In 1974 you could special-order a Delta 88 with driver and passenger airbags — a rarely-picked factory option that made it one of the first production cars ever offered with them.
Median 94 hp across 245 similar cars
Lead trim: Delta 88 350 cu in Rocket V8 2-barrel (150 hp net, 1973) · up to 250 hp
Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight1971–1976
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Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactIn 1974 you could special-order a Delta 88 with driver and passenger airbags — a rarely-picked factory option that made it one of the first production cars ever offered with them.
All GM B-body full-size cars were completely restyled and enlarged for 1971 with fuselage styling, continuing on a 124 in wheelbase (127 in for the new Custom Cruiser wagon with multi-leaf springs and the standard 455); the Delta 88 reached its maximum size in 1974 at 226.9 in. It was available as a pillared four-door Town Sedan, two- and four-door Holiday hardtops and a convertible, in base Delta 88, Delta 88 Custom and Delta 88 Royale trims; engine offerings for 1971 were 350 and 455 Rocket V8s ranging from 250 to 340 gross horsepower, with lowered compression ratios for regular fuel, and vented power front disc brakes and variable-ratio power steering standard. For 1973 the standard engine was a 350 Rocket V8 with a two-barrel carburetor (150 net horsepower) with an optional 455 four-barrel at 215 hp (single exhaust) or 250 hp (dual exhausts); for 1974, as Oldsmobile discontinued two-barrel carbureted engines, a new 350 four-barrel Rocket V8 (175 horsepower) became standard with the 455 optional; and 1975 added a one-year-only option of a Pontiac-built 400 with a two-barrel carburetor and 170 horsepower, with all engines hooked up to a catalytic converter requiring unleaded gasoline.
Collectors Spotted in the Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
5 published trims in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta 88 350 cu in Rocket V8 2-barrel (150 hp net, 1973) | 1973–1973 | 5.7 L V8 | 150 hp | — | — | RWD | — | — |
| Delta 88 350 cu in Rocket V8 4-barrel (175 hp, 1974) | 1974–1974 | 5.7 L V8 | 175 hp | — | — | RWD | — | — |
| Delta 88 455 cu in Rocket V8 4-barrel (215 hp, single exhaust, 1973) | 1973–1973 | 7.5 L V8 | 215 hp | 350 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
| Delta 88 455 cu in Rocket V8 4-barrel (250 hp, dual exhausts, 1973) | 1973–1973 | 7.5 L V8 | 250 hp | 370 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
| Delta 88 Pontiac 400 V8 2-barrel (170 hp, 1975 option) | 1975–1975 | V8 | 170 hp | — | — | RWD | — | — |
Owning one
We don’t estimate running costs for a car like this. What it costs depends on its condition, its specialist and how it is driven, and an average would mislead.
Owners’ builds
Nobody has claimed one yet.
Photographs
Its Regency version had a self-dimming driver's door mirror as standard, something even Cadillac did not fit as standard.
This Eighty Eight could talk: an optional computer-synthesized male voice warned you out loud if the coolant was low, the engine overheated, or you'd left the headlights on.
In 1988 it became the first GM car offered with a driver's-side airbag, twelve years after GM had dropped its earlier ACRS airbag system.
The 1977 downsizing hit hard — this full-size Delta 88 ended up riding on the exact same 116-inch wheelbase as the mid-size Cutlass sedan, and nearly 900 lb lighter than the model it replaced.
In 1974 you could special-order a Delta 88 with driver and passenger airbags — a rarely-picked factory option that made it one of the first production cars ever offered with them.
Oldsmobile named this car after a Cold War fighter jet: having already borrowed the Starfire name from an Air Force plane, it named the Delta 88 after the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger interceptor.
Early-60s 88s read speed off a 'speed bar' — a rolling cylinder painted green, yellow and red that scrolled past a window as the car sped up.
This 88 had a speedometer that color-coded your speed for you — green under 35, amber up to 65, red beyond that, decades before dashboards did this digitally.
A Ford stylist bought a chrome-heavy 1958 Olds as a daily driver, then rearranged its hood lettering to spell "SLOBMODEL" as a jab at the era's design excess.
The 1956 Olds 88 quietly killed a chore drivers had lived with for 16 years: its new Jetaway Hydra-Matic was the first Oldsmobile automatic that never needed the periodic band adjustment its predecessors required.
A fire at GM's own Hydra-Matic plant forced some 1953 Oldsmobiles to ship with a Buick transmission instead.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
It briefly served as senior sibling to Marquette, a GM companion brand cancelled after just one year.
Nissan hired former BMW engineers to help develop the 510's suspension, which is why period reviewers frequently compared its handling to the BMW 1600/2002.
A Trabant 601 won its class at the 1970 Monte Carlo Rally, with a second 601 right behind it in second.
The 600 was a stopgap: the P50's body over the 601's mechanicals, and for a while its estate was built alongside the new 601 saloon.
The G80 Sport brought a 370 PS twin-turbo 3.3 V6, a mesh grille and copper-tinted chrome with copper stitching to match.
The Vigor was sold only with a five-cylinder engine, an unusual configuration Honda used to fit a longer engine transversely under a short hood.
The GS/E coupe earned the nickname "German Charger" for its long hood, short deck stance borrowed from Detroit muscle cars.
This DeVille/Fleetwood was the first production car anywhere to mount its V8 sideways, Cadillac's front-drive gamble on the new C-body.