Love the slim body (compared to production version), bullet headlight covers, the bumper/grille, laid back hood. Does anybody know anything about this car? Looks like a 54 olds concept. Whats the wheelbase? Any more pics available? This is the only one I've ever found.
from what ive been told on another forum,if that was the concept for the forward look, it was for 1955. the story goes in 1953 g.m dident like the new design for 1954 so they rushed production and changed the tooling quickly. what they had done was the 54 model we know now was actually going to be the new 1955 model, so they put it into production early. im kinda rambling here sorry for that...hope this helps a little at least on the year it was a concept for.....................john
Gordon Apker had one similar, sold it a couple years ago, seems it went for a million plus.. I have a picture of it from a Puyallup Goodguys event.. somewhere a quick search brought this up http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1954-oldsmobile-f88.htm/printable
Glad to find a rear 3/4 view. So what do you think, is the Starfire an exercise that used an F-88 front end/cowl and just stretched the wheelbase and the body to the rear?
i think it was classicoldsmobile.com but i cant remember.....it might even been on here now that i think of it. but it was a while ago so i cant really remember...................john
olds 'vette' concept = F-88. Starfire = ? It looks like the front end is similar to the F-88 so I imagine the cowls are the same, but that is what I'm asking from anybody who may know. Knowing the wheelbase would help a lot too.
2 very different cars being talked about here. '54 F-88 : XP-20, 3 built plus 1 body, 1 survivor known, sold @ B-J auction a few years back for circa $3.8M. 2-seat, fiberglas roadster, very much so Corvette-sized (102" wheelbase, 167" overall, 45" high). Car in question in post #1 : '53 Starfire, 3 built, at least 1 functional, more full-sized but with the pancaked hood & decklid; sat notably lower than the production Olds's, also in fiberglas, sat 6, had flush-mounted 'glas convertible top boot. 2 are known to have been destroyed, as the front bench seats from 2 Starfires still exist. There's a good front-end shot via google/life (search for : "1953 oldsmobile source:life") Here's another shot (tho an illustration), that may help somewhat with dimensions (sorry- I have no actual numbers available, don't know that they're 'out there' anywhere): There are also a few other pics in the book GM's Motorama by David Temple. Sleek, under-appreciated car, that's for sure!
Another great pic, with it's namesake (Lockheed F-94B Starfire) : Small interior shot: What's with the upper tank on that radiator- a 12-row core or sumtin' ??
Neat car! Interesting, looks like it was in between a corvette and full size olds. It looks close to a vette in size, maybe a little bigger in the fighter shot, then in the shot with the gal turned around in the seat, the dash looks like a 56-57 vette and it looks bigger! . Cool looking olds anyway.
WQ59B: Thank you!!!! Those are awesome, is there a link to where they can be found and are they bigger? Some sources cite the car as being a 2 seater, but I see 4-6. I wonder whose ass I have to kiss at GM to find more pics?
Pics are not shrunk here- links to the pics are in their 'properties'. All were found via google image, with either '1953 oldsmobile starfire' or 'motorama starfire'. Car definately wasn't a 2-seater. No one @ GM is going to turn up any pics, they're shutting off the phones in a few days for BK...
Awesome, thank you! So what does the jury say on this rig, is it a corvette cowl or should a person just section a 54 olds? Emphasis on "just" cuz, boy, sectioning would be easy
Oh, and I did read somewhere that it had a "special" cross-flow radiator. Maybe that had something to do with the thickness of the core. . .
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