I stumbled upon these pictures and wondered. Did they ever make more of they or were they just an idea. I would love to see some one make a clone.
4 were built as concept cars in 1954. I think only one survived. -Lee Atomic Radio www.atomicpinup.com
From what I've read there is only one of the four remaining. It was sold at Barrett-Jackson back in January of '05 for $3,000,000. If memory serves me correct, it was purchased by a representative of the owner of the Discovery Channel for a museum he was planning on opening in Colorado. Not sure if that ever came to fruition.
Regarding the F-88, here is something I posted a couple years ago at http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2005/01/29/3000000-car/ I worked in Oldsmobile Experimental in the 50s and early 60s, and seem to remember that we built three F88s, but the Barrett-Jackson sheet says four. Fuzzy memory maybe. I also remember that they had 303 engines even though the production 1954 was a 324. It probably had another engine later maybe. It wasnt unusual to upgrade and revise the concept cars. The last time I saw one of the F-88s was in 1959, hiding in a corner of the Olds Engineering garage - probably in for maintenance of some kind. Just there for a day or so. It looked like it had a lot of miles on it. This must not have been the same car, as the B-J sheet says ACD Museum got their car in 1955. Im surprised that this car got out. We usually scrapped them. You hear that they got crushed. Not true - we just took them apart, beat up all the pieces, and threw everything in the scrap. Wow! Three million bucks. I wonder what the retractable 2-seater Olds roadster we built for Harley Earls retirement would be worth. 394 engine with lots of chrome, exhausts exiting in front of the front wheels, 6-speed automatic transaxle in the rear More follow-up later from David Temple who has written a book about these cars. We have been emailing time to time. A recent email from David explains why I thought there were only three F-88s, but there were actually four. The fourth was never assembled by Olds. From David Temples email: As for the F-88... since my book was published I learned that the first F-88 burned during a parade. It was salvaged and some of its parts were sent to E.L. Cord who had received the crated unbuilt F-88 (essentially F-88 #4), the car sold at B-J in 2005. Some of the parts now on that car are from F-88 #1. My theory as explained in my book was that perhaps F-88 #3 burned. So what happened to F-88 #3? Want more?
This internet is incredible. Here is a string that goes on and on and has a lot of answers to the F-88 questions, including the history of the 4<SUP>th</SUP> car. A bunch of guys owned the 4<SUP>th</SUP>, and it traded hands without even being assembled. Interesting is that the frame (a 53 Vette) was crated with a Blue Flame Six in it. Amazing to me. Where do they find all of this information? http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1954-oldsmobile-f88.htm
The F-88 is in the Gateway Auto Museum in Gateway, Colorado which opened in 2006. Gatway is about fifty miles southwest of Grand Junction, Colorado. Here's the link: http://www.gatewayautomuseum.com/
Yup, it is at the Gateway Auto Museum in Gateway Colorado. I stayed there last month and saw the car in person, I'll post some pic's if you would like. Gateway is not only a museum, it is a full-on resort. It is a cool place to stay, but it is in the middle of nowhere. The guy that built the resort & museum is the guy that owns the Discovery Channel (can't remember his name). The museum is amazing, the cars (and everything else) is top-notch.
How was the stay. Is it worth it to make that a destination drive? Or worth an extra couple of days of traveling to go there on our way down the west coast to California?
The Jalopy Journal
