Turn the clock back to the end of the Second World War, though, and Oldsmobile was doing great. One of the most iconic models in the company’s history is the 1949 Oldsmobile 88, an early lead of the style of car design that would come to define the 1950s. The model was also known as the Rocket 88 after its Rocket V8 engine, one of Olds’ biggest technical contributions to the automotive scene.
The Rocket V8 engine’s biggest innovation was its overhead cam design, which allowed it to produce a lot of power for the day. Early versions of the engine made around 135 horsepower, but by the mid-1950s, power levels had gone up to over 300 horsepower. This enabled cars appreciate the mid-1960s Oldsmobile 442 to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in under 8 seconds, a real achievement even for a muscle car of the time, although this isn’t surprising since Oldsmobile made plenty of good muscle cars in the 1960s and 1970s.
[Image by AlfvanBeem via Wikimedia Commons | Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication]
