When Oldsmobile Lost Their Mind & Built A Factory Turbo V8

[@ericb592]

When I was in High School, I put a freshly rebuilt 215 from a wrecked '62 F-85 into my '73 Vega. It had a mild cam from Clay Smith Cams but was otherwise stock with a 4bbl carb backed by a TH350 (thanks to advance adapters for that!) and a 4.10 rear gear. I'll say, that transformed the Vega into the car it should have been from the start. The 215 was only about 40 or so pounds heavier than the stock Vega 4cyl, so it still handled great without any suspension mods, and was a mid 14 second (14.57@ 96mph) 1/4 mile car at the strip. Unfortunately, a drunk T-boned me about a year and a half after I did the swap, and totalled my car, but fortunately I was relatively uninjured. Good memories though! Had Chevy put the 215 in the Vega, along with some rustproofing, it would have been a world class subcompact.

[@tenossos]

But Chevy didn't want the Vega to compete with the Camaro.

[@cdjhyoung]

I've always liked the looks of this GM body in all its different maker's interpretations. We had a new neighbor move in in the mid-1960's that owned a Jet Fire Olds. He drove that car hard, really hard. But I don't think he paid much attention to the Methanol bottle or the engine coolant. He came home from work one afternoon and the car was sounding really rough. He sat in the driveway revving it and getting out to look at things under the hood. Finally he revved it one too many times and he was then picking sleeve liners off his driveway. Totally dynamited that engine. Lucky he was home and didn't end up walking. Eventually the guy bought a VW 412. Those had early electronic fuel injection. On the deck lid over the engine was a big sticker warning not to jump start the engine. So, of course, one winter morning that is what he did. Bought himself a whole bunch of fried electronics with that one. His only redeeming quality is he had four really fine looking teenage daughters for this teenage neighbor to ogle at.

[@bryantint1339]

Would rather replace with a Buick.

[@southerndiy1]

Wild ending to that anecdote

[@rickobryant9217]

A 1961 Pontiac Tempest was the coolest of that family, that half of a 389 trophy 4 cylinder up front and a 4 speed out back via independent trans axle! Wicked wow factor, I always thought maybe a 2 speed power glide nested behind that 4 cylinder then the 4 speed? 8 forward gears, a cool old Pontiac and 50 plus mpg

[@cdjhyoung]

@@rickobryant9217 That might be entertaining but you would have a hard time getting one of those light duty Torq-Flight trans axles to survive any hard footed action from the clutch in front of that four speed. in this case, torque kills. And multiplying the toque the trans axle was designed to handle by 2.56 times is likely not going to bode well for the drive train life span.

[@cdjhyoung]

@@southerndiy1 Gotta add one last piece to that anecdote: same guy that killed his Jet Fire also owned a Quarter Horse. He rode it only on Saturday morning. He would start with a gentle saunter down our dirt road eastbound for about a mile. Half way back he would go to a full gallop. He had two driveways and always stopped at the first. So one Saturday he decided to go farther than his well trained horse knew as normal. At the second driveway, the quarter horse decided the ride was over and made a hard right turn, as quarter horses are known to do. He, however, didn't. Landed on top of the ornamental bolder that was at his property line. The horse was gone by the next Saturday. Daughters were still cute.

[@phelmersaid701]

That was definitely an education about the Jetfire. Previous to this video I had no idea. Thanks!

[@gwhizz44]

That was one cool daddy Olds right there, baby.

[@Pauley_in_GP]

Great video. Very detailed overview of the Jetfire. GM took some chances back in those days, i.e.: Corvair, Tempest, Jetfire. A few years later, leading to things like the GTO and Buick Turbos.

[@legitrides8261]

Best videos on youtube. Reminds me of American Muscle Car. Great job.

[@buzzwaldron6195]

Lots of mistakes in these videos...

[@thebionicbassplayer]

Pontiacs and Oldsmobile were definitely our family's choice of vehicles. LeMans, Bonneville, Sunbird, G6, Cutlass, Intrigue and Alero were a few of the vehicles we've driven. This turbo Jetfire was a great innovation, which I'm sure paved the way for the Oldsmobile 442.

[@michaelvarble4392]

I may be wrong but I believe that the engine patent was sold to land Rover

[@bvward]

Rover, but yes also Land Rover. They bought the rights and all the tooling.

[@josephquast6910]

​@@bvwardit was actually buicks old nailhead V8.

[@6rimR3ap3r]

Rover bought the Buick 215 tools, the Oldsmobile 215 was an already slightly modified version of the Buick engine.

[@buzzwaldron6195]

@@josephquast6910 - Nope, the Buick 215 small block was externally styled to look like a nailhead, but WAS NOT ONE! And Rover got it. Far as I know, the nailhead dead ended mid 1980s. The nailhead was originally to be an advanced, very powerful 4 valves pentroof chamber engine, but GM didn't approve it, so Buick was stuck with the upper 2 small valves half pentroof nailhead engine!

[@buzzwaldron6195]

@@bvward - Brits and Australians used the Rover 215 engine in several brands and models of cars... Triumph, MG, Leyland, Rebco-Brabham, etc...

[@bruceh92]

4:02 Now that's a nice looking machine. Great video, love these cars, thanks.

[@call-a-nerd]

The Olds an Buicks were a lot different. I owned a 215 and it had 5 bolts around each cylinder as opposed to the Buick. They sold it because of costs to produce in the 60s was so high. Mine was a 4bbl and had 11 to 1 pistons from the factory.

[@phelmersaid701]

That's high compression. Fuels were better back then? Premium for sure!

[@buzzwaldron6195]

The Olds had 10.25:1, the '63 Buick had 11:1 and since all aluminum engine, the aluminum heads allowed for more octane tolerance... in '64, Buick enlarged the engine block to 300" in iron, but kept the aluminum heads for only that year, then all iron... eventually to 350" as their small block... '64 Olds went to an iron small block 330" Olds design... Pontiac went to an iron 336" engine they had made for GMC pickups... called it a "326" for one year to get under GM 330" limit for mid size cars...

[@OLDS98]

Thank you for the video on the oldsmobile Jetfire.

[@crw3673]

This is exactly what burns me about General Motors. GM has been messing around with turbos and boost off and on since the early 60s. Buick perfected turbocharging in the 80s and should had continued the technology till now! But no, GM couldn't let the mighty Corvette be challenged. Apparently Pontiac had a bunch of turbocharged cars from the sunbird to the the Trans Am and every model car in between, but due to piss poor marketing I didn't know these cars existed till decades later! Now 40 years later just about every division in GM has a turbo charged model. Just think what could have been if Buick and Pontiac was allowed to continue that research and development from the 80s till now.

[@j.moneyfilms]

To be fair they did continue using turbos beyond the 80s, but few and far between. There was the cobalt ss and the ats-v

[@crw3673]

@j.moneyfilms to be fair, you forgot about the Pontiac turbo grand prix and grand am. What about the turbo GMC Syclone and Typhoon? If General Motors had let Buick and Pontiac concentrate on turbo technology and let Chevrolet and Cadillac concentrate on V8s, maybe the imports wouldn't have a strangle hold on the car market like they have. General Motors dropped the ball on turbocharging in the 90s and is trying to play catch-up now! I'm a die-hard Chevrolet enthusiast, but I'm just calling a spade ♠️ a spade!

[@mikelovin7]

@@crw3673 I don't think it had anything to do with GM worried about challenging the Corvette, as I remember in the late 80's the C4 Corvette had a twin turbo Callaway Sledgehammer option, although it was a very expensive option that resulted in not many being produced, it set the fastest production car speed record at 255 mph for many many years until the Bugatti Veyron set the 268 mph record in 2010.

[@crw3673]

@mikelovin7 The Callaway Corvette was not a production Corvette made by General Motors. It was a dealer option like SLP, Yenko, or Baldwin. The same as you buy a Corvette and having performance work done to it. The Buick Grand National was a production vehicle. The Pontiac Turbo Trans Am was a production vehicle. The GMC Syclone was a production vehicle. The vehicles mentioned were all production vehicles made by General Motors and had factory warranties. The Callaway Corvette had a limited warranty through Callaway, and the engine and drive train would probably would not be service under warranty at your local GM dealership. If I'm correct, the 2024 C8 Corvette ZR1 is the first production Corvette that comes with turbos. Which again validates my argument. 🤔 Forty years later, after the Corvette Sledgehammer, you now put a turbo in the Corvette.

[@mikelovin7]

@@crw3673 Either way, dealer option or factory option, the Corvette was king of speed. Besides as you said, The Buick GN or the GMC Cyclone were both quicker than the factory built Corvette's on the strip except for the Calloway version(3.9 sec.) that GM allowed to be sold from the dealers, so again I don't think GM was too worried about Corvette or those would not have existed. I do however think it had a lot more to do with penny counters in the corporation, basically bad management that a lot of companies have, just look at all the issues today with the engines, transmissions, and electronic problems that never seem to get resolved. I'm a GM fan, but I wouldn't buy anything new these days from any brand, seems they're all suffering from lack of common sense.

[@Curtis1984]

Sweet classic. Thanks for putting that together. I'll keep my eyes open.. there are some still around waiting to be found 😉

[@youtubecarspottersguide1]

also the 1962 -64 Corvair monza Spyder had a turbo 6 and 65 -66 corvair corsa had a turbo 6

[@charleslum2438]

Wish I could get my hands on one of the turbo corvairs. Ralph Nader killed the corvair. He was responsible for making all cars go down in quality and value. What he and his cronies did damn near killed off the auto industry.

[@youtubecarspottersguide1]

@@charleslum2438 and the mustang helped kill the corvair muscle cars

[@nunyabidniz2868]

@@charleslum2438 The Corvair turbos needed a long stretch of road to spool up; they were the poster child for turbo-lag by design, because GM didn't want people melting the heads off their air-cooled engines but didn't want to go the MW50 route for in-cylinder cooling. The 140 [4 carb, vs, typical 2 carb for the 110 & smaller engines, or 1 carb [pull-through] for the turbos] proved more popular than the turbo engines because it made almost as much power but as more responsive in the stoplight-to-stoplight race... 😉

[@bvward]

And the aluminum 215 (+ bigger displacements) came back to haunt us in the Triumph TR8 and various Rover/Land Rover products. My Discovery had one. Best snow vehicle I ever owned☺

[@garthhancock3373]

The Rover V8 wasn't all bad. The MG B GT had it, and it was a blast.

[@andyharman3022]

The Olds 215 had a racing career in Formula 1 as the Repco-Brabham. Jack Brabham won the 1966 world championship using a converted 215, destroked to 3.0 liters, with sohc cylinder heads.

[@sugma69420]

That tr8 is so ugly💀

[@michaelhite1433]

The later Rover 4.0 and 4.6 had different cranks and cross bolted main caps and crank driven oil pump and no distributor. The 4.0 and 4.6 had the same bore different stroke. I swapped a Disco 2 4.6 into my Disco 1 and used the 4.0 intake and 4.6 long block. Buick 215 intakes work on Rover V8s.

[@pancudowny]

There was also an issue of the water/methanol "Rocket Fluid" delivery system [sometimes] allowing the fluid to feed into the engine while not running, causing hydro-locking of the engine upon cranking. This was finally addressed fully by the late-60's with recall TSBs & updates, but (obviously) came too late to help the image of the Turbo-Rocket engine itself.

[@Warren-g8t]

The 6 bolt head was not the only difference between the Olds 215ci V8 and the Buick sister engine. The Buick had 3 web braces in the V between the two sides of the block. And the Olds had 5 web braces. So the two engines had different casting moulds. It is the Olds version that Phil Irving used to build the 1966 and 1967 F1 winning engine for Jack Brabham.

[@23727bgk]

Had no idea this engine was EVER used in any form in Formula 1!!!

[@546cowboy6]

My stepfather bought one of these and didn't have it two weeks as someone ran into it and I never saw it again. Some kid was driving another car and hit the Olds then disappeared back to the hills of Kentucy. I don't think I ever even rode in it. Yes, it was red just like the picture.

[@steveregehr8289]

Thanks for a well presented video on this car! Its a neat odd ball imo. To help others relate about the turbo issues, let me help try to summarize the big picture as to why they probably ended up getting switched to carbs. High compression ratio + low boost would need to run on high octane fuel, or some other way to get the cylinder temps under control. Since they wanted to market this as not a race car application but still bad ass,....all ya gotta do is keep a bottle full of water that doesnt freeze. Windshield washer fluid is probably most ideal as its cheap handy. Then let the system do its thing. Combustion is cooled and power is there. No need for race gas. Neglected simple maintenance will start lots of problems. I have my sights on a 62 f85 yhat i painted for a friend of mine. Not turbo just carbed but thinking of ideas as to how i would build it up. This video giving me some good insights! Thx

[@KRigby]

Man i had a JetStar 1 i miss that 394 so much

[@shovelrick1]

A friend has a 64 Jetstar 394 vert with a bad Rotojoint? Trans, he’s converting to a T-400 with a kit

[@steveleisten1189]

Great job !! 🔥

[@chensonsr]

I have a 1963 Oldsmobile f85. It has the 215 aluminum V8 in it. The engine is locked up. Hard to find parts or placements for it. Does anybody know of a direct bolt-in alternative engine for the 215? Thanks.

[@hazmathauler4536]

Drop ya a Superchared 3.8 in her from a Bonneville or Grand Prix. Make ya a nice little cruiser.

[@buzzwaldron6195]

Parts are available...

[@michaelg4931]

There seems to be the option of a British Rover 215 v8 which is the old Olds 215 which GM sold the design of to Rover. I did a search with "rover v8 bellhousing bolt pattern vs oldsmobile 215 bolt pattern" and came up with hits showing as much. Don't know how hard it is to find those Rover engines however. D&D Fabrications, Inc in Almont, MI 48003 specializes in Olds/Rover 215 aluminum V8's.

[@patrickshaw8595]

Make plans to buy a cheap engine hoist. a few hand tools you will get that engine out. Take it to a a good engine man. Spend money. Job DONE !

[@brookeking8559]

@@michaelg4931strictly speaking Rover bought the Buick 215 design and tooling, but it’s almost the same thing and probably just as compatible as your sources say.

[@yz250ftony]

I've seen 1 running and in amazing condition. It was at a concours

[@anthonyfrench3169]

This was one of my favorite cars, next to the Hurst A bodies

[@thomashenske6814]

The F-85 was also a police car in 65 with a 4sp transmission

[@buzzwaldron6195]

Started in '64...

[@collapseofthewest]

Wow. My grandmother (b. 1897 d. 1986) owned a 1961 Oldsmobile Cutlass. I thought that was what I was looking at here, in all honesty. Very similar body, at any rate.

[@buzzwaldron6195]

Same body but only the convertible and the Jetfire built on the reinforced convertible body were 'hardtops' windows...

[@AnnatarTheMaia]

Duchy of Lichtenstein dealer plate at 09:24 and 09:34, now that's cool.

[@R.CAR_ADVENTURES]

Good job, buddy!

[@eddieschwab864]

That was not the only difference in the engine design. You look at a Oldsmobile 215 of that era and the features of the engine architecture are visually indistinguishable from the later V8s both small and big block they had the oil filler tube at the very front distributor at the back going straight into the block rather than through the intake. There are a number of other characteristics that separated the Buick 215 from the Oldsmobile 215 but just for context architecture add elements of the design that went into the later small and big block V8 distributor at angle sticking out of front being the most obvious visual cue.... that is correct though about the bolt pattern for the heads however

[@buzzwaldron6195]

Head bolt "pattern" was the same, Olds just added a 5th bolt... and all blocks had the boss for the 5th bolt... the aluminum Buick 215 started about 1950 supercharged to 335 HP for concept cars that still exist... one also had the transaxle setup later used for Pontiac Tempest...

[@rickobryant9217]

Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac never had a "big block" even in the later years, the bore and stroke changed but the block overall was the same dementions from the 301 to the 455 , with the exception of the 215 if course

[@atikovi1]

One of the coolest looking emblems for sure.

[@andyharman3022]

The Corvair turbo hit production within a couple of months of the Olds Jetfire. It was 62 years ago, so I say close enough for jazz. GM got so close to success, but left out a couple of details that ruined it. They should have put a lot bigger water-methanol tank on it, and rigged up some kind of switch that would limit throttle opening if the "Rocket Fluid" ran out. Or going further upstream, put the turbo on the low-compression engine and ran a couple of more psi of boost. On the Corvair side, isn't it fun to know that GM was first to build a turbo-flat 6 rear-engine car, preceding Porsche by 13 years?

[@mattm9619]

Great presentation

[@michaelvarble4392]

I remember working on a corvair Spyder 4 one BBL carburetors pretty quick car.

[@thomashenske6814]

When I was 10 I helped a friend rebuild a spyder engine that thing was a very quick car and really cool because it was a convertible

[@middlesiderrider]

The Corvair Spyder was the first turbocharged production car. It beat the Olds to market by a few weeks. And it was a simpler, better setup for the average Joe.

[@rickrecco143]

Very informative. I have a '64 Cutlass Convertible (pre 442 unfortunately) I am still learning a lot about how it all came about.

[@buzzwaldron6195]

'64 was available as 442...

[@rickrecco143]

@@buzzwaldron6195 The 442 became available in the middle of the '64 production year as an answer to the new "64 GTO. At the start of the run the 442 was not yet available. They made very few 442's in '64 and much less than that in Convertibles. I'd love to get one of those.

[@buzzwaldron6195]

@@rickrecco143 - Yeah, 442 started as a police option... had a '65 GTO convertible back in the day... would like to pick up a little '64 Chevelle convertible... drive it 9 months of the year...

[@heavyearly2232]

GM was very experimental in the early 60's.

[@Merylstreep1949]

Definitely Jetfire❤awesome car

[@Sleeperdude]

Very cool

[@thomashenske6814]

What about the golden rocket that was before the corvette it had front and rear bullet bumpers I think it was made in 1956 My mom was a member of Oldsmobile club of America and they showed this car in their monthly paper

[@buzzwaldron6195]

Corvette began in '53, Golden Rocket concept car was a variation of a Corvette with bigger Olds engine..

[@garywilson7992]

@@buzzwaldron6195 yeah it was a 1956 futuristic concept car, the kind dreams are made of.

[@buzzwaldron6195]

@@garywilson7992 - My daily driver back than was a '57 Olds 98 Starfire... followed by a '62 Jetfire... '65 Cutlass convertible... '65 GTO convertible...

[@garywilson7992]

@@thomashenske6814 My Dad always bought new Oldsmobile’s back in the day, he started with a new 1954 Super 88, and then a 57, a 59 and a 64 was the last Oldsmobile, then he started buying Cadillacs every few years . But the one that sticks out in my mind the most was the 1959 Oldsmobile. It was a cold late January evening in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1959, and the reason I can remember that detail, is because it was wasn’t long after that, I was sitting in the backseat of that car when it came over the radio, that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper, and the pilot of the single engine plane, had been killed when the plane crashed in a Iowa cornfield. Certainly not a pleasant memory for the reason to be able to remember that detail of something totally unrelated, and being only 10 years old at the time, but well aware of who they were, and some of their music, it troubled me for quite a while, and something I’ll never forget. But on a lighter note, and back to the story. I remember looking out the front window, waiting in anticipation for my dad to bring the new car home, and the excitement I felt when my dad first drove into the driveway with it, and I remember the headlights, illuminating snow flurries that had just started. And I wasn’t disappointed when I first laid eyes on it, it was jet black and the most beautiful car I’d ever seen, and then taking the first ride in it, when my dad took it out on the highway. And It seemed futuristic to me compared to other cars I’d seen and rode in, it was lower, and looked more streamlined, and it was the first time I’d seen duel headlights, and they were set in a narrow full width grill, that made it look even lower. And the dash instrument panel also seemed futuristic to me, and instead of a round clock like speedometer with a needle, it had a horizontal ribbon that would change colors with the speed, that would turn from green, to orange, to red, after 70 mph, up to 120 mph, at least that’s how I remember it from a 66 year old memory of the experience. And I remember staring at the speedometer in awe, as the ribbon changed colors and sped from green to orange to red, all the way to 120 mph effortlessly. My dad passed away in 2018 at the age 91, and not long before he passed, I was reminiscing with him about some things as well as some of the cars he’d had, and he said of all the cars he’d had in his life, (and he’d had some nice ones) , he said that 59 Oldsmobile was the nicest car he’d ever owned.

[@johnhill861]

Before I was born my mom had one of these as a company car. She was the presenter of a TV show produced by Tampa Electric Company (TECO) in the early Sixties. They also gave her a Corvair for a time.

[@ekpauly]

Awesome video as usual. 🤙🏽. I just want to suggest a video, the late 70’s i think and early 80’s Oldsmobile hade a diesel engine in a car, and i guess the dealers were converting the back to gas by changing the heads and maybe so,e other things. An old guy I worked with 30 years ago used to talk about. Just funny how dealers were making the cars the customers wanted out of what they bought.

[@michaelvarble4392]

@@ekpauly it was basically a 350 Oldsmobile block and with a 20 to one compression ratio it had issues with a severe lack of power and it was very hard on rocker arms and push rods. Sometimes experiments don't turn out. It required more than heads and intake manifold the pistons were high compression

[@ekpauly]

I know its definitely not a rare cool car but interesting to me. Probably not worth a video, but maybe the channel will evolve.

[@rickobryant9217]

Those cars were a nightmare, you could easily put it back on gasoline, however the rear end gearing was kinda high to accommodate the diesel low RPM range and as a gasoline burner the torque was nowhere near enough to get the job done, and they were lacking a water separation system that is very crucial for a diesel engine

[@matrox]

05:00 WTF? Look how short that stroke is!! I bet it would rev to 8k rpm!!!😂

[@buzzwaldron6195]

Jaguar used same unique bore and stroke for their 1960s V12...

[@mrb.5610]

Wasn't the turbo fed by only one side of the engine ? Surprised that worked ok to be honest - the exhaust back pressure is going to be different - unless you had some kind of restriction on the non turbo side to even things up !

[@scottwatson8648]

Don’t know who was first but I had a Turbo Monza as my first car. I kick myself for getting rid of it.

[@buzzwaldron6195]

One advertised it first and other brought it out first...

[@ryanrau6714]

People forget the Oldsmobile was the high technology brand for years...all the way to the Reatta and Aurora.

[@jonschick]

I had a 62 Cutlass F-85, the 4-bbl setup worked well. Good highway mileage! The suspension was pretty wiggly, mediocre brakes, very little road feedback in the steering. The Hydramatic transmission was peculiar, the 1-2 shift was a huge change, then the fluid coupling would lock for better mileage. All in all, it was a good looking fun car, wish I had it back.

[@andrescer]

bro, had no idea this car existed. never heard of it. how you find these....very interesting video. Man, what a beautiful car.

[@Smitty134]

My Dad was proud of his F-85 and talked his parents into getting one. But I remember the cars engines being made of aluminum corroded rapidly in comparison to new alloys.

[@dano4572]

Too cool!!!

[@KDoyle4]

"Oldsmobile of all people"?..... Oldsmobile was GM's experimental division, just look at the '66 Toronado. "The compact Corvair and Falcon paved the way for"..... The Nash Rambler / Rambler American paved the way for succesful compact American cars. At 2700-1800 pounds, these GM "Senior Compacts" were almost as heavy as a mid-size car.

[@4BillC]

I actually run methanol. I guess it is kind of a cool flex. But it's really not a big deal filling nor is it a big cost. 5 gallons of meth lasts me about a year.

[@jamesdellaneve9005]

GM was crazy back in those days. They had each division making multiple engines and transmissions at the same time. Once they realized that they were doing this in the 1980’s, they started consolidating parts. Which culminated in the vaunted GM turn signal stalk. Which sounded like it broke every time you had to make a turn!

[@Rick-np9vz]

Cool car! But it's not the first! 1958 Studebaker Golden hawk was the first production turbo car!

[@mike-jc9zd]

Back in the early 1910s and twenties duesenberg and couple others were playing around with superchargers and turbos. It's on Jay Leno's garage

[@georgej.dorner3262]

The 1957 F Code Thunderbirds were supercharged. Studebaker had several supercharger applications in late 50s/early 60s.

[@villagelightsmith4375]

I had one. In a Buick Skylark. I had another in a GS ... factory 4-speed. Skylark. The Olds seemed only a rumor back then. If I'd only known! The suspension was ... "floaty", but if you learned how to corner it, it would keep up with traffic. Though not for acceleration.

[@corsa180]

The Jetfire beat the Corvair turbo to market by a couple of months, but the Corvair turbo was by far the more successful of the two. Turbocharged Corvairs were available for five model years, with at least 50,000 of them sold. Plus, they didn't require any sort of "rocket fluid".

[@pudermcgavin4462]

The compression ratio is even almost high for a turbo motor today! But modern cars run far higher boost at the same time!

[@richb419]

Hi, I had 2 different 62 Olds Cutlass, one with a quad and a 3 speed and the other with an automatic. these cars would wear out the cam in short order. I think because the dealer did not run the cam in, also people were not used to a car with aluminum engine and heads and cross threaded the spark plug holes. the steering gear was terribly under built and would fall apart after 40k miles, still I loved that little car Rich

[@BradleyBellwether-oy2qi]

1962 really was the beginning of the speed wars. We had the '62 Pontiac Catalina super duty, the '62 Impala SS 409, and the '62 Oldsmobile Starfire. So I'm not sure why the '64 GTO is hailed by so many as "The first muscle car". If I'm missing one from 1962, let me know.

[@davidrothert7531]

Oldsmobile was so close releasing a turbo Quad 4 Calais in 1990, the software was actually in the production ECUs. A real pity. It died due to internal politics. Faster than an ‘86 Grand National

[@middlesiderrider]

The Corvair Spyder beat the Olds to market be a few weeks, so it was in fact the first turbocharged production car. And an estimated 80% of the Jetfires were returned to GM to have the turbo setup replaced with a standard carburetor because owners didn't like the complicated and finicky turbocharger that required them to refill the methanol system. The Corvair on the other hand has a simple turbo setup that doesn't require any special effort on the part of the owner, and most of those cars(9000+ in just the first year) kept their turbos. The Olds is cool but it wasn't the first and the Corvair was an arguably better setup, and better production car, stock for stock.

[@garywilson7992]

I can see why people got sick of the annoyance of having to add the methanol to prevent pre ignition knocking, and in my opinion anyway, for marginal performance increase. And if performance was what you were after, 8 seconds to reach 60 mph and 16.8 seconds in the qtr mile, isn’t what I’d call an adrenaline rush, or win you many drag races, as well as costing $3000, in 1962. I mean even a full sized 1959 super 88 Oldsmobile, which is a heavy tank of a car, could reach 60 mph in a little over 8 seconds and run the qtr mile in around 16.5 seconds, and that was with a very high ratio highway rear end, that could bury the 120 mph speedometer effortlessly, without even breathing hard.

[@nunyabidniz2868]

Built? As in, actually available on the showroom floor? Chevy. Offered, as in announced & showed demos? Olds; they beat Chevy to the punch by something like a week or two with their announcement of the F-85 Jetfire before the Turbo 'Vair made it to the dealerships, but Olds didn't actually deliver until well into the model year, from what I've heard.

[@TigerDominic-uh1dv]

Great Styling 👍 I'm not into power Engines I Just Want to Enjoy The Drive 😊

[@MilfordHeavenMercadoPach-im7jk]

Were do i side in this debate on the first turbocharger gm car i don't know exactly 😐.

[@richcoleman469]

I much prefer my 65 corsa turbo to the jetfire

[@buzzwaldron6195]

Same body... but the Jetfires were scary fast! kzbin.info/www/bejne/gKvaZopnp7eApck

[@johnjohnsn7633]

Why didn't the creator of this presentation use the 1960s Oldsmobile logo, instead of the one from 1996-and-up?

[@arringtontim07]

The new corporations are crazy to put cheap Japanese turbocharged engines in American cars.

[@Allegronaut]

215hp isn't very impressive with a turbo when in 1957 Chevrolet had already achieved 1hp per cubic inch with the naturally aspirated fuel-injected 283!

[@maconp1119]

Please give Olds the correct “Rocket” logo…

[@corywilhelm9768]

It's called "hardtop," not "pillar-less" window configuration. While I appreciate your efforts and sometimes interesting facts I didn't know, you really need to educate yourself on automotive terminology. Details matter.

[@bobbymartin4388]

Mopars ran great but the body styles were always ugly As hell

[@GeraldWood-ig9rw]

Code f ford 57😊

[@GeraldWood-ig9rw]

Ford was first in 1957😊

[@heavyearly2232]

That was a supercharger. Studebaker supercharged the Hawk that year, or close to it.

[@The_R-n-I_Guy]

The supercharged Thunderbird

[@boataxe4605]

The meth injection did give it a lot of power, but it eventually began to preform erratically and its teeth fell out.

[@buzzwaldron6195]

Methanol/water injection wasn't for power but to cool intake charge and prevent detonation... the methanol was to prevent freezing in winter...

[@boataxe4605]

@ I was making fun of the “Meth” caption on the thumbnail,implying that it used methamphetamine.

[@AnnatarTheMaia]

Engine's "high" 10.25:1 compression? That's hilarious! My 2 L turbo diesel has 18:1 compression!

[@buzzwaldron6195]

Olds 350 diesel had 22:1...

[@AnnatarTheMaia]

@@buzzwaldron6195 it was also prone to shred itself up until 1987, when the block and the heads were completely revised... but the point here is that 10.25:1 is laughably low compression ratio, not which engine has the highest compression ratio; details; semantics; they matter!

[@buzzwaldron6195]

@@AnnatarTheMaia - Biggest problem was it needed a fuel-water separator...

[@AnnatarTheMaia]

@@buzzwaldron6195 yeah, that's a GM classic: always cut costs at the wrong place.