One of The Rarest Cars On The Planet: 1954 Oldsmobile F-88

The Oldsmobile F-88 was a futuristic design from the early 50’s, being one of the inspirational designs of its era and now one of the rarest cars around. One being sold at Barrett Jackson in 2005 $3.2 million.
It is said only four cars were built, with only one surviving today.

Started as the XP-20 project, as a side project of Harley Earl, said as being first designed between 1952-1953 from the designer Bill Lange, with the final design most likely done in the main Oldsmobile studio with Art Ross.

The car was built on the chassis of an earlier Chevrolet Corvette with the same 102 inch wheelbase, with a body made of fibre glass.
An elliptical grille mouth, hockey stick side trim embolic taillights were the order of the day.
The engine was a 324 CU V8 from the 54 Oldsmobile super 88 with a stock 4 barrel carburetor. Compression ratio was 9.0:1 and with other upgrades gave 250hp through a four speed, Hydra-Matic transmission and 3.55:1 Corvette rear axle.
The F-88 instruments were taken from a 1953 Oldsmobile, with changes in a combined Speedo/Tach and three dial custom faces.

The car was first shown at the General Motors Motorama, January 21, 1954, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York. Painted metallic gold with metallic green inside the fender wells.
The idea was for the car to go into production, but was cut short by the GM board.

After promotional campaigns, this type of vehicles were usually given away or crushed, but some, like the F-88, bypassed the crushing policy as 50’s legislation was less strong than today. This however, means that the surviving examples are usually based on bits of facts and hearsay, pieced together over the years. The back history to the F-88 is still not complete, but this just adds to the mystique of the vehicle.

The F-88 Selling at Barrett Jackson in 2005 for $3m.

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