It was the weekend of the NASCAR Grant Park 165 last month, and I went downtown to take some photographs of the reconfigured area before the crowds came. This is only the second year these races have taken place downtown, and there’s never any guarantee that some events won’t eventually wind up as an experimental footnote. It was somewhat surreal to see an entire stretch of Michigan Avenue fenced off and not full of its normal weekend traffic. There were giant, temporary grandstands visible from parts of the sidewalk, and speakers both near and far played music at moderate volumes, not unlike at an amusement park. After snapping my fill of shots for under an hour, I walked to the nearest CTA train station. This was when I came across this old Oldsmobile in a parking lot next to a diner in the South Loop.
It has been a while since a car’s personality seemed as pronounced and unmistakable to me as with this Delta 88. This car is old-school Chicago on wheels. If it could talk, it would sound just like Mr. Tudball from The Carol Burnett Show. It would go by “da Jewel’s” supermarket for groceries. It would address a group in the third person plural as “yous guys”. It smokes camels and keeps the soft pack in the front shirt pocket of his uniform and, yes, he has a mustache. He still wears a wristwatch with an expandable, chrome band, and those are wire-rimmed glasses up front in the form of rectangular sealed beams. The scents of Brylcreem and Old Spice linger. He’s been working at this parking lot for years and has seen a lot of changes in the South Loop, Chicago, and the United States over the course of his lifetime.
At first glance, this car’s two-tone paint job and generally upscale aura had me thinking it was a Ninety-Eight Regency. The back of its greenhouse was also partially obscured by the parking lot booth, which also would have provided a tell. A license plate search confirmed that this is actually a 1986 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale Brougham. (This car so many names.) Eighty-six was the first year of the downsized, front-drive H-body Deltas, while the related, upmarket C-body Ninety-Eight had been introduced the year before. This particular car was built at Willow Run Assembly in Ypsilanti, Michigan, though other examples were also built that year in both Flint, Michigan and Wentzville, Missouri. A Buick 3.8 liter V6 engine with 125 horsepower was standard, though there was a 150-horse variant. I would have wanted the extra twenty-five horses to motivate this car’s 3,200 pound curb weight.
I was expecting to discover a healthy sales bump for the redesigned ’86 models, though factoring out wagons (the bigger, rear-drive, B-body Custom Cruiser would continue on), the newer cars posted just a 7% increase (234,300 vs. 218,900), which seems modest for a clean-sheet design. The four-door Royale Brougham variant, with 108,300 units produced, was the most popular of the four Delta 88 choices for ’86, which included two- and four-door versions of both the base Royale and upscale Royale Brougham. The regular Royale sedan was next in line with 88,600 sales. The coupes, never popular, accounted for only 13,700 and 23,700 sales between the Royale and Royale Brougham, respectively. Delta sales fell sharply for ’87, down by a third to 153,500 units.
There was no question in my mind when I saw this car that its paint job was “factory”. We’re looking at a two-tone combination of Light Chestnut Metallic over Dark Chestnut Metallic. Creative! I was stymied, however, when I zoomed in on one of the frames I had shot to discover the presence of not just one, but two glass sunroof panels – one for the front, and one for the back. I immediately searched the internet for any clue that this might have been a box a customer could have checked on the order form, but could find no confirmation of this. The sales brochure shows a removable, tinted-glass sunroof as an option, but I didn’t see an option for two such sunroofs. This had to be aftermarket, but that’s not a negative judgment coming from me. Why should only the front seat passengers bask in the sun? Please pass me my aviators.
The more I look at this car, the more it seems clear that its “kitchen sink” approach to ladling on the options is probably what has kept it endeared to its owner(s) over the years, and I can only wonder what features are on the inside. Its black steelies are bare now, but I’ll bet they were once adorned with the “simulated wire wheel covers with lock”, as taken from the factory brochure. Its full name, two-tone paint, dual full-width sunroofs, and loose-pillow seating all add up to a very traditional, old-school luxury package, one that seems so ’80s Chicago in all the right ways. I want to believe this Delta will still be sitting there the next time I pass that way, still guarding the lot the way it was on the final day of the Grant Park 165.
Downtown, South Loop, Chicago, Illinois.
Sunday, July 7, 2024.
Factory brochure materials were sourced from www.oldcarbrochures.org.
I kind of see your point but not entirely. If this car was a Chicago wise guy it’s grandfather and father (big ham fisted old school 98s) would be decrying the fact that this tiny whining kid was kept off the streets by its mother. It would say it’s “you’se” guys but in a half hearted watered down way since by now it had fled greater Chicago for the outter rung burbs. It spends a lot of time at the Dr. Because tough guys and automatic transmissions just weren’t that tough anymore. It may have even given up smoking.
There are several online surveys regarding the prevalence and colloquial breakdown of how Americans like to indicate ‘you’ as being plural; according to the NYT article “How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk” (https://archive.is/JbG0k), common variants include “you all”, “youse” (or “yous”), “you guys”, “you lot” (mostly British still), “you ‘uns”, “y’all (yep, largely Southern), “yinz” (common in Pittsburgh only), as well as plain old “you” or the semi-archaic “ye”. Apparently “you guys” is the most common in the US except the South where of course “y’all” rules, with “youse” being common where the previous two areas are bordered. “Youse guys” according to Wiki is most often heard in NYC, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, whereas simply “youse” is most common in NY, NJ, Penn, and parts of the Mid-Atlantic.
If you’re really Southern it’s not enough to merely refer to “y’all”; if you want to be clear you mean absolutely everyone in the room you’ll say “all y’all”.
I had a coworker in Florida who used the “ALL y’all”, and I remember involuntarily cracking up – not because of the inherent redundancy, but because there was absolutely no mistaking what was meant in addressing a group of people.
Growing up in Flint, I went to school with many kids who were children of southerners whose parents had come to Flint for employment with GM. I was familiar with many southern colloquialisms up to that point, but “all y’all” became a favorite whenever I’d hear it said.
We moved around a lot in my parents’ early years due to my Dad’s job..he was a semiconductor process developer (since 1956) and needed to be near the plant (didn’t call them fabs, or foundry’s or any recently developed name for them). In 1969 we moved to what is now a bedroom community of Washington DC, but then was still a sleepy northern Virginia town…my parents were from NE Pennsylvania so I guess I likely inherited their speech patterns, but my 6th grade teacher hadn’t many northerners in her class, such that she sent me to a speech pathologist, who told her there really was nothing wrong with the way I spoke, I just wasn’t from the area (nowdays I’m sure it’s a hodgepodge of residents from all over, since we moved from even there almost 50 years ago I can’t vouch for things there today.
My Dad’s ’78 Caprice Classic wagon was totalled in 1984 so he had to buy something different; I thought one of these (which I think came out in the fall of ’84) would be the ticket, but he went on to buy what he considered the worst car he ever owned, an ’84 Pontiac Sunbird. It threw its timing belt with less than 1000 miles on the engine, and went on to having a new engine put in at about 40k miles, which in turn threw a rod with about 80k miles on the car (and only 40k miles on that replacement engine). It was also a bit small; granted my sister and I were on our own by then so they only still had 2 kids at home, but the Sunbird seemed a little too small especially as cars were downsizing. It had other problems besides the 2 engines, poor quality switchgear (headlight switch split apart) power steering hoses leaked, air conditioning leaked…this despite being taken for regular maintenance at the Pontiac dealer as required in the warranty book. My sister actually owned exactly the same model (she lived 2000 miles away, no, she didn’t move, my parents in their last move left the town she lived in, though they haven’t moved in the 42 years since..my Dad retiring was a big reason.
I would have thought one of these would be the ticket for him…but instead he went on to buy a Dodge 600 and then a series of Mercury Sables (3 in all) though he eventually did return to GM despite the terrible Pontiac, for a 2001 Impala)
HondaDriver, I enjoyed your counterpoint to my metaphor. It’s true that if this was the previous generation of RWD Delta, the Chicago-ness would have come through even more. Still, the character profile in my essay still fit in my mind, as this newer generation of front-drive Delta is (gasp) almost forty years old. That counts for something.
I’m probably in the minority, but that Chicago Street Race is one of the DUMBEST ideas I’ve heard in a long time. SAFETY.? INCONVENIENCE! That being said, these downsized Oldsmobiles were IMO some of the ugliest. We all are drawn to certain cars. But THIS?
I was unclear on much of the thought process behind putting the race there, and felt that way only because in summer in Chicago, rgere’s so much going on even just on that stretch of Michigan Avenue, between the Museum Campus, Art Institute, Millennium Park, etc. – even if it’s just for a weekend. To your point, it would make sense to have this in the suburbs somewhere, but the cool thing about having it downtown was that race goers from some parts of Indiana and other neighboring states could just ride trains in. I dunno.
Optical illusion? Two sunroofs?
Two legit sunroofs! Unretouched photos except for rotation and cropping!
This car just exudes Chicago – or for that matter the Philadelphia that I knew growing up. Gritty, tough and weathered.
The sunroof thing is weird – something I’ve never seen. I assume the dual sunroofs are aftermarket installations, and I guess they’re both popups, because that front sunroof has nowhere to slide back. Adding two sunroofs to an Olds sedan seems like a peculiar way to spend one’s money… unless perhaps the person who owned this Olds at the time also owned a business that installed aftermarket sunroofs.
Eric, I like your theory that this car might have originally belonged to a sunroof installer – or even better yet, to an Olds dealer or sales manager at the time this car was new. I could see two sunroofs on an Olds Delta 88. A Pontiac? Maybe not. LOL
I can so totally hear this Oldsmobile’s voice as I read the text and see the photos. Perfect.
A true survivor and worthy of memorializing, regardless of whether or not it was a great car. A lot of things from the mid-1980s weren’t “great”, but hey, it happened, and we got through it.
This Royale though seems to have been through it all. The missing door lock on the passenger side looks like it may have been absent for quite a while…meaning that this is a car that is figured to be entirely unworthy of theft or impossible to steal (the cocked open hood says something about the futility of attempting to start it).
Thanks, Jeff! Your sentence about the ’80s had me enthusiastically nodding my head in agreement on my morning train into the city.
And I so agree that the lack of a passenger’s side door lock adds to the blunt, Chicago-like “don’t give a care” aura this car exudes. With traces of old-school class, of course.
I see this Olds and immediately think of Bob, my sister-in-law’s father, who was driving a Delta 88 like this back in the mid-80s when I first met him. He was a product of Chicago’s South Side middle class, but had spent most of his adult life in the western suburbs, so his accent was cleaned up and suburbanized, just like this Delta when new. This could have been his car, now on its fourth owner, who may well be a generation or two younger than Bob, but shares the same Broughamtastic taste in cars.
Regarding the races, they would seem to yield little benefit for all the disruption they cause. I have read that attendance has not met expectations and some local commentators felt it would have done better in some exurban location, closer to the NASCAR audience, such as it exists in Chicagoland. You were probably smart to catch pictures of the course this year, while there was still opportunity to do so.
Thanks, William. And I like the parallel you draw between the smaller FWD Delta still having Chicago flavor, but a bit suburbanized, etc. A ’76, by contrast, would be all-in on the accent and things.
I was glad that same afternoon that I had gotten the pictures of Michigan Avenue, if only to capture historical perspective.
Never did care for the FWD Olds 88 and 98. They werent UGLY like the Deville, but I thought the Buick versions embraced the more modern style they were trying to push. Also those stupid wire wheel covers look like trash on all the FWD cars, they just didnt work with the flat face positive offset wheels. Should have just left those in the past and offered some more unique aluminum wheel options.
With the wire wheel covers, anyway, I feel like the rest of the car was so different in execution in its architecture from what preceded it that things like the wire wheel covers were probably necessary so as not to alienate as many buyers as otherwise might have been the case.
You are right that this is a car embedded in a specific time and place. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. Those twin sunroofs are epic.
To my recollection, this is the first time I had ever seen twin sunroofs on a sedan!
Those dual sunroofs make this a real standout find. Who would have thought? A good way to impress rear seat passengers, and this car more likely had rear seat passengers its driver may have been wanting to impress than the average suburban Olds 88.
Imagine they leak copiously.
At least there was no plywood like on the sunroof of that ’74 Mustang II Ghia Rich Baron featured a few days ago. That’s a plus. But, yes – no doubt they leak.
I like that theory, Paul. I imagine that extra sunroof was installed when this car was new. Newfangled, front-drive Delta on a new platform… why not add a second sunroof for rear seat passengers? The future is (was) here!
Being a South Sider, I agree that this is a classic Chicago ride. What was happening in 1986, was that the competition was the TAURUS/SABLE. The aerodynamic designs, the newest things coming out of the Torrence Avenue plant, these were the “it” cars of 1986-1992 in Chicago. GM just couldn’t compete with the Jack Telnack Twins rocking Chicago sales back then.
Chicago was Olds country a decade earlier, but by the mid-80’s, that was no longer the case. Loyalty did sell many, but that formal squared design GM was hawking was not the future so when this vehicle was unveiled, it looked stale from Day One. As I’ve mentioned before, I admired GM for not immediately jumping in to ape the new Ford designs, but if I owned a piece of GM back then, I would have been screaming to release copy cat versions sooner than GM did. GM’s next generations appeared very half-hearted and the quality of the materials used were BAD. So Olds really couldn’t compete with this nicely competent car.
And the name – really? Geez, the competition was new, why couldn’t Olds try to give these rides something other than a word salad of staleness?
I think that, with the name anyway, GM needed to keep some continuity with what had come before. I’m sure some in the GM camp had hoped to rekindle some of the Olds-brand magic of the ’70s. Calling this car something else might have done what names like “Aurora” and “Alero” did for buyers just a while later.
So far as the name goes, I have to say that I’m not able to consider something called the “Royale” without having this play in my mind over and over…
Exactly this! This scene almost supplied my subtitle, until I went a different route.
Two observations I have.
From the side, the roof line resembles an 80’s Nissan or Mitsubishi.
The Rust-Oleum Black Tesla parked next to it looks massive in comparison to the Olds, which was not a small car for its time.
Good observation Don! I too was going to mention how the Olds looked small compared to whatever modern thing it’s parked next to.
Don, I did also notice the Tesla photobombing some of these shots when I had gotten home. Had I noticed it while at that parking lot, I might have gotten more shots of the cars together and taken the essay in that direction.
However, shortly after getting these shots, I was already writing this in my head.
So Chicago is so right. On my occasional trips to Chicago over the decades I always enjoyed (usually from the back of a cab on the way in from O’Hare) the amazing selection of new Detroit iron on the roads. Models and configurations of Olds and Pontiacs and Mercs that the coasts had long forgotten about. Made me ponder that the reason Detroit never seriously responded to Toyota was the lack of evidence in front of their eyes…at least in the upper midwest. In any case, every visit presented a small treat to see loaded Detroit sleds.
I like your theories, and also the characterization of middle-market brands like the ones you cited appealing to middle America.
lol. Former Chicagoan here- you hit da nail right on da head. This guy would be heading over to watch da Sox over by ‘Kaminsky park’. And after work he’d be stopping for a quick canarbo, maybe at a place like the Twisted Spoke. You know, “over by dere”
Nice! I’m unfamiliar with “canarbo” (even after looking it up), but I’m a Michigan transplant. Could you fill me in? I used to love the Twisted Spoke, both the original location and the long-closed one in Lakeview. One of my good friends used to work there as a bartender. I remember one beverage concocted with both Malort and egg white as some of the ingredients. It was frothy and delicious. It has been probably over a decade since I’ve been there.
When trying to pinpoint exactly when, where, and how once-mighty GM veered so badly off the rails in the 1980s toward its descent into bankruptcy, it’s tempting to cite the obvious Deadly Sins like the Citation, Cimarron, and Aztek . But much of the General’s downfall stems not from those obvious duds but rather decent yet critically flawed products like this Delta 88.
Taken by itself, the 88 seemed a reasonably solid value. It offered a modicum of luxury at a reasonable price. It was comfortable for four adults and could squeeze in six if needed. Ergonomics were solid, outward visibility was excellent, and it had the strong heart that was Buick’s 3800 V6 mated to a 4-speed Turbo-Hydramatic. But before any of that could draw in buyers, they had to get beyond its looks, its image, and even its name. Somehow, “Toyota Cressida” or “Acura Legend” or “Audi 5000” rolled of the tongue of middle-class suburbanites easier than “Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale Brougham”, and those imports were increasingly perceived as more desirable for typical middle-aged buyers than the Olds, which despite their infamous ad campaign seemed to align more with the preferences of their fathers than themselves. The 88 was reasonably attractive, but despite being a new design for 1986 already looked older than the aforementioned cars. Much older – its most direct competition (other than from other GM divisions) was from the also-new-for-’86 Mercury Sable. Compare the car pictured below with the Delta 88 and you’d be forgiven for thinking the Mercury were ten years newer. Indeed, the 1975 Mercury Monarch (new that year) shares a broader styling ethos with the Olds than the ’86 Sable does. The vintage-style moniker didn’t help matters, and highlighted a chronic issue with GM in this era. You could get a modern-style luxury sport sedan from Olds or Buick but you had to check the right boxes on the options sheet to get the upgraded suspension, nice alloy wheels and fatter tires, and widely ordered comfort and convenience items. Quite unlike the imports, which usually offered only one suspension but a good one that struck a nice balance between soft ride and responsive handling, with many convenience items made standard. Same with the Taurus and Sable – good handling, ride, and traction were standard equipment. You didn’t have to work your way through a dealer lot full of Royale Broughams to get to the handful of T-Types or FE3 International Series up for offer.
Part of why the new-for-’86 Delta 88 already looked old was because of serious delays in getting it on the market, in part due to Roger Smith’s corporate reorg occurring at the time. The downsized, newly FWD and unibody full-size cars were initially planned for 1983 and were to replace the 1977-vintage B and C body cars across the company. The Detroit big 3 were so sure demand for big gas-guzzlers would collapse by the mid-’80s that some divisions couldn’t wait for the delayed twice-shrunken big cars to be ready and jumped the gun by axing the old rear-drivers and giving their existing mid-sized (or even compact) car lines big-car names like the Bonneville Model G or the K-car-based New Yorker until properly downsized cars like the ’87 Bonnie or ’88 NYer were ready, as well as mini-me versions of former hits like the ’86 Buick Riviera. It turned out that these cars didn’t so much jump the gun as jump the shark, as genuine big cars made a huge and unexpected comeback that threw all of Detroit off their original plans, resulting in Chevy and Ford making bigger cars than Olds, Buick, or Chrysler. But GM suffered the most in their reaction, leaving a crowded and confusing lineup of cars where shrunken full-sizers like the 88, 98, and Toronado butting heads with old-timer leftovers like the rwd Cutlass Supreme and makeshift in-betweeners like the Ciera. Ford and Mercury did a masterful job of making the new Taurus and Sable look cutting-edge and futuristic without alienating traditional American upscale sedan buyers. Not a brougham amongst them, and no traditional brougham hallmarks such as vinyl roofs, opera windows, wire-spoke wheel covers, loose-cushion upholstery. Items such as the inner door panels and window and HVAC switchgear has a decidedly European look and feel, yet there were also bench seats, velour upholstery, woodgrain paneling, and color-keyed interiors to ease the transition for those who liked the look and feel of American-style Broughams, while the tackiest expressions of disco-era luxury like fake wire wheel covers were avoided, pleasing both buyers trading in Cutlasses and buyers trading in Camrys or Accords. Instead of padded landau roofs and button-tufted upholstery, the Taurus and Sable offered serious luxury features like pushbutton keyless entry, rear-seat headrests, insta-clear windshield, 10-way power front seats with lumbar-support adjustment, cornering lamps, and other unique features not often found in their price class.
Anyway, the Delta 88 Royale Brougham *was* your father’s Oldsmobile, or something that seemed it could have been, rather than a vehicle that was cross-shopped with the Taurus/Sable, Honda/Acura, Audi, or Maxima/Cressida shopper. There was a quite rakish 88 coupe as well, but again I doubt it was on the shopping list of buyers considering T-Birds, Cougars, Legend coupes, and the like – or even considered as replacements for the oodles of GM personal-luxury coupes from the late ’70s and early ’80s.
You cover a lot of ground and make a number of very valid points. I agree that GM stumbled badly in the 80s, setting itself up for its eventual bankruptcy in 2009.
When my wife and I were looking to buy a new car in the 1990 model year, we were interested in a midsize popularly priced sedan with a driver side frontal airbag. There were only 3 choices: Dodge Dynasty/Chrysler New Yorker, Ford Taurus/Mercury Sable, and Olds Delta 88. The Japanese competition was using automatic seat belts (mostly the motorized mouse variety) and much of GM used the door-mounted lap/shoulder belts.
We chose a Mercury Sable, which seemed head and shoulders above the Chrysler and GM products in terms of technology, features, and styling. Ours was a GS equipped with the same optional lace alloy wheels shown in your photo. It also had optional antilock brakes and the package that included power windows, locks, and driver seat. We chose the Sable over the Taurus to get the rear seat head restraints.
Thank you for this thoughtful insight. It’s interesting that both you and VanillaDude had referenced the Sable. In my mind, I had never drawn a straight line between the size class of the Sable and Delta just based on their ostensible designations (the Delta was full-sized; the Sable was a midsized car), but it seems to be obvious and apparent that they were similar in that regard.
Yeah… the Roger Smith era. Shaking my head. I think about it every time I return home to Flint.
I have one of these 88s parked up the street in my Chicago neighborhood- Buena Park, five blocks NE
from Wrigley as the crow flies. It’s light teal blue metallic- a color I associate with Oldsmobile. The car is in rough shape, but is apparently drivable. I think these low beltline C and H bodies should have been given a small face-lift and extended into the early 90s. They
could have been given a more rounded look a la the A bodies. The 98 might have been given a more slanted backlight- with a couple of inches added to the trunk. The twin port grille might have soldiered on- an important Oldsmobile cue. Maybe cut back slightly on the chrome trim, offer only blackwalls with alloy wheels, throw in some amber taillights, and call it a day.
The airy greenhouse was one of the great things about this design. I took driver’s training in a similar H-body LeSabre. I’m not sure that a mild refresh of this design would have done the trick. As others have pointed out, this design, modernized though it was compared to what it replaced, looked already past its sell-by date when introduced for ’86. I did like the ’92 Delta redesign.
)Glances at old Timex on wrist) ~ it this a bad thing somehow ? .
At least I now speak clear English, I didn’t until coming to California and having girls laugh at my mangled East Coast patois .
My 17 year old foster buy has settled on Old Spice as his scent .
? Where is the license tag search I can use ? .
TWO sun roofs ! so the rear seat passengers can also get soaked when it rains .
-Nate
I wore a wristwatch for years even after owning a smartphone. I just liked the way it looked. I don’t anymore, but I wouldn’t be against it. I’m good with just my ID bracelet on my left wrist.
I’m not a scent snob, and there’s nothing that says that affordable can’t be genuinely good. We like what we like, right? I didn’t find Old Spice to be objectionable, but maybe that’s my nostalgia speaking. As for the license plate site, there are a bunch of search engines if you look for them.
I wonder if Jerry Lundegard sold it to them? With the Trucoat of course.
Yes! I like the movie reference! Dontchaknow…
JD. Canarbo is an old school term. Means a quick stiff drink after work. Unsure of its origin: probably older than I am (I’m 65). Probably some code so the wife wouldn’t know what it meant. There were a long list of them I learned from some older guys when I first moved to Chicago in 82 but memory fails to recover some more of them.
Thanks, Chad. I learn so many things here at CC.
This one makes me want to pop open an Old Style and listen to a Cubs game interrupted only by commercials for Empire Carpet.
“Eight hundred five eight eight, two three hundred… Empire! 🎶🎵”
This how you know I’m now a true Chicagoan.
Well, I have to interject to say that those same Empire commercials interrupt Red Sox radio broadcasts. And I originally associated them with NYC broadcasts (so, the evil Yankees as well).
More recently, it’s the even more brain-scarring Kars for Kids commercials.
Rock a by your baybee.. Remember Harry Schmerler, your singing ford man?
Or better yet, Celozzi and Ettleson, where you always save more money!