There is a fair number of fans of classic Americans from the 1940s, 50s and 60s in our country. We understand why, because in those days a car could still be a nice, striking work of art on wheels. This also applies to this beautiful Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight, which has been making Dutch roads a bit more beautiful for 24 years.
Techzle reader Koen Smit did not have to look twice to see that he bumped into something special when he found this Oldsmobile parked along the road. The Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight is also very hard to miss, if only because of its size. It is no less than 5.44 meters long and just under two meters wide. Yet the Ninety-Eight only has two doors, but copies of a size that you cannot really get out of the feet in a modern Dutch parking lot. Everything is great about this Oldsmobile.
Not surprising, because the Ninety-Eight was the flagship of the brand that was defunct in 2004. The ‘Ninety’ indicated the class of the model, the ‘Eight’ the number of cylinders. Later it would simply be written as ’98’ on the model that lasted until 1996. Twelve generations had appeared then, in over 50 years. The car we have in front of us is a 1954 Ninety-Eight and is one of the fourth generation. You may see something familiar from other Americans of that time and that is quite right, because the Ninety-Eight was a cousin of the Cadillac 62 and the Buick Roadmaster.
Of course, all the ingredients of that time are present: a two-tone color scheme, white walltires, an abundance of chrome, large curved windows and an early variant of the characteristic ‘fins’ on the back. There is of course also a V8 in the nose and then of course one that takes it easy for its size. It is a whopping 5.3-liter, but this ‘Rocket V8’ kicks it to a relatively modest 188 hp. Although quite a lot of power for that time, don’t forget that the Ninety-Eight weighs no less than 2 tons.
This car came to the Netherlands in 1997 and is now with its fourth Dutch owner. Not that long, by the way: only three months. At least optically, it still looks fine, so in that respect it was not a bad choice. That there are only many stylish years left to be glued to!