I copied this picture from another forum I belong to, along with the owners description of his car. Pretty darn impressive Olds to me, so thought I would share for you Olds owners/lovers/ and others! Another example of a more-door that rocks !! Cheers... "It is a factory J2 (3 duce setup) and one of the first 250 built. The original owner was an Oldsmobile dealer and ordered the car for himself. Not wanting to give up any horse power to the rear wheels, he ordered it without power steering. He wanted a sleeper street racer, and, that it is. conceptcarz state they only know of four of the Super 88 J2 sedans to be road worthy."
You must be very young, or I am very old. (Guilty!) I remember when these cars we feared. If you dont wanna be beat, dont drag an Olds, cuz you dont know if its a J2 or not.
Actually I will be (68) in a few weeks, and knew these J2's well. They most always kicked ass in their day, which is why I posted this!! Cheers.
My first experience in a drag race, I was fourteen riding along in a 57' Olds 98 four door hartop racing a 59' Ford Galaxie. It was neck and neck till the hairpin curve kind of ended the race. Nobody wrecked but I was hangin' on for dear life!
Dad had a jet black and lowered 57 four door hardtop with a J2 when I was a teenager. He didn't let me drive it but a couple of times though. he said it was the only car he had ever owned up to that time that he never had wide open on the highway.
I sold my j-2 about ten years ago. it had been a miami police unmark unit. Had solid lifters and the 3-2's. It was BAD.
Actually he is not as old as dirt, dirt is younger. OK I am not as old as everyone else but running a close second. I have always had a great deal of respect for the J2 olds. I actually drove one similar to that one when I was a kid. There is nothing in the world as fine as listening to all those carbs sucking air at speed. One other thing that I may mention, at the risk of sounding effeminate, I love that color. That is a very plesent looking car. I had a chance to buy a ready to assemble J2 from one of the fellas a few years back. It was a complete J2 disassembled and inspected ready for rings and bearings. I am still kicking myself in the ass over that one.
I have a 1958 Oldsmobile 4 door 98 with the J2 motor. Your really have to wonder about the guy that ordered it. Mine was orginally pink but now red.
I had a friend that had a 57 Pontiac 2 dr post. It had the 3X2 347 engine with hydromatic. I guess it was actualy rated with more HP than the OLDS but they were pretty close in performance. He did well at the local drags asd the car was prtty entertaining on the street. Looking back at the performance numbers reveals that either of them would be solidly trounced by a Dodge, Toyota,or Honda minivan. Plus they handle and stop better too, not to mention fuel mileage. But both were the pinacle of performance in their day. I believe the road test of a similar 58 Pontiac revealed a 0 to 60 of 8.1 seconds, and a 60 to 0 of nearly 300 ft.
In about 1967 I was working at a Goodyear store in Dallas. I kid about 17 or so drove a pink '57 Olds 98 four door hardtop in to get some tires. At the time it was a 10 year old 4 door and I didn't give it a second thought, just mounted the tires. A couple of weeks later he came back in for a battery. I had heard of a J2 but always pictured them as 88 2 doors stripped down and ready to race. I opened the hood and lo and behold there was a J2. I asked the kid how that J2 ran and he looked at me funny and said "what's a J2?" Seems his grandfather had passed away and grandma gave him the old car. All he knew is he had a pretty quick Olds that used a lot of gas........
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