Monday, April 27, 2020

Oldsmobile's 1954 Corvette-Based F-88 Concept Car

General Motors' Motoramas of the early-to-mid 1950s featured one or more show cars from each of the Corporation's divisions.  Many were unique, but some others were based on cars currently in production or about to be introduced to the market.  An example of a production-derived dream car is the 1954 Oldsmobile F-88 (Wikipedia entry here).

As should be evident from the images below, the F-88 clearly resembles the Chevrolet Corvette.  The Corvette first appeared in the 1953 Motorama as a show car, and was in limited production by late that year.  As for the F-88, it was likely okayed around that time.

Unless otherwise noted, images are factory publicity photos.

Gallery

1954 Oldsmobile F-88

1954 Chevrolet Corvette
Although the link states that the F-88 was Corvette-based, there are significant differences.  The cockpits and windshields look about the same, but the door cuts are different -- the F-88's extends closer to the rear wheel opening, and those wheel openings are wider than the Corvette's.  In combination these details alter the apparent proportions.  Hood lines and the forward parts of rear decks are similar, as are rear fenders.  The F-88 has more conventional headlight placement, though the streamlined, transparent caps are a Dream Car feature.

Another view, perhaps a factory photo.

Here is a publicity photo contrasting the F-88 with an early Oldsmobile "curved dash" model from half a century before.

Here are three Barrett-Jackson auction images providing a walk around of a surviving F-88.  The oval grille is typical of 1950s Oldsmobiles.

Side view.  The chrome trim is a miniature version of the design found on production Oldsmobiles starting in 1953.

The rear end treatment is jazzy Dream Car eye-candy: not Corvette-like at all.

2 comments:

emjayay said...

GM also did a fastback version of the original Corvette, called the Corvair. They should have done the names the other way around so the convertible would be the "air" one. And today the hot new mid engine American sports car would be the new Corvair.

https://www.lsxmag.com/news/corvette-corvair-the-concept-fastback-that-almost-was/

I saw it last fall at the Audrain in Newport in a show of a number of those rarely seen GM fifties concepts.

emjayay said...

The Barrett-Jackson one needs whitewalls! There seem to be two different versions. It was better without the chrome bits on the rear fender - the side trim is truncated and barely fits on the Barrett-Jackson version. Nicer without, but someone at GM probably told them to add a bit of Olds identified chrome.