Goodbye Oldsmobile, Thanks for the Rocket 88 Ride


The USA lost a little part of its folk culture last week. General Motors -- once a giant so beloved by the movers and shakers of our country that they nodded their heads in agreement when Engine Charlie Wilson said, What's good for General Motors is good for America -- pulled the plug on our nation's oldest automobile manufacturing company. The Oldsmobile marque will be phased out ...

Here's the word from the Stockcarfans Newsletter ...

"Olds Gone: General Motors has decided to shut down Oldsmobile. ... CEO Rick Wagoner and president of North American operations Ron Zarrella announced that GM will phase out America's oldest car brand 'over the next few years.' The reasons given were that the division's sales were off markedly and that it was no longer profitable. (SpeedVision). Some NASCAR Oldsmobile Info - Oldsmobile accounted for 116 Winston Cup wins, the last coming in 1992 when Harry Gant won at Michigan in August of 1992 in the #33 Skoal Bandit Olds Cutlass. Olds left the sport after 1992."

Olds' demise means nothing to the teams competing in the CART ranks, of course. In fact, General Motors isn't involved in the series. Oldsmobile does provide engines wearing the Aurora badge for the Indy Racing League. In fact, the Aurora engine dominated the series during the 2000 season.

All the same, if you love cars, if you have a sense of history about this great nation putting the world on wheels, you want to curse and cry when you hear that another historical name will be no more.

In phasing out Oldsmobile, GM is relegating to the history books one of the most venerable marquees in the automotive industry. Oldsmobile was founded in 1897 by Ransom E. Olds in Lansing, Michigan, and quickly became a favorite at the turn of the century with the Oldsmobile Curved Dash, one of the first mass produced cars. U.S. sales peaked at over one million in 1985 with the success of the Cutlass and the 88.
from a Reuters report by Michael Ellis

Of course, if you appreciate an iconoclastic point of view, you can join with our friends at Autoextremist.com and rejoice that a venerable name has been save from a fate worse than death.

The copyright of the article Goodbye Oldsmobile, Thanks for the Rocket 88 Ride in CART Auto Racing is owned by Gary Presley. Permission to republish Goodbye Oldsmobile, Thanks for the Rocket 88 Ride in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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