New York City is a city of bumper guards. It’s a city where street parking is the norm and where scratches, dings and dents are unfortunately a fact of life. To see a 1965 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 Delta parked on the street is to simultaneously feel delight and anxiety – delight for seeing a classic in such stellar condition and anxiety for you fear an errant passer-by might inadvertently nick it with their car.
I never saw this more than the one time in my old neighborhood so its street parking adventures were likely few and far between. The spotless Ocean Mist (or is it Turquoise Mist?) paint seems to have studiously avoided road salt and the chrome gleams in the sun, but for a small rusty patch on the front bumper.
I believe this is a Delta, the top-line model in the Dynamic 88 series, based on the thick chrome mouldings running down the side of the car. Oldsmobile’s B-Body range was sprawling in ’65, as you can see from the above brochure page. Below the Dynamic 88 range was the Jetstar 88, not to be confused with the sporty Jetstar I coupe. It’s all a bit confusing, especially considering the pillared and hardtop sedans and coupes had two different names (Celebrity and Holiday, respectively), meaning you technically could buy an Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 Delta Celebrity sedan. That’s a lot of syllables.
There’s a flag or coat of arms dangling from the rear-view mirror that I don’t immediately recognize, as well as a “police” sign sitting atop the dash. Is this the pride and joy of a police officer who drove it in one day to show their colleagues? Fortunately for this police officer, this street near the precinct doesn’t require parallel parking. It’d be almost a tragedy to see a dent in this glimmering blue Olds.
Photographed in Washington Heights, Manhattan in 2013-14.
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: 1966 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 – The Best $3,000 Big Sedan In 1966?
Curbside Classic: 1966 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 Celebrity – One’s Dynamic Expression
Too pretty for the city.
Forget the hazards of parallel parking, it has plenty of problems in that photograph. A maintenance-deferred Celica with taped-on headlight on one side, a 20-year old Civic modded with a slim budget and juvenile aesthetic on the other. Both are coupes with longer-than-average doors. That car wants to get back to the wide lanes and private garages of the ‘burbs NOW.
My feeling too.
At least the Olds’ driver will be able to see and be at a level with the Celica and Civic’s driving positions when he drives off, instead of walled-in by CUV/SUV door sheetmetal.
I’ve done it, both in New York and Chicago, not recently though. Had no choice. Generally, only parked near where I lived and sometimes would leave my car for days on end in one spot. Had a pristine Volvo that lived on the street in both places for nearly a decade. The tail light lenses got stolen one night in New Jersey and my car finally gave up it’s life in a hard head on collision on Lawrence Ave. In Chicago. I wound up pretty much O.K. though. Bought the Volvo new, not hardly a scratch until then. Found my lost wallet that had slipped under the floor mat at the tow lot. Had the better part of a paycheck in cash in it! Had a good party and put money towards a beat up Opel Manta Rallye that I bought last day of the month (best day to get a deal). Figure I saved the salesman his job – at least for the next month or so. Only bad thing that ever happened to the Opel was the radiator got stolen one night. That’s not counting the time when I had a date and was exited and locked my keys in the car with myself, my date and her kids locked out at 10 P.M. on our way home from a carnival. Had to pay $30 for something I should have been able to figure out for myself. Thing is, even in the city, most neighbors are pretty considerate. Folks generally look out for each other. Helps if they like you.
It’s amazing to me what I see parked on the street here in Chicago. Notwithstanding the older classics I post to the Cohort, it’s not uncommon to see $80,000 German cars or even the occasional Ferrari parallel parked.
They who can afford those cars can afford to insure them.
The 65 model marked a real change in direction at Oldsmobile, one that gave it a cohesive theme that continued through the 70s and beyond. Those wide open rear wheels were sort of groundbreaking in its class but soon everyone else had followed suit.
That said, I never really warmed to the 65. It was jarring to a kid who lived with a squared-off 64 Cutlass in the driveway. I didn’t like the abrupt bump at the C pillar, I didn’t like the odd taillight treatment and I didn’t like the perfectly round full wheel cutouts. I thought then (and still do) that the Pontiac and Buick were so much more attractive.
Not a GM groupie normally but I thought these were really well done at the time. One minor objection I had to GM cars of that era are the wimpy door handles with those little oval buttons.
Olds designers pulled off a visual trick with their front fender styling in the axle-to-dash which appears longer than either of its Pontiac or Buick B-body brethren. My conclusion is the radius is tighter to the tire with the upper section of the radius slightly covering it. Along with the clean, full sides, it looks much longer than the other B-bodies but likely isn’t. This may have been done as a visual tie-in to the upcoming Toronado.
I like these cars – a treat to see this one. There were at least three new 65s in my life in high school. The owners of the place I worked part-time had a Holiday coupe, white over metallic red interior with snazzy wire wheel covers. For my taste the fastback styling was a little too much for such a large car and this particular one was raked almost like a first-year Avanti. It was traded in two years later for yet another new Olds fastback coupe.
My high school yearbook counselor had a 65 metallic blue four door sedan, I believe the same model pictured here. He drove it like a bat out of hell when we went on school expeditions (his whole personality changed behind the wheel) which made riding with him a lot of fun, I thought. These were really nice cars, V8 power, quiet, well-built, stable ride on the highway.
Another high school teacher had a 65 sedan but I’ve forgotten its details. He was pretty mild-mannered and drove it accordingly. A lot more power and presence than his previous Chevy II SS which, despite the model, had a six.
1965 was a record sales year and these cars were all over the Midwest when new. The economy was strong, wages were up, and a lot of folks were moving up from Chevrolet. The vast array of models and options were confusing and fun for car spotting. Good times.
The 65 full size Olds was a pretty amazing engineering feat. New frame. New body. New engine. New transmission. All in the same year!
My father got one of these new as his company car in 1965 and to see Reverse after Park just blew my little 12 year old mind. Before that my father had a 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1964 full size Olds with the Roto-Hydramatic and Reverse was always at he bottom of the quadrant where I thought it should always be.
Haha I remember that same transition. Our 64 Cutlass was a PRNDL while Grandma’s 64 Catalina (and our prior 61 F-85) was a PNDSLR. And lemmetellya going back and forth between my PNDDLR 63 Cadillac and Mom’s conventional 74 LeMans was always a challenge.
Great to see one of these on the street… I love the angle showing that long decklid.
Incidentally, the flag on the mirror is of the Dominican Republic.
D’oh! Of course! I took this in my old ‘hood (Washington Heights) which has a huge Dominican population. I should’ve made the connection.
I have been parking on the street in Brooklyn for fifteen years. You see some cars with extra stainless steel bar bumpers (which would probably mash the crap out of your car if they parallel parked by feel) or various cushion mat things hanging over the plastic bumpers on some cars. I’ve never seen any of these things anywhere else.
I had an old car until recently. The prominent thing on the front was the license plate. It got wrinkled but the plastic frame made it through. To be fair if you were parking in front of it you wouldn’t realize that the plate stuck out an inch past the bumper. Now I have a new car and I worry a bit and try to park with a driveway at one or better both ends, but nothing has happened in a year and a half.
I owned one of these for a short time in 1974. It had the 425 engine with the Rochester 2GC 2 bbl carb. Nice lines, nice tank of a car, but that engine/carb combo just didn’t cut it.
I don’t think the Delta 88 was part of a Dynamic 88 “series”. IIRC the full size Olds lineup in 1965 was, from bottom to top, Jetstar 88, Dynamic 88, Delta 88, then 98. The Starfire and Jetstar I were specialty sports models. The brochure picture show is confusing, I must admit.
There were two levels of interiors available on the Delta 88 in those years. The ‘base’ interior door panels had smaller armrests with plain, curved interior door handles, while the optional interior had longer armrests with GM’s famous ‘paddle’ interior door handles and chrome grab handles below the window.
I don’t think the Delta 88 was part of a Dynamic 88 “series”. IIRC the full size Olds lineup in 1965 was, from bottom to top, Jetstar 88, Dynamic 88, Delta 88, then 98. The Starfire and Jetstar I were specialty sports models. The brochure picture shown is confusing, I must admit.