Lou Burch posted these shots of a very original (except for the hood ornament) ’67 Delta 88 convertible he found at the Walmart in Goose Creek, SC. It’s not often one finds a convertible of this size and vintage in this kind of well-used condition, especially a Delta 88. It was a rare bird in its day already.
I had to look it up: all of 2,447 Delta 88 convertibles were sold in 1967. It just wasn’t the kind of car one bought as a convertible anymore in 1967. A Cutlass, more likely so. But here’s a rare survivor.
“It’s not often one finds a convertible of this size and vintage in this kind of well-used condition, especially a Delta 88.”…..especially at a wallmut.
By ’67, many Americans were choosing mid-size, muscle and compact cars for convertibles. The full sizers were more the choice of families and older people, who tended towards wagons and sedans.
That was the big push. Check out Buick marketing for 1967. Much more restate dedicated to the Special and Skylark with almost nothing on the full size entry level Buick. The LeSabre just wasn’t where the profit was.
I was scared of these as a kid – that front end! The hood ornament would have made me run away even faster.
No lie… that front end and spacing of the headlights was questionable aesthetics.
Olds did seem to like the wide spaced headlights for a number of years. Lord only knows why. As a styling theme, I don’t think it did Olds any favors.
Paul, I’m curious what book you’re using for the 2,447 production number. The reason I ask is that my copy of the Standard Catalog of Oldsmobile 1897-1997 lists 2,447 as the production for the 1967 88 Hardtop (Standard, not Custom), while Delta 88 convertible production is listed as 14,471.
That 14,471 figure from my book seems odd to me – it’s way out of line with 88 convertible production for previous years. I’m wondering whether the Standard Catalog editors mistakenly transposed those numbers, and then corrected it in a later version. Wouldn’t be the first time that sort of thing has happened with those books.
(The only reason I looked this up is because I remember those figures from when I wrote an article on a ’67 Delmont convertible a few years ago – seemed odd to me that 88 convertible production jumped for one year only, but I never figured out why.)
The Standard Encyclopedia of American Cars. There’s no doubt that the book you were using transposed the numbers.
Thanks,
-Eric
This vehicle shows how “sporty” and “full size” blurred during these years. Every major domestic had a sporty full sized car. No one really knew how deep the sporty car image was and with the massive success of pony cars, really imagined larger versions selling as well. It seemed that the car buyers couldn’t get enough sportiness after 1964, and every manager of a full size vehicle thought they could boost sales similarly.
Thanks to Iacocca, his LTD pointed a new direction for large cars for the next two decades.
Back to this particular Oldsmobile. That is one crazy looking front end. To find a Delta convertible – that is rather extraordinary. I grew up in Delta backseats and never experienced anything like this one. Our neighbor had a Buick Wildcat convertible, but had it been a LaSabre convertible, that would be just as rare as this Delta.
This guy lives in my neighborhood. He has a few old cars like this in the same kinda shape.
And with aftermarket odd ball hood ornaments. Usually he drives a 74 impala coupe that has lots of surface rust.
Let’s see if these will load. He has an old Chevy truck the impala and a corvette. I haven’t seen the featured car in a while.
Corvette
Impala
And the truck
How much
While big Oldsmobiles of the late 60s were once everywhere here in the midwest, I cannot remember the last one I saw.
It occurs to me how Oldsmobile’s styling had an odd theme for awhile – the general theme for the front of the 67 big Olds got picked up on the 68 Cutlass, with that same pattern holding for at least the next couple of years, with the Cutlass’s front end looking like last year’s big car.
I like big convertibles, but do not think that the Oldsmobiles of this generation looked good as ragtops.
We had a 1967 Delmont 88 Holiday sedan in the early 1970s. Full-size Oldsmobile convertibles in general were rare even at the time.
The only one I remember was owned by our neighbor – a brand-new 1969 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight convertible. It was gone within two years, as he had a drinking problem, and his wife divorced him. The Oldsmobile was replaced by a very clean 1957 Ford Custom 300 four-door sedan.
That “switch” caused no small amount of gossip among my mother and other neighborhood wives.
Within another year, he had to sell the house and move to an apartment.
Built during the “youngmobile” advertising campaign.Hood ornament is soo ugly.
The “Youngmobile” campaign started with the 1968 model year.
The 1967 ad campaign emphasized the rest of the line-up’s connection to the Toronado. (The “Rocket-action cars are out in front again!”; “Built for excitement – Toronado style.”)
After 1968, it seemed as though Oldsmobile’s promotional emphasis was on the Cutlass and 4-4-2, not the Toronado.
The hood ornament, of course, being the cormorant from a late forties – early fifties Packard.
A college friend had one of these, white and also a ’67. We called it
the “Bomb.” With a trunk-mounted rack, we even used it for skiing.
Unfortunately, any ’67 Olds makes me think of the one that was dredged out of Chappaquidick Creek.
That one was a Delmont 88 4-dr. sedan. Some dark color, but all the photos were in b/w.
I can’t unsee that one …. or the ’61 Contnental convertible in Dallas ….. or even the ’63 Pontiac ambulance at Parkland Mem. Hospital.
…. those damn “formative years”….
Viewed in profile, I could easily confuse one of these with the midsize Cutlass. I can’t think of that many examples among other models of that era that featured such direct transposition of the same styling themes between two differently-sized cars.
Is it safe to assume the same chief stylist on this was the one who jumped to Ford briefly a few years later?
In 1971..my dad was a Olds man back.to 1958..I turned 16..he says to me..I’m gonna buy you a used cutlass for your car…I said…I don’t want a old man’s car…I need a 66 sschevelle..well we went lookin.for a busted up 396 and found one.put it back together…end of story…I had to have a ss396 66 chevelle and got one..rj