There was new Side Trim, Too
The 98 softtop took more than just styling cues from the Starfire; it adopted the concept car’s very name to become the Starfire convertible. The Fiesta convertible did not make the lineup for 1954, but its name would be revived for a new Olds station wagon three years later. The symmetrical dashboard layout picked up on a theme begun in 1953. Round speedometer and clock dials sat directly in front of the driver and front-seat passenger, respectively. Grey, green, or blue fabric interiors graced closed models. However, for 1954, new wing-like extensions bore auxiliary gauges around the speedometer and the radio speaker above the clock. The best-selling body types in all three series for 1954 were the four-door sedans.
The B-body used by the 1954-1956 Oldsmobiles was easily distinguished from the larger C-body by the pillars of the wraparound windshield. Generally, the 1954 Oldsmobiles were three inches lower than the 1953s, giving them much sleeker profiles. However, on the 1954s, the slash came only halfway down the fender panel before bending rearward, leaving room under it for a square-cut rear wheel well. Indeed the bodywork had been lowered so much that the beltline and fender line were no longer separate; they had converged. On the B-body, they were sloped; on the C-body they were upright. The influences of the Fiesta and, even more so, the Starfire were evident in the windshield, beltline and side trim.
Colorful leather upholstery was used in Super 88 and Ninety-Eight convertibles and hardtops. Burrell did so with such features as widely spaced bore centers and a generally heavy block structure. Among engineering changes for 1954, the Rocket V-8 underwent its first increase in displacement. When the Rocket was originally developed in the late Forties, Wolfram (then Olds’ chief engineer; he became general manager in 1951) urged the powerplant’s designer, Gilbert Burrell, to allow for bigger displacements. However, that had been planned for.
The great mid-Fifties boom period for medium-priced cars — a time that saw phenomenal sales for most manufacturers in the segment, inspired bigger, plusher cars from the “Low-priced Three,” and tempted Ford to create the Edsel — got something of a late start at Oldsmobile, after the 1954 Oldsmobile designs were scrapped. 1955s. See more pictures of Oldsmobiles. The 1954 Oldsmobile 88, Super 88, and Ninety-Eight were introduced on January 20, 1954. That was strange, because General Motors usually announced its new cars in the autumn of the previous calendar year, not after the first of January.
The latter two makes featured new styling that had been in the works since 1950. A new C-body was fitted to the Caddy and Buick Super and Roadmaster. The need to have this body ready for the 1954 Buicks likely could have had a hand in helping the planners in Lansing move up their timetables. However, the “junior” Buick Special and Century were dressed in a redone B-body, which was to be shared by all Oldsmobiles. As the 1954 models were being readied for the assembly line, Art Ross, Olds’ chief stylist, was putting the finishing touches on two convertible show cars for the 1953 GM Motorama — the Fiesta and the Starfire — that would influence the 1954 Oldsmobile design.
For the 1956 Oldsmobile line, styling changes included an oval front air intake without a horizontal crossbar, nearly identical to the “large-mouth bass” design of the original Starfire. As for side trim, on the 88 and Super 88 there was a chrome strip down the side from the trailing edge of the front wheel well all the way to the rear of the car. The trim on the Ninety-Eight formed a torpedo-like outline along the side of the car — or would it be more appropriate to say a rocket-like outline? The rear fender slash was back, but this time it was slightly bowed, not straight, as it dropped from the beltline dip to the strip down the side. Super 88, had no horizontal crossbar.
