1968 Mod Rod 442

[69Tom]

This pic was posted in the fantastic 'Old Street Scenes' thread here on the board. It is from the 1968 Chicago Auto Show. Oldsmobile was obviously REALLY trying to shed it's stodgy image, and here's what they came up with. An early take (by one year) on the '69 mod themes by the Dodge boys & Plymouth.



Here is the description accompanying the pic on the Chicago Auto Show website:

Manufacturers were courting the youth market in the late 1960s with muscle cars like the 350 horsepower Oldsmobile 4-4-2. During the 1968 show, Olds featured the "Mod Rod" factory custom 4-4-2 convertible. The Cutlass-based ragtop was painted in colors that blended from pearl white in front to yellow in the center and metallic orange at the rear. Female models dressed in outfits that matched the design and materials featured in the car's interior were on hand to describe the special car to an enthusiastic crowd. A small sign in the background promoted Olds' new Rocket 455 V-8, installed in its larger models.


http://www.chicagoautoshow.com/histo...68&vid=371

Pretty darn cool. Wonder what became of the car? If anyone has any more pics, would love to see them.

[agtw31]

those look like hurst olds emblems on the back of that ragtop

women dress like that now,too.

[bergy]

Similar to the car in the famous '68 442 brochure. I'm just finishing the identical 442 that is shown in the pic.

[StealthBird]

Here's another from the 68 Auto Show.

[mockingbird812]

Ride 'em Cowboy (girl)!!!

Cool cutaway view!

[The Dude]

[442w30]

[ QUOTE ]
This pic was posted in the fantastic 'Old Street Scenes' thread here on the board. It is from the 1968 Chicago Auto Show. Oldsmobile was obviously REALLY trying to shed it's stodgy image, and here's what they came up with. An early take (by one year) on the '69 mod themes by the Dodge boys & Plymouth.

[/ QUOTE ]

I never really thought Old had a stodgy image back then.

And what Mod themes are you talking about? You mean the Mod Top? Only Plymouth had a Mod Top, but I guess the intention of my point is that Mod was a certain style from mid-1960s London whose name often was co-opted for other "modern" styles through the decade.

[agtw31]

98's,Delmont 88's,Bonevilles,and Electras were all my dad sold at his used car lot back in the 60's.
all he hung out with were stodgy old farts.

[442w30]

Right, but I don't think anyone would accuse Pontiac of being stodgy.

[StealthBird]

Olds fought their stodgy image throughout the 60's, and I think they did a pretty good job convincing the street crowd that by 1968, they were in the Musclecar wars. The 64-67 442 were also rans to the GTO (unless you ran into one of the handful of 66/67 W-30's, which was highly unlikely). In 68, the 442 and Hurst/Olds garnered some attention. Oldsmobiles problem, and why they were never considered a performance division, was that they only had one platform (the Cutlass) that they built on. The 442, W-30, W-31, Hurst/Olds, all were based on the one A-body they had. The rest of their lineup were stodgy old man cars. No dual quads or tri-powers (except the 442 in 1966) within their lineup. The Toronado was marketed as upscale elegant, not as a performance car.

Pontiac, on the other hand, used aggressive advertising, dual quads, and factory backed racing (up to 1963), and tri-powers were available on most of their model lineup up to and including 1966. The Catalina, Bonneville, Ventura, Grand Prix, and 2+2 were all available as high performance cars, with the GTO of course leading the way. Then in 1967, the Firebirds brought even more youth and performance to Pontiac, followed later by the Judge and Trans Am. Pontiac never had a problem with their performance image.

But Olds only had one performance car, and that was the Cutlass. They made some powerful Toros, even some police package Deltas, but they maintained a stodgy image. I think they finally broke the mold in 1968, with the new styling, the Hurst/Olds, and the W-31, but Olds would just never be identified as a GM performance division. The photos from the 1968 Auto Show really show how hard Oldsmobile was trying to attract the youth market.