A late 1990s Oldsmobile 88 is probably the last car anyone should ever think about bringing out to an autocross. It’s front wheel drive, it’s got a suspension setup that is meant to maximize the pillowy soft, floaty feeling that long-term AARP customers find ideal, and unless the L67 3.8L supercharged V6 is under the hood, they don’t really have any power worth mentioning. Which makes us wonder why this particular red example is being flung around Lake Erie Speedway like a rental car. Did Grandma fall asleep and a grandkid decided to have some fun? Is Grandpa out to recapture his youth? And more important: are there scrapes on the door handles? This might have been the most entertaining car to watch at the SCCA Misery Bay meet, because while the tires are screaming bloody murder, the driver of the big Olds does a really good job of hustling it around, understeer be damned. Click play below and watch this guy try to scrub the whitewalls off of the car the old-fashioned way!
Looks like a veteran autocrosser whose race car was down for repairs and decided to run his winter beater. That sort of thing is always fun to watch.
This brings back some fond memories of being dumb behind the wheel of my early 90s Delta-88. Same whorehouse red color, same wallowing handling.
Looks like fun to me!
I had a white 1999 that met an untimely death when someone drove into it as I pulled out of a plaza.
If not, I’d probably still be driving that beast today, maybe I’d have even tried autoX’ing it for fun.
It had almost 180k on it when the insurance company came and took it. Then a few weeks later a buddy of mine found it in one of my regular junkyard haunts. Sad stuff. RIP White Whale!
That guy needs to add about 10 PSI to his tires. Serious squish-age.
I am actually the driver of that Oldsmobile. I did add about 10 psi of air to the tires, I was running 40 psi on it when they are supposed to have 30 psi. Surprisingly I never did roll the tires all of the way to the white walls, they scrapes from the pavement ended about 0.5 inches from the white wall.
To answer a few questions about the car. It is a 1999 base model 88 with approximately 90k miles on it. The car was indeed my grandparents car of which I was gifted when I got my drivers license.
I autocrossed the Oldsmobile because I figured it would be fun and I wanted to put less strain on my BMW e39 M5. My brother was driving the M5 and we really did not want to dual driver it. I will say, the Oldsmobile was more fun then autocrossing the M5. I know where the limits are with the Oldsmobile, they are very benign and easy to control.
I am truly quite flattered that this video was picked up by such high profile automotive websites. It has been fun reading the comments.
I am actually the driver of that Oldsmobile. I did add about 10 psi of air to the tires, I was running 40 psi on it when they are supposed to have 30 psi. Surprisingly I never did roll the tires all of the way to the white walls, the scrapes from the pavement ended about 0.5 inches from the white wall.
To answer a few questions about the car. It is a 1999 base model 88 with approximately 90k miles on it. The car was indeed my grandparents car of which I was gifted when I got my drivers license.
I autocrossed the Oldsmobile because I figured it would be fun and I wanted to put less strain on my BMW e39 M5. My brother was driving the M5 and we really did not want to dual driver it. I will say, the Oldsmobile was more fun then autocrossing the M5. I know where the limits are with the Oldsmobile, they are very benign and easy to control.
I am truly quite flattered that this video was picked up by such high profile automotive websites. It has been fun reading the comments.