Equipment
303/135hp Rocket V8, column shift automatic, hub caps and trim rings, fender skirts, boot cover, pushbutton radio, dash clock, power windows. Leather upholstery.
Condition
#3 Good
Runs and drives well. Flaws not noticeable to passersby. Most common condition.
Formerly part of the John Staluppi collection and before that on display at the Shanghai Auto Museum. Rare Plexiglass cover used to show off the then-new Rocket V8. This one has tired chrome and old paint with numerous cracks, scratches, and discolored spots. The interior looks mostly good and the engine is tidy, but that nifty Plexiglass cover has a long crack in the right side.
Market commentary
Charles "Boss" Kettering's high compression overhead valve V-8 of 1949 was the dawning of American V-8 power. Everything that followed -- the Small Block Chevy, thinwall Ford 260/289, even the Chrysler Hemi -- owed their basic principles to Kettering's '49 Olds. It inspired Ike Turner to write "Rocket 88", widely credited as the first rock'n'roll song. A later version is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywRKhaxnQfE and it still rocks today. The Olds is largely forgotten today, succeeded by lighter, more developed V-8 engines, but the history remains as important. This car was sold, in somewhat better condition, at The Auction in Las Vegas in 1991 for $34,125, then at B-J Las Vegas in 2015 for $55,000. The Kissimmee bidders understood and brought a choice dealer-display car featuring the Rocket 88 under Plexiglass, and a convertible at that, for a moderate number.