Minneapolis Street Sighting: Oldsmobile Futuramic 88

Most often, my street sightings in the Minneapolis area that are GM cars hail from two dominant brands--Buick, and Oldsmobile. I have no idea what it is, but these two brands seem to be the most-preserved, or the most looked after here in the rust belt. And quite surprisingly, aside from the muscle-car wars, neither of these brands were touted as enthusiast brands in their heyday. Both of these brands focused on luxury, although Oldsmobile did focus on performance early on.

Motor Trend names an Oldsmobile its very first "Car of the Year" in 1949; that award went to the Oldsmobile 88 lineup of cars, which consisted of the Rocket 88, the Futuramic 88, and the Super 88; according to wikipedia (and multiple car magazines including Motor Trend), it is believed that the first real muscle car was the Oldsmobile 88, as the car had a V8 in a relatively light car for the era; it was far from fast, but I bet with modern tires, its performance could be helped somewhat.

The name 88 would stick around for a very long time, and would be applied to front-wheel-drive vehicles as well as the rear-wheel-drive car featured here; the nameplate signified a luxury vehicle, and into the 1950s, that status was established permanently, as it was affixed to bigger, plusher vehicles in Oldsmobile's lineup. It's a shame that the nameplate had to be affixed to lumbering front-wheel-drive chariot with a V6, but then again, the vehicles that bore the nameplate early one weren't blazingly fast either.

I think this is one of the coolest cars I've shot in quite a while; and to be honest, I am not familiar with pre-1960s cars and this Futuramic 88 helps me learn about cars as I shoot. While on the surface, it looks amazing (and obviously makes for fantastic photos), I can tell some parts are not the stock pieces--and that's okay.

For instance, the wheels are definitely not stock; this Futuramic 88 rolls on replica Chevrolet Rallye wheels likely made by Wheel Vintiques--and they look great! I often don't approve of slapping random wheels from other branches of the car company on a vehicle, but here it works. Oddly enough, the Europeans would call this OEM+. Silly Dubbers.

Inside, this 88 is fairly clean, but I'm not quite sure the seats are the original units; they appear to be too modern for this car--maybe they've just been reupholstered, I don't really know. I would assume that this car would have a flashier place to plop your buttocks down, but then again, I know next to nothing about these cars.

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed shooting this thing, and I hope to find more pre-1954 GMs in the future.