This week, Ate Up With Motor wishes you all happy holidays — or is it Holidays?
Holidays, Oldsmobile Style
As some of you may know (especially if you read our article on GM’s early hardtop coupes this year), Buick called its first hardtop the Roadmaster Riviera; Cadillac, the Coupe de Ville; Pontiac, the Catalina; Chevrolet, the Bel Air; and Oldsmobile, the Futuramic Series 98 Holiday Coupe. There would eventually be De Ville convertibles, Bel Air sedans, and Riviera personal luxury cars, but Oldsmobile stayed the course: from 1949 to 1972, the division applied the “Holiday” designation only to its two- and four-door pillarless hardtop body styles.
Through 1963, that nomenclature was used only in the full-size line — since 1961-1962 Cutlasses and 1962-1963 Jetfires were offered only as pillarless two-door hardtops, we suppose Olds felt it would be redundant on the senior compact line — but from 1964 to 1972, the Holiday name was also applied to pillarless versions of the A-body intermediates. Surprisingly, Oldsmobile never used the name for station wagons, even pillarless ones, and mid-sixties rumors that its new specialty coupe (which became the Oldsmobile Toronado) would be called the Oldsmobile Holiday proved false.
In the spirit of the season, we offer a selection of Holidays for your enjoyment:
A 1956 Oldsmobile 88 Holiday Coupe.
A 1957 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Holiday Coupe. We don’t know if this was a factory color for ’57 — it might be Royal Glow, but we’re not sure. (There were several shades of pink on offer.)
A chrome-laden and fabulous 1958 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Holiday Coupe. Unlike the ’57 above, we believe this color combination was a factory option: Mountain Haze over Heather. This car also sports a matching Continental kit, although it’s hard to see from this angle.
A 1959 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Holiday SportSedan four-door hardtop. The owner assured us that while this is a repaint, Cardinal Red over Polaris White was indeed a catalogued factory two-tone combination. He said even his paint shop was skeptical until he showed them the brochure.
A 1960 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Holiday SceniCoupe.
A 1961 Oldsmobile Super Eighty-Eight Holiday Coupe. (The SceniCoupe and SportSedan designations were dropped after 1960.)
Alas, we don’t have any photos of a green ’62 to continue the sequence and round out the color assortment. Maybe next year.
Okay, this is not technically a Holiday, although it is festive, and a hardtop: a 1957 Super 88 Fiesta station wagon, to be precise. If you feel like throwing a Fiesta this season, we suggest getting lots of helpers — its curb weight is over 4,500 lb (2,058 kg).
Happy Holidays, indeed.
I believe that the "Pink" 1957 98 Holiday is or at least close to a factory original color 2575H Royal Glow. Reference this Ditzler Color Chart: [url] I recall seeing a new model 1959 Olds with a similar stunning shade [url] of Russet Poly. on a San Francisco showroom.
Clinton — you might be right. The photos I found for Royal Glow made it look more red than this, but that’s possible. It seems too pink for Russet poly.
Oldsmobile gave 2 more laps to the Holiday nameplate later, in 1979 for a "sporty" version with buckets seats and console of the Delta 88 offered in 1979 and 1980 model years. And a dressed-up version of the 1984 Cutlass Ciera.
paintref is an excellent resource for color chips and combinations. They also have links to do google, yahoo, and bing image searches for cars of whatever color you’re looking at.
As for the Holiday name, my grandfather had a 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme 2-door pillarless hardtop, and I don’t recall the Holiday name appearing anywhere on it.
According to Olds records, the 1970 CS hardtop was technically a Holiday coupe, as well. It’s not something they generally put on badges, as far as I know, but it would have been on the original window sticker and bill of sale, and possibly the title, as well.