Photo: Craiglist Kansas (edited by autoevolution)
One of the many things we love to do around here is showcase 60s-era muscle cars that managed to fly under the radar. With Cameros, Chevelles, GTOs, and Cutlasses, it was so easy for some truly competent General Motors muscle cars to slip through the cracks, completely undetected by the masses preoccupied with pinup poster queens. We bet most of you have never heard of the Oldsmobile Delmont 88. Then again, Olds did go out of their way to make things complicated.
Coming to us for sale on Craigslist out of El Dorado, Kansas, this Delmont edition of the lauded Oldsmobile 88 family comes from a surprisingly diverse and complicated family tree that makes people not intimately familiar with late '60s GM iron feel nervous. Based on the same General Motors B-Body platform that gave us the Build LeSabvre, Pontiac Bonneville, and the Chevies Caprice, Impala, and Bel Air, the Delmont 88 hit showrooms in 1967, only served to confuse a mode lineup that included names like the Super 88, used for the first few weeks of sale only, the Jetstar 88, Dynamic 88, and the Delta 88.
In the same way modern automakers pile features and luxuries onto a single model in ascending order, each bespoke-named model in the sixth-generation Olds 88 received various factory upgrades or had items omitted depending on which model you chose. This particular Delmont 88 was only manufactured for two measly years, meaning it never got to be appreciated as a true muscle car the way the Cutlass or even the Chevy Chevelle was in its day. Thus, hidden gems like this one in Kansas slip through the cracks only for absolute dorks like us to dig up and showcase to the world.
1968 was the first and only year the Delmont 88 shipped with the flagship Oldsmobile engine, the 455-cubic-inch (7.5-liter) big block Rocket V8, as an upgrade to the base 330-cubic-inch, Jetfire-series Rocket V8. All that displacement netted you in the neighborhood of 320 to 325 horsepower. Remember, this was the older gross horsepower figure, with all accessory drives removed, instead of net horsepower, tested as the engine would sit in a production car. Though not functional at the time of this Craigslist advertisement, there's something endlessly charming about a classic car practically begging you to get it going with just a few simple mechanic tricks.
With a basically perfect exterior free of a wealth of rust and dents, you will, unfortunately, need to re-upholster the front and rear white vinyl seats. But heck, with an asking price of just $4,000 out the door, there's plenty of room in the budget to fully restore this Olds 88. But who out there is going to be the person to do it?
In the same way modern automakers pile features and luxuries onto a single model in ascending order, each bespoke-named model in the sixth-generation Olds 88 received various factory upgrades or had items omitted depending on which model you chose. This particular Delmont 88 was only manufactured for two measly years, meaning it never got to be appreciated as a true muscle car the way the Cutlass or even the Chevy Chevelle was in its day. Thus, hidden gems like this one in Kansas slip through the cracks only for absolute dorks like us to dig up and showcase to the world.
1968 was the first and only year the Delmont 88 shipped with the flagship Oldsmobile engine, the 455-cubic-inch (7.5-liter) big block Rocket V8, as an upgrade to the base 330-cubic-inch, Jetfire-series Rocket V8. All that displacement netted you in the neighborhood of 320 to 325 horsepower. Remember, this was the older gross horsepower figure, with all accessory drives removed, instead of net horsepower, tested as the engine would sit in a production car. Though not functional at the time of this Craigslist advertisement, there's something endlessly charming about a classic car practically begging you to get it going with just a few simple mechanic tricks.
With a basically perfect exterior free of a wealth of rust and dents, you will, unfortunately, need to re-upholster the front and rear white vinyl seats. But heck, with an asking price of just $4,000 out the door, there's plenty of room in the budget to fully restore this Olds 88. But who out there is going to be the person to do it?
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