J-2 Golden Rocket Power in your ’57 Olds!

Stumbled upon this great series of clips from 1957 when Oldsmobile sponsored the Academy Awards. The exciting news in the Spring of that year was the J-2 Golden Rocket engine option that offered a vacuum-activated 3 x 2 barrel intake, high flow air cleaner and 10:1 compression (via a thinner head gasket) that bumped your 371 motor to well above 300 horsepower. Sadly the J-2 option was only offered mid ’57 and ’58 only. “Be our guest for a J-2 Rocket test…”

The other big Olds news for 1957 was the introduction of the all-new Fiesta wagon. What a stunning car, with its radical hardtop styling, ribbed roof and beltline dip in the rear doors. These videos have some great footage of a movie car in action on a Cowboy Western TV set, kids playing at Dennis the Menace park, and I love the bit with mom and the kids dropping the hammer on a 2 door hardtop Olds with dad riding shotgun in a glider. The classic line of the whole video: “You’ll find there’s a Rocket for every pocket”…