(first posted 1/2/2018)
This is a follow-up to this article from, umm, February 2016. Uhh, sorry about the delay there.
One of my New Year’s resolutions was to finish this series. Finding five more obscure Oldsmobiles proved to be a tad difficult. See, I’d covered a broad swath of forgotten models from the mid-priced GM brand in my feature on the sporty FWD Oldsmobiles of the 1980s. Then Imperialist did a great piece on the Jetfire, Jason covered a bunch of Oldsmobiles in his Shockingly Low Volume Production Cars series, and then even I inadvertently wrote about the Toronado XS and the Cutlass Calais Quad 442. But it’s all ok–there were still some to go around! Let’s take a look at five more.
Cutlass Supreme SX
Years produced: 1970-71
Total production: 9374
The short-lived Cutlass Supreme SX perfectly captures a transition period in automotive history, as American car buyers left the swinging sixties in the rear-view mirror. Muscle car performance had been in vogue in the late 1960s until rising insurance premiums chased buyers away from nameplates like GTO and Roadrunner. Luxury was becoming increasingly trendy, a movement spearheaded by cars like the Ford LTD. The Pontiac Grand Prix had successfully brought this new flavor to the intermediate segment and Oldsmobile had followed this with the 1970 Cutlass Supreme, a Cutlass with plusher accommodations and a more formal roofline. The SX melded 1960s dash with 1970s panache.
This SX is listed for sale on Hemmings.
Eschewing the hood scoops and stripes and other flashy addenda of the 442, Cutlass Supreme coupes and convertibles equipped with the SX Performance Package (option code Y-79) were distinguished visually from other Supremes via discreet badging and rear bumper cutouts for the dual chrome-tipped exhaust outlets. Inside looked like any other Cutlass Supreme, with bucket seats and woodgrain trim (a console was optional).
Underneath the hood, however, was where the “Performance” of “SX Performance Package” came into play with a choice of three different tunes of the big Oldsmobile 455 cubic-inch V8. And insurance companies were none the wiser, as the SX didn’t have a unique VIN number. For all they knew, your Cutlass Supreme SX was just a regular Supreme equipped with the standard Oldsmobile 350.
Oldsmobile barely publicized the new option package and seemed to be constantly shuffling powertrain options—not all three of the original engine options were available at the same time during the SX’s debut year. For 1971, there was only one tune of the 455 available. Still automatic-only – this was a luxurious Cutlass Supreme, after all – the SX now came only with the L32 455 with a 4-bbl carb, 320 hp and 370 ft-lbs of torque.
Alas, the scarce publicity afforded to the SX didn’t help it find buyers. The SX ultimately accounted for a tiny fraction of Cutlass sales and the package disappeared after 1971, although you could still equip a Cutlass Supreme with a 455 cubic-inch V8 in 1972.
88 Regency
Years produced: 1997-98
Total production: 16,177
This is your father’s Oldsmobile. Exactly what Oldsmobile was desperately trying to convince buyers it wasn’t selling. That controversial campaign had debuted in 1988 but by 1997, Oldsmobile’s renaissance was in full-swing. The decrepit Ciera was gone. The beautiful Aurora had launched and would soon be joined by the Intrigue and Alero, Oldsmobile’s most earnest efforts yet to appeal to import buyers. And yet amongst this tremendous change, Oldsmobile took their inoffensive Eighty-Eight, added whitewall tires and slapped the defunct Ninety-Eight’s grille and Regency badge on it. It was an attempt to retain traditional Oldsmobile consumers. You know, the exact same consumers Oldsmobile had been trying to get rid of for almost a decade.
The Regency was available with just one engine and one high level of specification. There would be no supercharged V6 or bucket seats: the Regency came only with the naturally-aspirated 3.8 V6 (205 hp, 230 ft-lbs) and a bench seat/column shifter set-up. Priced at $27,995, $5k above the base Eighty-Eight and just a few hundred dollars less than the discontinued Ninety-Eight, the Regency came equipped with traction control, leather seats and dual-zone climate control.
It would prove to be a last hurrah for the old Oldsmobile, with maverick Oldsmobile general manager John Rock telling Car & Driver the Regency would be “the last Buick we will sell”. It was priced just $2k less than a Lexus ES300 and looked like a 1992 Eighty-Eight Royale. Unsurprisingly, the Regency sold poorly: 8,219 units were sold in ’97 and 7,958 in ’98. For perspective, the ailing Ninety-Eight had sold twice as well in its final season and the Aurora sold three times as well both years. The Regency was gone after ’98, and its Eighty-Eight sibling gone after ’99. By 2000, Oldsmobile had finished slowly peeling the band-aid off and all of “your fathers’ Oldsmobiles” were gone. Sadly, despite competitive new products, Oldsmobile’s renaissance came to an abrupt halt just a few years later.
Achieva SCX
Years produced: 1992-93
Total production: 1646
Oldsmobile had led development of the Quad 4 engine, touted as the first all-new engine developed by the division since the Rocket V8 of 1949. It therefore made sense for GM to make the highest output tune of the Quad 4 exclusive to Oldsmobile. Producing 190 hp (re-rated for 185 in 1993) and 160 ft-lbs, the W41 Quad 4 was introduced in the 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais Quad 442. The engine was then carried over to the 442’s replacement, the Achieva SCX, which would be Oldsmobile’s last “W-machine”.
Those figures may be equivalent to a modern-day base four-cylinder engine but at the time, the SCX was producing almost 1992 Camry V6 levels of power with a curb weight of only 2700 pounds. 0-60 was accomplished in under 8 seconds, while the only transmission available was a five-speed Getrag manual.
Achieva SC
The base Achieva S could be optioned to include the SC (or ‘W44’) sport package, which added a firmer suspension, lower body cladding, a front chin spoiler, rear wing, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shifter, fog lights and rear spoiler, and was available with the two lower tunes of Quad 4 or the optional 3.3 V6.
The SCX included all of the SC’s extra features, although interestingly it switched out the SC’s 16-inch wheels for 14-inch ones as the SCX featured in showroom stock racing series. On the plus side, it added 10 horsepower over the SC’s highest-output Quad 4, a higher redline, and the Computer Command Ride system. This consisted of electronically adjustable struts and shock absorbers and included a rear stabilizer bar. The CCR system was merely an option on the SC and only in Quad 4-equipped models.
If you purchased an SCX without air-conditioning, it even came with baffles in the fuel tank and an external oil cooler. Performance upgrades on the SCX, however, didn’t include larger brakes.
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Oldsmobile would produce such a gutsy sport compact, considering they had been manufacturing sporty small cars since the H-Body Starfire. Oldsmobile may have had a rich heritage of performance and technology but the Achieva SCX (and SC) never sold all that well. Even the Achieva line as a whole lived very much in the shadow of the Cutlass Ciera, the archetypal “father’s Oldsmobile” (or grandfather’s). For 1994, the Achieva lineup was restructured and the SCX was gone.
Given the low production volume of the SCX, the failure rate of the Quad 4 engine, and the intended audience of these cars and those customers’ driving styles, it is highly unlikely there are many SCXs still around.
Toronado GT
Years produced: 1970
Total production: 5341
While the first-generation Toronado’s breathtaking styling had been heavily subdued in 1968, that same year saw the arrival of the W-34 option code. Toronados so equipped had a version of the Oldsmobile 455 with a higher-lift camshaft, larger intake valves, and a cold-air induction system (1968 only). Horsepower was rated at 400, up 25 from the regular 455, although torque was reduced from 510 ft-lbs to 500. The lone transmission was the three-speed Turbo-Hydramatic 425.
For 1970, the GT name was applied to any Toronado specified with the W-34 option code—the cost was $47.39. Exterior modifications were limited to discreet badging and accent stripes, as well as rear bumper cutouts for the dual exhaust. While the GT had the more powerful 455, the heavy-duty suspension package was an additional option. Bucket seats were also not mandatory on the GT.
While the GT wasn’t a muscle car, per se, it was powerful and an eminently capable grand tourer. The big 455 could haul all 4500 pounds to 60 mph in around 7.5 seconds. The visual tweaks for 1970 also added a more square-jawed, muscular appearance than the ’68-69 models, which looked like the beautiful ’66-67 models had been forced to wear orthodontic headgear.
1970 proved to be the height of the W-34 option code’s popularity, even as sporty full-size cars fell out of favor, but the market overall was still shifting towards softer, plusher vehicles. The ’71 Toronado was even more conservative looking than the restyled first-generation and was heavily Brougham-ified, inside and out. Oldsmobile arguably made the right call to make it more Eldorado than Riviera GS.
Toronado XSC
Years produced: 1980-81
Total production: unknown number in 1980, 3959 in 1981
Ten years after the Toronado GT, and following an entire decade of plush, barge-like Toronados, Oldsmobile again tried their hand at a sport edition of their full-size, front-wheel-drive coupe.
At first glance, the Toronado XSC didn’t look like a sport edition. Exterior differences were limited to badging and the same kind of color-keyed wheel discs you would see on an old Chevrolet Nova LN or Oldsmobile Omega LS. Step inside, however, and you’d find the first buckets-and-console arrangement since 1970, available in leather trim, as well as some nice touches like a leather-wrapped steering wheel and full instrumentation. The gearshift was still mounted on the column, however.
Underneath, all XSCs had thicker front and rear stabilizer bars. In all, your $330 or so got you a decent amount of extra equipment over the regular Toronado. Alas, XSCs accounted for less than 10% of total Toronado production in its sophomore year, making these one of the rarest variants of the third-generation Toronado. They would be the only variant of the third-generation Toronado equipped with bucket seats and a console.
Well, I hope that was worth the wait. Isn’t it funny how many Oldsmobiles used such similar trim names? XC, SCX, XSC, XS… Meaningless alphanumeric designations aren’t a recent invention, after all. Stay tuned for the final instalments of this series, where we will take a look at some obscure Mopars and Jeeps.
Related Reading:
Curbside Clairvoyant: 1962-63 Olds Jetfire – With Turbo Rocket Fluid!
Automotive History: 1963 Days – Popular Science Tests the Hot Compacts
Curbside Classic: 1985 Oldsmobile Toronado Caliente – Middle Ground Never Looked So Good
The Not Often Seen Curbside Classics: Oldsmobile Starfire V8
As I look down that list, it just drives home how Oldsmobile was more and more trying to figure out exactly what kind of automobile maker they were. And getting nowhere in the decision.
It may appear that way, but it it was GM, not Olds, that pointed Oldsmobile down the dead end road. GM corporate started to put the squeeze on in the ’80s and by the early ’90s, it was already over. GM put generic marketing in charge of Olds, and put engineering on the back shelf to waste away.
Just one more reason GM ended up in trouble.
I totally understand why the 88 Regency wasn’t a car they wanted to make at the time, but when I have to replace my ’96 98, I will be keeping my eyes out for one.
Loving this series–you’ve done a great job here with your clear writing and well-done research.
One of the other “limited editions” was the “Grande” option on the Ninety-Eight. Offered in 1986 and (overlapping with the Touring Sedan) in 1987, it offered interior upgrades, but no performance changes, over the standard Regency. The bucket seats with pigskin inserts had the same sew-style as the Brougham, and also included a center storage console and combo lock instead of the split-bench seat found on the Brougham. I believe the option was offered on both coupe and sedan ($975). For some reason, I’m thinking the pigskin was pigskin suede, but find no documented evidence of that. And, I’ve not researched sales levels for this option, but I’ve only seen one ever.
I kind of view this trim–especially the ’86 model–as perhaps “testing the waters” for more of a grand touring experience found in the ’87 Touring Sedan; unfortunate that it didn’t come with standard performance upgrades.
JPG attached from oldcarbrochures.com
Sorry–file didn’t show up….here ya go…
And, coffee hadn’t kicked in–the brochure DOES refer to a “suede cleaning kit” in the trunk.
I remember this option listed in the ’86/’87 brochures.
I’m guessing part of the reason for its failure/demise was nobody wanted a car with “pigskin” seats.
Interesting. I can remember seeing a Cutlass Supreme SX or two in the 70s but had no idea what the SX was about. I had forgotten all about the Toronado GT.
Another rare model could be mentionned is the Cutlass Ciera Holiday Coupe offered in the 1984-85 and 86 model years. Here a photo of a 1985 model. http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Oldsmobile/1985%20Oldsmobile/1985_Oldsmobile_Cutlass_Ciera_Cdn_Brochure/1985%20Oldsmobile%20Cutlass%20Ciera%20%20Cdn%20-03.html
I own one today! Even rarer….The 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera Brougham Holiday with a 4.3L V6 diesel!!! Gets 42 mpg on the freeway and has a lot of power for a naturally aspirated diesel. I also had a 1982 Tornado diesel 5.7L, I pulled head bolts, replaced with a Victor Reins head gasket and ARP studs and had 489,000 miles when I traded it in, never had any other issues with it. I know Oldsmobile takes a lot of crap for the 5.7L diesel, but cared for correctly they were good, reliable engines, you had to address GM’s cheap 1980’s money making fatal flaw, the head bolts.
One of Olds’ biggest problems shedding the father’s Oldsmobile image was the vast majority of the cars on the lots were bench/column shift/wheel disc models when buckets/floor shift/alloys was the image they wanted. The dealers weren’t on board with courting a new set of buyers, and didn’t load up with International Series models at all. Sadly, the father’s Oldsmobiles are the ones that survive today, as dad bought his last car and took better care of it than the more loaded ones that got used up several years ago. The 88 didn’t get a sporty model until the LSS near the end, but a ’88 Eighty-Eight Holiday coupe with buckets, alloys, and a floor shift would’ve been a much more kindly remembered car.
I have seen 2 or 3 of the Cutlass Supreme SX models, and just assumed that they were the “base” model of the Supreme. That gold color combo was (apparently) the most produced color for that model.
I have also seen 1 or 2 Achieva SCX models over the years. I’m guessing that the fragile engine cursed the model with high warranty costs and buyers for Oldsmobiles probably figured a V6 was a better “investment”.
I have seen a Toronado GT occasionally on various Craigslists, but never “in the metal”. I always wondered what the package entailed.
I remember an earlier model of Toronado XSC, that model in the 70s with the wraparound rear window. This one? Not so much. Yet this later XSC is a very appealing car, while the 70s version looks like a showcase for an unusual rear window treatment.
Oldsmobile had many great cars during it’s history, too bad they were stymied by GM’s management.
That was the Toronado XS (1977-78). It was intended to be the Toronado XSR with T-tops as well as the huge wraparound rear window, but they ran into some sort of production problems with that arrangement so only one was ever built (it’s still around incidentally), and instead they substituted a glass sunroof and called it the XS – but not before lots of brochures had been printed showing only the XSR.
Did nobody at Olds care that XS is pronounced “excess”, which seemed eerily appropriate for a huge car sitting in showrooms alongside downsized 88s, 98s, and Cutlasses by this time?
Just for grins, here’s a picture of the Toronado XSC instrument cluster including the “gage” (GM parlance) package.
Excuse me while I shed a silent tear for Oldsmobile…
I’ve always considered the Toronado to be one step below the Eldorado even though, I guess, the Riviera was supposed to fill that spot.
I’ve always liked the looks of the Toronado more.
I really liked the 1984/85 Caliente Edition.
The whole “This isn’t your father’s Oldsmobile” ad campaign was a huge slur on the men from the “Greatest Generation” who bought these cars by the millions from the 1940s to the 1970s. Olds paid a heavy price for that blunder.
“The whole “This isn’t your father’s Oldsmobile” ad campaign was a huge slur on the men from the “Greatest Generation” who bought these cars by the millions from the 1940s to the 1970s.”
A good point. And our fathers were not fools, they bought Oldsmobiles because they were stylish, powerful, well-built cars. And they turned out to be very loyal, too. Much more loyal towards Oldsmobile than Oldsmobile was towards them.
The problem was that their children and grandchildren were patronizing the Honda or Toyota dealer instead of the friendly Oldsmobile dealer.
The campaign remains a textbook example of how NOT to promote a marque, but it was attempting to address a real problem.
That ’70 Toronado GT just screams, “Mannix-wannabe!”.
The ’70 Cutlass SX shows how much Oldsmobile wanted to cover all its bases at the time, even going to the extent of offering a formal roof. Compare it with the one-year-only, fastback Rallye 350 with its wild, bright yellow color, big rear spoiler, and tape stripes, yet only equipped with a 350, some of which were a 2-bbl.
Then there were the W-30 442 and ‘Ramrod’ W-31, the latter of which was one of the better balanced musclecars of the era.
There was even the bottom-feeder F-85 2-door post sedan, a real oddity considering that all 2-door Chevelles were now hardtops and it was Pontiac the only other GM division that offered the remaining 2-door post sedan intermediate Tempest.
Well, the formal roof was standard on the 1970-72 Cutlass Supreme and was a huge hit.
Was not only on the SX. Led to # 3 sales and helped Cutlass line be #1.
Sounds like “Anything for a sale!” rather than “This is our brand.”.
The 1997-98 Olds Regency was not marketed as the “88 Regency”. Meant to be sold as separate model to ‘traditional buyers’. They were doing the same with LSS, no Eighty-Eight [as it was spelled out at the time] in the model name, aimed at ‘import buyers’.
Eighty-Eight was on the way out as with Cutlass in late 90’s. But we know the rest of the story.
What was your father’s Oldsmobile? It was a high powered technology advanced car that this ad campaign did not fulfill. Believe me being a retired ad agency guy, you cannot fool anyone. Later Oldsmobiles became a mockery of what it started out as- tecnolgically advanced almost luxury division appealing to the true enthusiast. It’s a shame but one should not be surprised at its demise
Well, my Father’s Oldsmobiles were dealership demos, rocket powered Cutlass’s and Delta 88s that his fellow 40 somethings lined up to buy and came back for another one when it was time. He worked at the local Chev-Olds emporium and in the ’70s they sold ’em as fast as they could bring ’em in. My particular favourite was a 403 powered ’77 Cutlass Salon with every option. I recall him marvelling at the 10k price tag.
I also enjoyed the ’68 Delta 88 with a 455 4 barrel that he picked up cheap off the trade in lot. It drank the best premium fuel you could find at a shocking rate, and it would suck the headlights out of my buddy’s ’68 440 Chrysler. With 5 aboard.
The advertising campaign of the 80s/90s did get one thing right, they sure as hell weren’t my Father’s Oldsmobiles. Not even close.
The 88 Holiday Coupe from the late 70s was another interesting mishmash of luxury and sport design cues…
Wow, look at how much better the headrests are on the Toronado XSC bucket seats compared to those on the standard base model. The nearly useless headrests GM used during the loose-cushion Brougham era were a major beef of mine. Chrysler usually put extra loose-cushion padding on the headrests on their pillowy bench seats so they would line up with the rest of the seatback (as in the LeBaron shown below), but GM just used the standard headrests from the base models that were way too far back and way too low to serve as either a headrest or whiplash protection.
And nowadays, they’re all too far forward, at least for me and my Alien head.
The Cutlass SX is my kind of hybrid, a Muscle car PLC 🙂 I really do find the muscle car era lingerers the most interesting products of the early 70s, it’s not entirely far from my personal 60s favorites, the Mercury Cougar XR7 and Dodge Charger SE, in that they were luxury oriented too. Only difference was the 70s definition of luxury began moving past the interiors, as formal roofs effectively denoted the “PLC bodystyles”
The Toronado GT I like as well. I know many write off the Toro after 67, but the 70 mannix restyle was lightyears more attractive than the 68 & 69 IMO. White is a good color on it too, too many Toros were made in beige gold brown or some dark drab metallic color.
The Achieva SCX has aged remarkably well aesthetically, it looks contemporary for the times yet has an Oldsmobile look to it – in a good way – the interior looks almost Collonade like, very 77 Grand Prix like in layout, but that look had a bit of a resurgence among all automakers at the time, and had it not been for the hard rubbery feel, it also seems uncharacteristicly sporty and contemporary. I think the failure here is typical GM, they made a great car on paper, decontented it heavily to create the lesser pleab models, and priced the “good” one into the stratosphere so no one would ever buy it. The SCX should have been the standard Achiva.
There was also the 1969 Delta 88 Royale with the “big” 455 option. A Q ship!
“1969 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale Holiday Coupe Rocket 455 V-8 390 hp Turbo Hydra-Matic (aut. 3) .
Specs datasheet with technical data and performance data plus an analysis of the direct market competition of Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale Holiday Coupe Rocket 455 V-8 390 hp Turbo Hydra-Matic (aut. 3) in 1969, the model with 2-door hardtop coupe body and V-8 7446 cm3 / 454.4 cui, 291 kW / 396 PS / 390 hp (SAE gross) offered since September 1968 for North America . According to the ProfessCars™ estimation this Oldsmobile would accelerate 0-60 mph in 6.1 sec, 0-100 km/h in 6.4 sec, 0-200 km/h in 39.3 sec and a quarter mile time is 14.9 sec.”
Given its size and weight this car was impressive! The 2 Sales Managers I worked for each had managed to snag one….they WERE SURPRISING! 🙂
Admittedly a 2020 Accord 2.0L turbo will run a 14.5 Qtr, but that’s several decades of engineering progress since the ’69 Delta Royale! DFO
Sites like ProfessCars and the like are presenting calculated data rather than actual performance, and should be taken with a grain of salt (or three). That said, Car and Driver tested a 1970 Delta 88 Royale with that powertrain and the police package, and got 0–60 mph in 6.9 seconds, 0–70 mph in 9.2 seconds, and the quarter in 15.4 seconds @ 90.6 mph, which is quite decent if not Supercar-beating. I am very dubious that a Delta 88 could reach 200 km/h (which is about 125 mph) under any conditions, much less in less than 40 seconds. C/D claimed to have reached a maximum test speed of 113 mph @ 4,000 rpm, which is pretty close to what I would expect to be its maximum speed; I’d buy that you might be able to eke out a few more mph given a long enough straightaway, but not 125 mph.
(C/D estimated a top speed of 138 or 140 mph, depending on which part of the data panel you read, which was likely obtained by multiplying the speed in gear in direct drive by the maximum upshift point in first and second, but the idea that a big American sedan of this time would pull to redline in top gear with a 2.93 axle is fanciful, to say the least.)
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a Cutlass Supreme from that era without a vinyl roof. Perhaps it was removed before repainting. I’m surprised there wasn’t an engine code in the VIN.
Good thing there were front side repeaters on the Toronado GT. It is weird they went back to the big blades for a single year. The wheel opening flares are unique, too.
“Excuse me while I shed a silent tear for Oldsmobile…”
— principaldan)
My sentiment, too.
The ’70 formal roof Cutlass was created when GM wouldn’t give Oldsmobile a version of the Monte Carlo/Grand Prix long wheelbase G-body. Their personal luxury car was thus less unique.
Olds (and Buick) used the formal roof from the Monte & G/P on their “Colonade” ’73-’77 A-bodies for their upmarket versions.
The SX option was also the last hurrah of the “Turnpike Cruiser” package from the mid-’60s using a large engine with a high axle ratio for decent performance with better fuel economy.