Most of the late ’50s space age madness had matured by the Kennedy years, and Oldsmobile kept it classy with its full-size lineup for ’63. This mid-range 1963 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 Holiday sedan sports abbreviated full-length straight-edge fins cresting its fenders to tail lights. Spear-like belt trim and attractive front and rear styling with integrated bumpers bring sophisticated style without the garish space cadet treatment of a few years prior. The nicely-presented classic from Flushing, New York comes to market here on Craigslist, where $13,995 puts it in your driveway. Thanks to reader Barney for spotting this crisp Empire State cruiser.
The claimed 55,000 mile “all original” classic shows minimal wear, and this multi-tone blue interior beats plain old black any day. Three-across seating front and rear equals room for six on that trip to the Grand Canyon or Friday evening mass.
Sun gleaming upon (market) re-entry, this “leader of the medium price field” shares most of its styling with the chart-topping Ninety-Eight, though I might envy the latter’s trick tail lights. Thanks to the cache of factory brochures at lov2xlr8 for some details. While the 123 inch wheelbase and 214 inch length offer expansive room and a smooth ride, the Dynamic 88’s 4002 lb curb weight comes in lighter than modern bloated performance cars.
An array of 394 cid (6.5L) V8s powered the full-sized Olds lineup in ’63, with this “Super Rocket” aka “Sky Rocket” unit marking a cut above the Dynamic 88’s “Rocket” mill. Assuming that’s not just a swapped air cleaner housing, the four-barrel Super Rocket makes 330 HP vs the 2bbl Rocket’s 260, both with over 425 lb-ft of velvety torque.
The Holiday added open air experience to your four-door compared to the Celebrity four-door’s B pillar, the latter adding structural integrity and door and window sealing at the expense of that free-as-a-bird feeling with the side windows down. As much time elapsed between 1900 and this car’s production as then to now, yet you still find 6.x liter OHV V8s and similar brake and suspension technologies (discs, A-arms, shocks and springs, etc.) today. It’s easy to picture this purported turn-key Olds in practical daily service. Few six-seaters today come in under 5000 lb, and running this beauty from 50,000 to 150,000 miles would barely alter its value compared with modern full-sized SUVs that depreciate $100 every time you grab a Happy Meal. How do you think this snappy hard top compares to modern six-seaters costing many times more?
If this Olds is all original, I’m impressed. This would have been a more typical “family” car when it was new. I never paid much thought to the different tail lights on the Ninety Eight and the Eighty Eight, thanks for pointing that out Todd and for posting the link for the brochure. I love it when the writers do that!!! I’d love to have something like this…….. One Day…… Nice find Barney, and great write up too Todd, I enjoyed it.
I had a ’63 Ninety-Eight, and my mind treasures those taillights.
3rd car I remember the old man having, was a ’63 Olds like this, only a 98. It had the different tail lights and an “Ultra High Compression” tag on the air cleaner, DEMANDING premium, dude, making me think this is a 2 barrel. Not for the old man, who couldn’t sport the extra 4 cents a gallon, and ran it on regular. It pinged like a Geiger counter in Nevada, but never seemed to hurt it any. I have memories of him giving the car the “Italian tuneup”, keeping it to the floor in park, until it cleared out, filling the garage and our lungs with lead deposits. And waiting patiently for the “cold” light to go out with a “plink”, finally some heat, just as we got to school. Wonderful cars,,,for the 60s, so out of place today. I hope someone can enjoy this car again.
Is that leather ?
Great car in obviously great condition. I could deal with the 4 doors very well here and if I would be already back in the market I would definitely be interested.
The owner of this Olds 88 had this ad on & off here local NYC & elsewhere for the last 5 years! I like it. but absolutely no general public / vintage enthusiast interest or demand + price & model itself.
Good looking car!
she is sweet. this has been on the market since last fall.
Be a really nice ride if it only had A/C. Had a man from upper NY come thru my hometown in North Carolina back in about 1969 with a big Cadillac. I believe it was a 1967 model and he was on the way back to NY from a vacation in Florida. It needed a water pump. No problem EXCEPT we only stocked a water pump for AC cars which were different from non-AC cars. I had to send 100 miles for the correct pump.
He told me as soon as he got back to NY he was trading it in for one with AC as the trip to Florida was miserable with no AC.
We had a new 63 Olds Dynamic 9-passenger wagon for over 7 years, great memories. Living in Florida, ours did have factory AC, you could hang meat if you left it on high speed fan. Same blue vinyl bench seats, with power seat and power windows, I think even a power antenna. We drove it to 70K miles, which was considered extreme in the day. The only negative, as for most long wheelbase station wagons, was alignment and early tire wear. Now let’s talk about those peaked fenders which created a trough to hold dirty water. No other negative issues.
Great ride if I could afford it, it would be my daily driver, it’s been on the market for months because no one wants this old heap, cuz it doesn’t have a laptop in the dash and doesn’t drive itself at the push of a button, for the asking price and the mileage, that’s a great deal, hope it finds a great home.
This car has been for sale FOREVER. At least a couple of years.
One of my friends had the Buick version of one of these, back in the day, used as a winter beater and bar car. We all affectionately referred to it as the “Byou’-Hogg”.