ProLuxury: the idea that just because it’s a pillow barge from the height of the Brougham era, that it doesn’t mean it can’t haul major ass and behave like a muscle car. It’s the truth…once the muscle car era faded down, comfort and prestige took over for the desirable traits in a car. You didn’t want a Dodge Charger with a rip-roaring 440, you wanted a Chrysler Cordoba with it’s “reeeech Corinthian leather” and a mellow 400…enough power to move you, but not enough to make certain areas of your body tingle. The same could be said across the board, every manufacturer went the same route. By the late 1970s, performance cars were stripe kits and a mellow thump from the exhaust pipe, but if you wanted some comfort, there were plenty of options for making some slow sled at least worth riding in.

For years, I’ve preached that all you had to do was put some power back under the hood, tweak the suspension just enough to handle the power, and you’d be in heaven. My latest argument? This Oldsmobile Delta Ninety-Eight. The big two-door C-body…that’s right, this is the same platform as the Coupe deVille, not the Caprice…could get a 403 Olds until 1980, but those taillights say that this one is newer, maybe 1984. You don’t expect something with a color-keyed padded roof that says “Regency” to come out swinging like a ’70 442 on nitrous, do you? This is one baaaad MF and if this car is still alive and kicking, we’d love to set eyes on it just once! Your dad’s Oldsmobile? Unless your last name is Watson, we sincerely doubt it.