through the late 1970s, each GM division had its own V8 engine family. The engine is also known for its reliability, smoothness and quietness. Some consider Rocket 88, recorded by Jackie Brenston in 1951, to be the first rock and roll song. An engines static compression ratio is the ratio of the swept volume of each cylinder to the volume of the combustion chamber; the higher the ratio, the more the engine compresses its fuel mixture before combustion. The first second-generation Oldmobile V8 330cuin (5.4L) "Jetfire Rocket" introduced in 1964 and produced through 1967. Olds veterans claimed the Burrell group was completely unaware of the Cadillac project until quite late in the development of the Oldsmobile V8. (Im not entirely sure why H-M did not, actually.). Skinner and Wolfram tried again in March 1947, having decided that alternative engine configurations were impractical, and this time managed to secure production approval from GM president Charles E. Wilson. Uniquely in the 1977 Toronado, the 403 engine was fitted with a crank triggered ignition system. The commonest type was the Super 88 4-door sedan, Hydramatic equipped. However, former Cadillac engineer Harry Barr, who led the development of Cadillacs first OHV V8, later asserted that Charles L. McCuen, then GMs vice president of engineering (and the former general manager of Oldsmobile) had ordered Cadillac chief engineer Jack Gordon to show Cadillacs OHV design to Oldsmobile carburetor engineer Tony Wauters. 394s were produced from 19591964 and were available on many Olds models. Base price for the Deluxe Club Sedan was $1,982 in 1950, and 16,388 were sold. Power increased the final Rocket was rated at 345 gross horsepower (257 kW) but fuel economy eroded. Thanks! To learn more about what information the YouTube platform and other Google services may collect through and/or in connection with embedded video players and how Google may use that information, see their "How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services" page and the Google Privacy Policy. Ketterings team demonstrated that the higher compression ratio boosted power and gas mileage by nearly 30%. Made of diecast with some plastic parts. In the event we receive any compensation and/or other valuable consideration for any other content presented on this website, the nature of that compensation or consideration will be disclosed as part of the applicable content and/or otherwise adjacent to it. at 1,800 RPM Transmission: Three-speed manual standard, Hydra-Matic optional Wheelbase: 119.5 inches The Rocket V8 was the subject of many first and lasts in the automotive industry. Being ahead of your time or having a short season is not the same as being overhyped, and since the muscle car category in general is as much about hype and point of view as substance, I think thats an important consideration. The introduction of the "Rocket 8" V-8 for the 1949 Oldsmobiles was perhaps the pinnacle of his achievements, incorporating in its overhead-valve design such features as five main bearings,. ), These first-party cookies are used to manage user logins and certain other administrative functions of the WordPress content management system, e.g., post editing. Now 70 years old and giving a lot of thought to building me a 1950 Olds casket. [citation needed] Most 260s were coupled to the Turbo Hydramatic 200 transmission,[citation needed] but a 5-speed manual transmission was also available in some vehicles. Ford, Chevy, Dodge and Mercury were the top sellers and I believe Oldsmobile would come in 5th or 6th place. California residents also have the Right to Opt-Out of the sale of their personal information see the Do Not Sell My Personal Information page. *. If the fluid reservoir was empty, a complex double-float and valve assembly in the Turbo-Rocket Fluid path would set a second butterfly (positioned between the throttle butterfly and the turbocharger) into the closed position, limiting the amount of boost pressure. The difference is that many of the things earlier generations feared (such as heavy dependence on foreign oil and its associated political ramifications) are now familiar reality rather than speculation. Although Oldsmobiles official involvement in racing was limited, the Rocket 88 promptly proceeded to clean up in competition. It was installed in the Oldsmobile Light Eight and was related to the Cadillac flathead V8 engine. It used a very oversquare 4.057in (103.0mm) bore and Oldsmobile small-block standard 3.385in (86.0mm) stroke for 350cuin (5.7L). Oldsmobiles companion make, the Viking had a horizontal-valve V8 with two-plane crankshaft in the early thirties. It is arguably the best engine Olds made in the muscle car era, although it never made it into a "muscle car". 1955 OLDSMOBILE 88 CORE ENGINE ASSEMBLY 8-324 V-8 879042. This very open and flat chamber was fuel efficient and had lower than average emissions output. Additionally, the 403 had windowed main webs, which reduced the internal strength of the block in the crankcase area. Like the test mules, the Rocket 88 was, in the parlance of a somewhat later era, a real bomb. (6,460 cc), which was about the limit of the original block design. You see, this 1957 Golden Rocket 88 Holiday two-door hardtop, with the J-2 setup and only a few more than 30,000 actual miles, is owned by his daughter and son-in-law, Jan and Tom Hummer. If the payment button is visible, it may set the third-party cookies PYPF (via paypalobjects.com, which is owned by PayPal, Inc.), which appears to check whether or not you are a logged-in PayPal user, possibly to facilitate the PayPal user login process, and/or 01A1 (via abmr.net, which is owned by Akamai Technologies), which stores certain technical information about your device and browser (or other user agent), possibly to facilitate the login and shopping cart functions. Now that we have DISCONTINUED our use of Google Analytics tracking on this website, this cookie no longer functions no additional analytics data will be collected, with or without the cookie. PLEASE DON'T SUBMIT COPYRIGHTED CONTENT YOU AREN'T AUTHORIZED TO USE! The 307 "Y" produced 148hp (110kW) and 250lbft (340Nm) in 1980-1984 models and 140hp (100kW) and 250lbft (340Nm) in 1985-1990s. Its unclear at what point Oldsmobile engineers became aware of the Cadillac engine or how much they knew about it. (Vimeo and the Vimeo logos are trademarks of Vimeo.com, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Any interest in better fuel economy was quickly forgotten; gasoline was cheap and speed sold more cars than parsimony. (We should note, however, that Packards final L-head eight of 1954 used an 8.7:1 compression ratio with no apparent loss of refinement, although the fact that the 359 cu. Note the quadrant for the Hydra-Matic atop the steering column. Compression was up again in 1956 for 230hp (170kW) and 340lbft (460Nm) in the 88 and 240hp (180kW) and 350lbft (470Nm) in the Super 88 and 98. in. For consignment a Rocket design Oldsmobile 88. The end of the Korean conflict sent the country in a foreign exchange crisis that lasted until the middle 90s, cutting imports and providing the basis for national production. 1956 Oldsmobile 88 4dr St Rod, new gas tank, new brakes and tires, rebuilt front end, good body, new paint, nice patina, good original interior, rebuilt . 74-81; Bob McVay, Oldsmobile Starfire Road Test, Motor Trend Vol. Concern about diminishing oil reserves is nothing new in the twenties, some engineers feared the U.S. would be out of oil within 30 years but it was not until the seventies that those fears entered the public consciousness. FOLLOW MARKET. (2,969 cc) six with a compression ratio of 12.5:1, where most contemporary engines had ratios of no more than 7.0:1. Naturally, GM was extremely interested in the potential of high-compression engines for passenger cars, but there were two hold-ups. A long piston stroke gives more torque, which means better engine response at low speeds. To learn more about how Google may use information collected by the Google Analytics service, see their "How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services" page, the "Information for Visitors of Sites and Apps Using Google Analytics" section of the Google Analytics "Safeguarding your data" help page, and the Google Privacy Policy. Well, Oldsmobile had had a hard time finding its way once GM started trying to define the identities of each of its brands as the _______ brand (which, it must be said, was fast becoming the most meaningful distinction between them. The PYPF cookie normally expires in approximately four weeks, the 01A1 cookie in approximately one year. Email: [email protected] Address: 7400 E Monte Cristo Ave . Until well into the 1950s, most engines were undersquare, with a narrow cylinder bore and a long piston stroke. Only the center carburetor was mechanically connected to the throttle pedal, and it was the only one equipped with a choke. $200.00. Although I often wondered why GM needed three mid-level brands, since you already have them, why not preserve them, especially since it is embarrassing and demoralizing to lose one, now two. Even with the standard Hydra-Matic transmission, the 88 was capable of 0-60 mph (0-97 km/h) in a bit over 12 seconds and could reach an absolute top speed of 97 mph (156 km/h). I have a 62 olds super 88. But it DID have a fairly illustrious season on the track and in road racing. Email or call Mark at 217/390-8500 with questions, or to inspect or test drive. Theyll also be able to suggest sources for parts, which can be a big issue. For more information about what data PayPal services collect and how that data may be used, visit the "Legal Agreements for PayPal Services" page to review the PayPal Privacy Statement and Statement on Cookies and Tracking Technologies that apply in your location (the Statement on Cookies and Tracking Technologies that applies to each region is linked from within the applicable PayPal Privacy Statement). Hoo, boy, you better run away right now). Trim Rocket 88 1951 Oldsmobile 88 Futuramic 88 Rocket 303 V8 Hydramatic custom $16,900 By 1952, the 88 was growing inexorably bigger and although Oldsmobile engineers had little trouble getting more power out of the Rocket engine by 1955, it boasted 202 gross horsepower (151 kW) newer, lighter cars soon surpassed its performance. Some people fit these motors into a modified classic car or muscle car because of Oldsmobile GM reliability and performance horsepower advantages. Not a lot of people collect or preserve those cars anymore, and many succumbed to rust or the crusher a long time ago. iThemes is one of the Liquid Web family of brands; iThemes and Liquid Web are trademarks of Liquid Web, LLC.). Classic Oldsmobile Rocket 88 for Sale. For additional technical information about the cookies used by the analytics service, see their "Google Analytics Cookie Usage on Websites" page; for your reference when reviewing that page, we did not use Google Analytics 4. 442 . The desire to raise compression ratios had prompted Kettering and his staff to develop tetraethyl lead as an octane-boosting gasoline additive in the early twenties (as discussed in greater detail in our article on the 1970-1981 Chevrolet Camaro), but the research staff had been working to raise compression ratios even higher. For the Rocket 88, Oldsmobile came up with a 303 cubic inch V8 capable of a maximum 135 hp and 283 lb-ft of torque. Although production of the 455 ended in 1976, a small number were produced through 1978 for power equipment use, such as motorhomes, boats and irrigation equipment.[15]. In Brazil, OHV V8 engines are commonly known as motores roquete (rocket motors), no matter which producer. Barr believed the Oldsmobile engine was a direct derivative of Cadillacs design, although he conceded that Cadillac also benefited from some of Oldsmobiles work. Neither of GMs new OHV V8s had an exceptionally high compression ratio at first Oldsmobiles was 7.25:1, Cadillacs 7.5:1 but that was mostly a reflection of the low octane of the gasoline of the time. Most commonly available premium fuels had an octane rating of only 80 RON, not nearly enough for the ultra-high compression ratios Kettering proposed. From 1949 until 1951, the 2-barrel carburetor 303 produced 135hp (101kW) and 253lbft (343Nm). The placement of the valves also means that the combustion chamber has a smaller surface area and thus greater thermal efficiency some 20% better than a comparable flathead. The company produced its first V8 - an L-head design . 5 vehicles matched Now showing page 1 of 1. Its true Oldsmobile didnt really maintain that position for long and didnt try again to go for the performance market until the 60s, but having a short season isnt the same as being overhyped. As part of its marketing campaign for the Rocket V8, Oldsmobile arranged for an 88 convertible to handle the pace car duties at the Indy 500, with speedway president Wilbur Shaw at the wheel. Internal combustion engines are essentially air pumps, so their power depends greatly on how much air-fuel mixture can flow into the cylinders to burn. The Rocket, along with the 1949 Cadillac V8, were the first post-war OHV crossflow cylinder head V8 engines produced by General Motors. For anyone interested the 1950 Mexican road race where 12 Olds 88s entered and 10 finished, eight of the 10 were beaten by a flathead Nash. By the time the battle reached a temporary ceasefire at decades end, the average power of the typical passenger car had (at least on paper) more than doubled. Regarding production tallies, in MY1949, Oldsmobile built 288,310 cars, of which 95,556 were the 76, meaning the remaining 192,754 (66.9% of production) were 88s and 98s with the new Rocket engine. R. V. Hutchinson, who was an Oldsmobile engineer prior to transferring to Product Studies #5 when C. L. McCuen was appointed 1st Vice President in charge of engineering, designed and build a heavy in-line 6-cylinder (850 lbs.) For the Rocket 88, Oldsmobile came up with a 303 cubic inch V8 capable of a maximum 135 hp and 283 lb-ft of torque. Millionaires would drive the few Cadillacs. The main qualities that make an engine attractive to hot-rodders are how much it costs, how easily it can be hopped up, and how much power you can get out of it without blowing it up. Because the high-octane fuels necessary to take advantage of really high compression ratios were not yet available, Burrell ordered the displacement of the production engine (known internally as 8-90) increased to 303.7 cu. Both of the practical options available in the 1930s and 1940s a train of gears or a metal chain drive were complex, expensive, and noisy. Output ranged from 160-325hp (119-242kW). (Illustration: Pushrod2 2007 IJB TA at the English Wikipedia; resized and changed file format (from PNG to JPEG) 2008 by Aaron Severson and used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license). 7-27; Michael Lamm, Two Very Important Cars! Even "modest" restorations can quickly get out of control, cost-wise, so be careful that a $2,000 bargain doesnt become a money pit. This was not an official assignment; he was simply exploring ideas for his own interest and amusement. The 88 model remained in production for a whopping 50 years and over ten. (These cookies are not usually set for administrative users, since comments they submit while logged in are associated with their user ID number and user profile information rather than a manually entered name and email address.). In any case, the early postwar period saw the emergence of the California customizing/hot rod scene; the advent of the fiberglass kit car body manufacturers such as Bill Tritts Glaspar (Tritt was retained briefly by GM as a consultant in 1951 when they were considering building a lightweight fiberglass-bodied sports car); and the birth of modern motorsport in the US with the founding of the SCCA and the advent of road racing as the most popular form of competition. The Oldsmobile Rocket 88 has a current value close to $96,250 at some auctions. (For more information about our discontinuation of Google Analytics tracking on this website, see the "Online Tracking" section of the Privacy Policy. Most 394s used 2-barrel carburetors, but special high-compression 4-barrel versions were available starting in 1961. The Rocket 88 would vacuum the chrome off V8 Fords (unless the Fords owner had made a substantial investment in aftermarket parts) and it took a semi-exotic like the new Jaguar XK-120 to soundly beat the Olds. Oldsmobiles engineering staff already knew what the Rocket could do in the B-body cars and there was no question that it fit, so Harold Metzel, then Oldsmobiles chief transmission engineer, asked Sherry Skinner if Oldsmobile could offer that combination in production. As an aside, the Oldsmobile was bought by doctors, lawyers, bank managers, shop owners, construction entrepreneurs and the like. What these activities have most in common was that there was an awful lot of engine-swapping going on. During that period, Oldsmobile Motor Group draftsman Gilbert Burrell began working privately on concepts for new cars and new engines. All full-size 1962 Oldsmobiles had the 394.
