1959 Oldsmobile Super 88 - Jay Leno's Garage

welcome episode of Jay Leno's Garage tonight we're gonna talk about my favorite kind of vehicle original and unrestored this is a 1959 hose 'mobile super 88 this is not the top of the line or the bottom of the line it's thought of the well I guess middle of the line I got this from a doctor whose father bought the car back in 1959 he kept it his whole life he passed away at the age of 92 the car was kept in Massachusetts where cars tend to rust out fairly quickly especially caused in the 50s but he so loved this car he would garage it in October or the 1st of November and then take it out maybe the middle of April the doctor who I got it from was father owned it had two simonized this car every couple of weeks it's original chrome original paint it's got about 97 thousand miles on it I've really done nothing to the car really except well I put air-conditioning in it a bigger alternator and just kind of tuned it up a little bit but other than that it's pretty much as it left the factory in fact he has a picture of the gentleman who had the car these pictures were taken in the mid-to-late 90s John mortice was his name very nice man his son is a pretty famous doctor and he wanted the car to go to a good home so he contacted me and I have kind of a thing for 59 Oldsmobile when I was a little kid these are the kind of cars people drove my dad had a friend named Ariel the carpenter Italian guy with kind of the slicked back hair and he used to keep the Marlboros rolled up in the sleeve and he's a big handsome guy and he had one of these in a convertible and whenever he would drive by I heard my mother say once that women would swoon whenever Mario drove by and that bolson people the women would swoon and pass out so one day Mario was at our house having dinner and there are a couple of other people there and being a kid I kept watching the women you know my mother said what why you staring at those people I said mom you said every time Mary comes over women swoon and pass out I haven't seen anyone swoon because my mother she's so embarrassed now you runs out of the room just humiliated that I've said this in the cost Mario very cool and they were just one of those stupid stories but anyway so I've always had a fondness 59 Oldsmobile this was the classic leaner lower wider this is a big car and it's not even it's not even the biggest GM car this was 1959 when I think was the first year all the GM cars shared basically the same body and it was up to different divisions like Buick and also be able to come up with different front ends and different rear ends remember Cadillac had the huge fins Oldsmobile sort of toned it down a little bit and this was a reaction to the crisis of cars of the 50s you know Chrysler had such a huge impact in 57 56 57 58 that GM and everybody scrambled to change their cars the 58 GM cars the Buick the Oldsmobile those are the big chrome barges they sort of if you can believe it toned it down a little bit 459 not quite as them not putting the chrome on with a trowel like they did back in the day I think it's unibody from here back as I remember big 394 cubic inch Oldsmobile engine this is back in the day when all the GM divisions would fight and argue over who had the best motor Buick built the 401 oldsmobile built the 394 cadillac built their motors chevy built 283 you know how that worked now they all sort of share the same v8 the rocket 88 made quite a splash in 49 it had the overhead valve when most cars were flat heads in fact I've got a funny piece of video you know my Hudson Hornets these cars here take a look well it's it's it's a film strip that shows a Hudson mechanic tightening the head of a flathead 6 and then they pan over the Oldsmobile rocket 88 and mechanics coating all these valves to adjust this thing is so confusing and the other going you should have bought a flathead and didn't really work out I think the overhead valve thing pretty much took over but there was a song out called rocket 88 about the Oldsmobile rocket 88 and it was actually actually I believe it's considered the very first rock and roll song a little bit of trivia and of course Oldsmobile capitalized on that with naked date with the rocket 88 and everything had a rocket jet theme to it you know this is a pretty nice driving car it's amazing how comfortable you have the classic kind of Boulevard ride I mean you're not gonna win any Gymkhana as a sports car contest with it but you could put eight people in this thing no problem that's what's fun about it I like that it's a two-door the trunk is enormous in fact I have a family of three living in the trunk now so that's the nice thing about I mean it's just a huge car to think that so many people stick their driving tests on these things it just makes me laugh well let's take a look at the rear end of this thing it even says row Auto Sales New Haven Connecticut I love the big handle here you put your key in anybody home yep coming in landlord know they've obviously gone out for the day but as you can see look at this it's an enormous trunk it's hilarious you could put everybody you know in here you feel filler is right here and that's the original chrome it's amazing what nice shape it is this massive handle here look at this thing you just then across these taillights I mean how cool is this this 50 styling is just just fantastic this was the sort of Golden Age you know the war was over we'd won the war we're gonna go to the moon I mean we're just shooting for the stars styling was outlandish crazy lots of chrome big engines just a fantastic car the massive door I love that steering wheel the steering wheel is hilarious that was actually considered a safety wheel because that would the steering column wouldn't go through your chest like a sword you thought I had these two things here that would and your horn right on and that's a horn in it by the way none of this European beep-beep stuff that's that's that's a massive horn and across the red and white and black interior that was redone what we did was we took original parts of the interior and kind of blended it with some new material once again we get our air conditioning from vintage air they make these fantastic kits that fit just about any car this is a sort of GM 50s model as you can see they look like the original pieces it's just unbelievable that's a hood and as you can see we've cleaned up under the hood a little bit I'm still waiting for the Oldsmobile sticker that goes on the air cleaner painted the valve covers kept the power steering the way it was how'd you see we put in a much bigger alternator and we put in the air conditioning units so we haven't altered the car these did come with air conditioning you can go back to stock if you really want to but it makes the car much more livable have not touched the engine engine has not been opened up at all what we did was oh you know it was missing and we couldn't figure out why it was missing and there was a vacuum leak no under here is your big four-barrel this thing is 394 cubic inches 315 horsepower which is quite a bit actually we took the carburetor part and we noticed whoever did the job last had this gasket on this gasket is real close to the original gas except the original gasket does not have this the original gasket is a perfect circle and this is blocked off so it's like that and what was happening was with this gasket on we were just sucking air so it idle it would just we couldn't figure out why he wouldn't run smoothly got a gasket kit replaced it runs fantastic now so always make sure you have the right parts you know a lot of times you bring your car to mechanic and he order something he doesn't feel like calling the guy back or paying for the gasket himself so they just stick it on I think that's what happened here I always want to clean out your oil breather as well as you can see we did that let's stow this away so it doesn't get used again in pretty bulletproof car as I said this has got a hundred thousand miles on and it runs like new as you'll find out right now I love this Aero car everything was future Matic easel Matic you know everything was o matic you know it really is a comfortable car to drive you could take a trip in this now you know I drove this around 100 mile trip a couple of days ago it was fantastic and when you pull up the Honda Civics people go down because the thing is so huge you've got ten to one compression 394 cubic inches none of this leader stuff this is cubic inches I mean this is the definition of power steering there's absolutely no Road feel of any kind what do you can drive it with one finger and you know it it's quite pleasant these people think it's the bus pulling up it's so big but you know everything works on it all the gauges clock works radio works and the gas pedal work my friend in high school Fred Greely his mom had a big wild cat you have a wild cat with the I think was at the 455 and we used to go to the shopping center parking lot put it in neutral rev it up drop it in gear just burn rubber and then one day the transmission fell out we were like we don't know what happened after that happen you know these cars got such a reputation being rust buckets and I guess they were but if you took care of him like dr. John's dad did it would last you look at this 50 years I feel like Mary oh the carpenter in this thing doesn't corner bad the fact that the corner is all is amazing okay now this car is in its element cruising on the freeway you know you could take a trip in this like was a modern car it's quiet you know this thing really turns heads cuz you don't see cards that look like this anymore there's a camera in front of me and I have about a foot on each side look how wide it is this is a car you really miss the electric windows because you actually have to undo your seat belt and crawl over there to put down the window this is the birth of the Pontiac wide track as well I mean this is real styling this steering wheel isn't it and you got a speedometer that changes color the faster you go I'll show that to theirs you're generating oil your temperature hot cold fuel 97,000 original miles engines never been opened up none you took real good care of this car what vintage air does is they let you hook the air conditioning up to your original control if we put control unit out here and you send them this and they hook it up so electronically these switches will control your air conditioning it's very cool I've written on here with magic marker just to remember what switch will do what but this way the car looks all original and you still have your air conditioning see your fan switch here now runs your air conditioner and obviously heater in the winner yeah it's really a pretty cool setup it's a it's a great company massive glove box oh my god look at that you got fuzzy dice everything you need right here watch the speedometer change colors the faster you go here see it's green now and then when you get up to about oh what 40 miles an hour whoo orange and then Oh faster go 50 go 60 miles an hour turns red danger danger oh we put Dynamat under the rug here Dynamat works terrific it's a sound insulator and a heat insulator and I guess a cold insulator too it really makes your car a lot quieter it's God you stick it on the floor basically looking like you would tape almost and it insulates and works it's terrific sound deadening and there's something you don't have anymore wing wings some of these once again thanks to vintage era for this great air conditioning unit worth terrific special thanks to carp the dr. John and his dad was showing that you know a piece of history can be saved they did a great job doing it and I'm sorry that we got a chance to meet dr. John's dad but he was a great guy to save and we passed that that on to his son who then passed the car on to me so anyway I'll see you guys next week hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 952,102

Rating: 4.9277806 out of 5

Keywords: Jay Leno, Automotive, Cars, Garage, horsepower, Jay, Leno, mods, custom car, Speed, Fast, modded cars, mechanic, fastest car, Jay Leno's Garage, cars, exotic cars, interview, custom, Leno car, funny, Leno funny, car show, Rare, Motorcycles, racing, jay leno interview, auto, drive, power, fast, amazing, cool, the cars, vehicle, 1959 Oldsmobile Super 88, Oldsmobile, Oldsmobile Super 88, 1959 Oldsmobile, Super 88

Id: P2X9085liVk

Length: 14min 44sec (884 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 24 2013