It was an otherwise ordinary, late-summer Sunday afternoon, three years ago. I had just spent an hour or so at the Lincoln Park Zoo, one of my favorite free attractions here in the city of Chicago, along with the adjacent conservatory. It’s a fun experience to share with another person or small group, but I also enjoy going to such places by myself, which allows me to go at my own pace. I can’t think of that many other people who would have enjoyed spending as much time with the African penguins at the Pritzker Penguin Cove as I did that day.
Many of the zoo’s indoor facilities had been closed since last year out of safety concerns amid the pandemic, and there had even been online sign-up sheets for attendees to submit to help ensure proper regulation of the number of visitors at any given time. Those measures had all gone away months ago, with COVID-19 infection rates decreasing at the time. It has been a wonderful thing to be able to resume enjoyment of many of the attractions this city has to offer.
I was standing outside the Stockton Drive entrance to the zoo, and immediately noticed this large, imposing, black-and-chrome vehicle approaching as it headed south. It wasn’t just any car. It wasn’t just any Oldsmobile. It was what appeared to be the rolling, metaphorical equivalent of what we now know to be the Delta variant. It had mutated from a garden-variety family sedan into what we see here. (In all honesty, it looks bone-stock save for the rims.)
It’s a base-model, ’85 Royale four-door sedan, as tipped off by its grille, and one of just over 69,600 such examples produced that year. In the Delta lineup, its popularity was second only to the Royale Brougham four-door, which sold 72,100 units. In distant third was the Royale Brougham coupe, with about 31,900 sold. Total Delta sales that year were around 241,800 cars.
It’s not at all that I took issue with this car’s wheels or its overall look, all of which are fine with me. It’s just that there was no ignoring it. It was there, and very real, with its large, chrome wheels and heightened stance, whether or not it was to my particular taste or if I had chosen to believe that it actually existed. There was no denying that it was right in front of my very eyes as it moved slowly, deliberately forward on the asphalt. An Oldsmobile is the only “Delta” I hope to personally encounter as I make my own personal choices to live my life, but also to act responsibly and safely throughout the rest of this year.
Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois.
Sunday, September 16, 2018.
I sure don’t remember seeing many of these in black. It sure looks good! And yes… vinyl top too! The wheels probably aren’t my thing, as they’d compromise the flying waterbed ride.
I thought the 88 dropped the amber rear turn signals for 1985, but then again, I recently stated that only the 4 doors had them… and the fourth (brochure) picture proves I was wrong.
Only the new top-line Royale Brougham LS, the one with the luxe seats taken from the last RWD 98 from the previous year, had the all-red taillights. It also grabbed a few exterior pieces from the 1984 98 that would fit on the 88, including the chromier eggcrate grille, opera lamps, and wide backup lamps instead of small square ones. The LS model was meant to appeal to people who didn’t like the new downsized FWD 1985 98, which was now considerably smaller than the 88 which retained the RWD B body until 1986 when it too moved to the smaller FWD platform. Curiously, the car here also has the thin chrome strip that runs across the car just below the door handles, which was only included on the 88 LS.
Buick fielded a similar car in 1985 called the LeSabre Collector’s Edition that had the plush seats from the 1984 Park Avenue.
Thank you for this. I just like saying “Royale Brougham LS”. It just adds layer upon layer of extra onto the basic Delta model name.
Don’t forget the 1988 Cutlass Supreme Classic Brougham
I remember thinking the addition of the amber turn signals looked forced when they first arrived for (was it?) ’84. I thought they looked out of place as an attempt at a European-style detail on what was probably the most American-looking of the big GM cars. They looked much more at home on the downsized ’86 Deltas, IMO.
I possess a natural immunity to this variant, and it has been quite effective since the early 1980s.
When my mother started looking at new cars in 1985 she said she wanted something larger and nice. I was gritting my teeth, waiting for her to start picking colors on one of these, given her long and positive relationships with three Oldsmobiles. There was something about the details on these that was just wrong, and I would have been better with any of the other GM B body flavors. But then she got her hands on a Consumer Reports magazine that did not give these a very good reliability report, which I had not seen coming. Whether we consider it a mask or an injection or just good luck, that magazine did the trick.
That is interesting, because as I recall Consumer Reports gave high marks to the Chev Caprice in an ’83 full test and in at least the subsequent couple of years’ capsule reviews—though they did deduct points because you must rotate a medallion to insert the trunk key, a nuisance. Tsk!
Daniel – I couldn’t prove it of course, but if I had to guess, I would speculate I would suspect that at a glance the Oldsmobile ratings were terrible even while the Caprice ratings were fine. What was the difference between two otherwise almost identical cars?
Here’s my theory encapsulated in a video of the day
I suspect that the word was pretty well out by 1983
What am I missing? The diesel engine was available in the Caprice as well as the Delta, I’m pretty sure, wasn’t it?
Lokki, thank you for posting this video. I like how words like “prestige” and “prestigious” were used to describe the Diesel-powered Oldsmobiles, as if there was something inherently prestigious about the sounds and smell of Diesel engines of the day in operation versus the prestige of the expensive, European cars that were powered by them.
Yeah, eh? that prestigious diesel sound, LOLROFL. Uhhh…yeahno.
I have a copy of the 1983 “Annual Auto Issue” of Consumer Reports.
The magazine separated the reliability ratings for the diesel-powered versions of the Oldsmobile Cutlass (rear-wheel-drive version), Delta 88 and Ninety-Eight from their gasoline-powered counterparts.
For the Chevrolet Caprice, the magazine simply said it had “insufficient data” to rate the reliability of diesel-powered Caprices.
When it came to recommending the best large cars for 1983, the magazine said that the Caprice and Cadillac Sedan Deville had “fared very well in our tests, but we find it difficult to recommend them because both are likely to be less reliable than the average car.”
It did recommend the Buick Electra and LeSabre, and gasoline-powered versions of the Oldsmobile Delta 88 and Ninety-Eight, as they were less likely to be troublesome.
That is interesting. I wonder if there was really a significant difference in the dependability of the Delta 88 and Caprice, or if the difference was a spurious result of the shortcomings in CR’s methodologies.
If my later experience with a similar 1984 Ninety Eight was representative, there were probably too many smoked THM200-4R transmissions and wonky body electrical issues reported to CU by owners who had been spoiled by a long series of really good Oldsmobiles.
Was the THM200-4R as ridiculously bad as the 3-speed THM200? I ask because I’ve seen and heard reports of people putting the 200-4R in built-up race cars with fairly hairy motors.
That THM200-4R was in my father’s ’84 Regency. In the summer of 1988, my mother took the Regency to pick my grandmother up at the Port Authority. My sisters and I I rode in the back seat. As Mom entered West Street at west 46th, there was a strange banging noise under the car which then lost every gear except first on the Henry Hudson between 65th and 96th Street. First died on the corner of 96th and Amsterdam, in front of a pizzeria under a whorehouse. Mom-mom didn’t notice the whorehouse right away, and was hungry for pizza. We sat on that corner until 3am. When the flatbed wrecker Baum sent from Ferndale arrived.
It was a $2k rebuild at Kleinberger’s garage in Parksville, and the next year, Dad parked the ’84 98 in the garage, where it sat for ten years, until the cleaning lady’s brother took it to Alabama.
That sounds like all kinds of fun and excitement.
Hello Joseph, really enjoyed reading this essay this morning! Great as usual…
A couple of weeks ago, my friend and I attended a car show here in New Jersey, We take notice of a big, beautiful Delta 88 Royale Coupe, either a 1975 or 1976 model (I don’t recall at this time) in all it’s glory as it was in beautiful condition.
My friend turns to be and says, “I’ll be right back”, and runs off to his car. He comes back with a mask on, holding a bottle of hand sanitizer in one hand, and his vaccination card in the other. For the moment, I didn’t understand why he came back with these items. Then it hit me! He stands next to the car and I snap a few pics ..
The owner of the car wasn’t there, but a few people walking around saw this and they were hysterical.
He posted the pics on his social media, with a caption saying, “Gotta protect myself from the Delta variant”
Haha!! This wins the internet for the day, as far as I’m concerned. (And thank you.)
You’re welcome Joseph ! Can’t wait for your next essay.
If that turned up in my feed, I’d be sure to pass it on!
Must be the CC effect; I saw one of these when I drove past a mechanic’s shop out in the country over the weekend. That reminded me, my parents had a beautiful Royale of this generation they bought from my great-aunt. Great car until it was rear-ended and had to be totaled. My wife also brought a Royale Brougham with her when we got married. That one was in more typical condition and rusted out on us. It had the opera lights and trip calculator. I was thinking it would be fun to get another mid-80s Delta 88, preferably in a Radwood-compliant color.
40 years later – this vehicle looks amazing. 40 years ago – this vehicle was common and invisible. Daily drivers in daily driving. Now that the millions of them are gone, when one appears, it gets noticed.
The 98 always caught my eye – the Delta, only when one cut me off on the Dan Ryan. So I have been conditioned to glance at a Delta, without actually looking at one. I can’t do that anymore, because like an old Rick Astley tune, seeing one of these is like remembering some kind of memory of being stuck in Chicago traffic.
These sleds were bought up by South Siders like myself and turned into cruisers with Our Lady decals over the headlights, Spreewell wheels, blackened windows, and a throbbing aural assault. This particular vehicle looks like it managed the fate of most. While it still has wheels worth more than the car, it is a nice looking car.
GM made a lot of these and I bet they didn’t give a fig about a single one of them.
Not too long ago I saw one of these here in Tennessee that was remarkable for two reasons. Mainly, it looked brand new: not only bone-stock but like it had just come off a showroom floor. It wasn’t tired and shabby, nor did it show signs of being over-restored.
That would have been nice enough, but it also had an Uber sticker in the window!
My understanding is that Uber would not allow a driver to use a car this old, so it must have been a joke. But it would be neat if you could call Uber and be picked up by a baby-blue 1985 Delta 88!
I really hope the owner of that example appreciates it (which sounds like the case) and that it is not a new acquisition. Seeing one of these in showroom condition would just make me smile.
Every time I see a car with those oversized wheels and thin tires a picture of a covered wagon pops immediately into my head. Can’t shake it. Even some covered wagons had oversized wheels compared to others.
My first thought too, though these aren’t as visually offensive as some. And size-wise, they’re just large, not cartoonishly so.
The driver of the donk sure looks proud of that shiny black car. I mean, he’s positively pixelated…
She (and it was a she) definitely had a facial expression that I saw as being pride of ownership. I was feeling it, too, even if I was just admiring her Olds from the bus stop.
Love the car, not a fan of the wheels and tires. But more importantly- Penguins!!! I could watch them all day, and I have. The entry level of the New England Aquarium in Boston was my favorite penguin watching venue ever. I’d happily pay the price of admission to sit on a bench and chill with my penguin homies. Screw the rest of the sea creatures.
I love penguins so much. A few years back, I did the Penguin Encounter at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago’s Museum Campus and got to get up close to a Magellanic penguin. It’s name was “Chile”, like the country.
I don’t care that many penguins are smelly and loud. They’re such amazing creatures. There’s a place in Dubai where you can actually give a King penguin a hug, and if I didn’t have to travel literally halfway around the world and spend thousands of dollars to do that, said experience would be on my bucket list.
Here in Melbourne, Australia, there’s small colony of about 1400 fairy penguins who come out from the water every dusk onto a breakwater just 4.5 miles from downtown. About 80 miles south-east, there’s a colony of about 30,000 who do the same thing at Phillip Island, which is a huge tourist attraction.
They are gorgeous little creatures, and cute, being only about 12 inches high.
And uniquely, for an Australian animal, they can’t poison or kill you!
I call these raised cars with their wagon wheels “oil change specials.” No ramps or jackstands needed to change the oil; just slide underneath!
CC Effect: Saw a nice Ninety-Eight of the ’91+ generation on donks and all windows open in yesterday’s extremely hot and sultry weather — A/C nonfunctional I would assume.
Would probably have been cheaper to fix the AC; that would’ve been my priority.
These Deltas were probably the most common “old looking cars” when I was a kid, which was jellybean era 90s and anything sheer look looked positively archaic. I never really liked anything about them and still don’t, they look clunky and heavy compared to a Caprice or Lesabre, and while I can appreciate the use of amber turn signals in the rear I find the taillights really unattractive, for me the Olds got the shortest end of the stick of the 1980 B body refreshes
Wheels are fine, I don’t get judgy about large diameter wheel choice until body and chassis hacking for tire clearance ensues. I don’t like the diameter or design but they’re at least no worse than the fake looking wire hubcaps GMs fitted to everything at the time but as long as they keep the owner happy enough for us all to see an old car on the roads more power to him. I’d rather see color matched Olds Super Stock wheels myself but those would still offend the purists.
Thanks for keeping the fabulous GMs coming. A fan of these B bodies as well. Rims included. I have a set of early 2000s 20″ chrome no name wheels in my shop at the ready for when I finally break down and buy a GM land yacht. Period correct for that early aughts scene when i was in my 20s. Now in my 40s, it’s my version of a mid-life crisis….
I also enjoy doing many things solo, keeping my pace on my time can really help clear my head. Don’t get me wrong, I like doing things in a group setting, but going off and doing something/anything alone greatly helps put my mind at ease. I watched various groups of waterfowl recently on the river behind my house earlier on my first day off in a while…..Wonderful! No phone, no distractios and I was able to really relax and recharge.
Nature is wonderful for recharging a jaded life. I’m on a large block surrounded by trees in the midst of a small country town. I’ll often lean on the gate into my orchard and just watch the chickens, ducks and geese going about their daily life, along with all the New Holland Honeyeaters flitting from bush to bush as they feed and play, along with the larger wattlebirds. When I’m weeding in the back garden, the geese wander over to the fence and honk at me to hurry up and pass them the goodies! Crested pigeons drop down from the trees and hunt around for grains of wheat that might have been overlooked by my flock, while rosellas and lorikeets flash by overhead almost too quick to see in sudden flashes of brightness, their musical calls alerting my to look up. Occasionally a kookaburra will laugh from the trees down by the creek, or there’ll be the scream of a plover from further down the block. Flocks of cockatoos pass by, and at night hundreds of noisy corellas roost in the tall sugar gums at the end of my street.
TL/DR: Sometimes I wonder if that’s partly why the world’s such a mess: so many people aren’t in touch with nature in their daily lives.
Amen.
Here, ensconced in the wilds of a big city, Mr Wilding, there is a plenitude, but of a type that differs from yours.
I too often lean, or sit wedged, against my weeny balcony, and I ponder the traffic and its angry honking and revving. I feel in my bones the trams rattle the building, and breathe in the remnant unleaded and VW diesel exhausts. I see nextdoor’s roof a/c buzzing and their aerials rattling. I too glance up for pause to hear the subdued scream as yet another jetliner comes in low, and cough just slightly after as the kerosene smell descends, and then the waft of the 15 bins rises from the concrete below to greet me. Also here there are flocks, though flocks of yahoos and hoons who cry out in drunken splendour as they pass by, mostly at 3am. I also take in the laugh of an unseen source,that of the cruel man two doors away as he yet again yells at his kids, and I vibrate in time to the thump of the neighbor’s music through the wall. There is solitude too – if you search for it – mainly whilst on the toilet.
In the street, I too feed impatient creatures, parking meters and drug-addicts their coins, a local homeless guy a rudely-demanded sandwich. I avoid eye contact with all, as this is the unspoken rule of crowded space, this natural order respected.
All this, and more yet, you do not have in your country quiet!
But I can’t agree that the world is a mess because people are not in touch with the natural world: it is what it is because people choose greed, and there is ample proof that they can do so whether on a quiet acreage amongst the natural world or cut off from the organic sources of our being.
I’m gonna smoke that in my pipe for awhile.
Thanks.
Peter, I live in a town 62km to the north of Melbourne CBD which is fast becoming a suburb, but nature is still hanging on here, I have 2 New Holland Honeyeaters who have built a nest in a bush in my back yard, the chicks have hatched, I can hear them when I walk past, it is an honour to have them, they are delightful birds, I like their vertical take offs from the fence spinning around and landing back in the same spot.
Great minds, Bertolini. There is so much greatness to be had from doing things by oneself. I’m a social person when I want to be, but I treasure my alone time.
Whenever I see one of these, I think of Frank Furillo taking Joyce Davenport to a hotel for a noon time tryst before battling in afternoon court.
I love how ’80s this reference is! It’s perfect for this car.
The last new car my Father-in-Law bought; in Rosewood (metallic burgundy) and tan. The four of us drove it to Defiance, Ohio to visit my wife’s twin sister and her family over Thanksgiving. We started out in the Red River Valley and averaged 22 mpg with cruise set at 75 mph, thru Chicago highways pocked with potholes the size of the hood. Thru an early winter storm in Wisconsin and down to 30 mph, the heavy old gurl handled it all with aplomb.
When my father-in-law passed, I gave a bid for it to my brother-in-law which was 1500 more than the high retail at the time. His wife nixed the deal and ‘gave it away’ for less than 1800 dollars. The car was still in new condition and had very few miles; her reasoning was someone who deserved it more (in her mind) from her church should have it. A single woman who never cared for it from day one. Smoked in it. Never washed it, lost 3 of the 4 hubcaps, put dents in every bumper and every panel. Within two years holes began to appear. It never got put in the garage again, nor did it ever go to the garage for service.
Last time I saw the car was 6 months after the woman died; it was a sorry affair and it now belonged to a young college age male.
I silently wept and bemoaned it’s loss; I did my best to own a family member’s car which held many memories and served my wife’s folks very well during the few miles they travelled in it.
….. and am sure it has been already scrapped with less miles than most of this model had driven in their lives.
Thank you for sharing this. I completely understand where you’re coming from – your F.I.L.’s Delta was more than a nice, well-kept Olds. It was all of the care that went into it, and the history this car held within your extended family.
Defiance, Ohio wasn’t that far from where my late grandparents had their farm. I have been there.
I had an ’85 Delta as a company car handed down in ’87 by the owner.
It was a wonderful, comfortable, reliable car used 5 days a week as an outside salesman’s car in a large metropolitan area. It was also a great highway car, too.
Catchy post, Mr D. I’ll do my best to spread it about.
It happens to be an utterly beautiful evening here, 75 degrees, smelling entirely of spring, the first such day we’ve had in far too long, especially noticed because we are again locked down (now for a total of over 200 days since the horror began in early ’20). Australia has had very little death or infection – but then, in foolish complacence, entirely stuffed-up the vaccination rollout before delta arrived seeking its vengeance.
Anyway, it’s nice see the photos, as they look like the day outside here, and it’s nicer still to think of zoos and doing things once again, which we will.
In re-reading this I am thinking there was a larger gas engine than the 305 stated here. I believe my father in law’s Delta Royale had a 350 with the 4 speed automatic completing the setup.
He had traded in an ’82 with 350 and also had a 350 in the two tone maroon from ’79 before that. The car he owned when I met her family was a light green ’75 Olds of same content. Somewhere along his lengthy ownership of Oldsmobiles, one of them had a Chevrolet engine and a weinie little transmission from the ‘shove-ette’ gene pool. A letter from Oldsmobile asking him of his appreciation (in his case complete frustration and disgust with a lesser entity abiding under the hood). I don’t remember which car it was, but he never drove it after finding this out, instead choosing the Ford pickup each time the garage door arose.
I am thinking that car had less than 20,000 miles when it went in on trade.
Was the Chevrolet engine as good or better than the Olds engine it should have had ? By the way, he never wanted a thing to do with the diesels, preferring they should power his tractors not his passenger cars or work trucks on the farm
The (gasoline) 350 engines were available for general purchase in the B-bodies in some years after 1979; in other years they were police-only.
The severely underspecified transmission you mention was the Turbo Hydramatic 200 (TH-200). GM decided to save money and weight by using a transmission ridiculously inadequate to the torque from the engine in front of it and the mass of the car around it, and they failed early and often.
The Chev-instead-of-Olds engine thing was written up in this post. Whether buyers’ objections had any real merit or were just sentimental (ginned-up brand loyalty based on nothing of any substance) is still the subject of debate.