Car Spot: 62 Oldsmobile Starfire

An icon of America’s space race

While every year the Chicago Auto Show features all the newest cars, it also remembers its past with cars like this spot, a 62 Oldsmobile Starfire.

In the early 60s, the US and Russia were locked in a battle for space. On April 12, 1961, the U.S.S.R. launched the first human into orbit, Yuri Gagarin, on Vostok 1. It wasn’t until February 20, 1962, that John Glenn, on Mercury-Atlas 6, became the first American in orbit. Everything in the early 60s was about space and the auto manufacturers took notice. There was the Ford Galaxy and Starliner, Mercury Meteor and Comet, Plymouth Satellite, Chevy Nova, Pontiac Star Chief, and Dodge Polara in addition to this week’s spot. The auto manufacturers were giving the public what it wanted with these cosmic cars.

The Starfire was introduced by Oldsmobile in 1961 as a performance-oriented grand tourer convertible, separated into its own model line. It shared its body and wheelbase with the Super 88 and the lower-priced Dynamic 88. It came loaded with standard equipment like leather bucket seats, center console with a tach, and floor shifter for the Hydra-matic transmission. It was the first U.S. full-sized production car to feature an automatic transmission with a console-mounted floor shifter, brushed aluminum side panels, fender skirts on the rear wheels, power steering, brakes, and windows. Base price was $4,647, $47,116.1 in 2023 dollars and was the most expensive Oldsmobile, even more than the larger Ninety-Eight models.

Powering it was the standard 394 cubic inch V-8 Rocket V8 engine, get it, Rocket, playing off space race. This was Old’s most powerful in 1961 and equipped with a 4-barrel Rochester carburetor put out 330 hp.

In 62 Olds added a two-door hardtop, with a new convertible-styled roofline shared with other Oldsmobile 88 coupes. Horsepower was increased to 345 hp. This was Olds’ best sales year for this generation Starfire, with the hardtop coupe selling 34,839 examples while the convertible sold 7,149.

RELATED Spot: A rare 442 convertible.

The second-gen was totally different. Introduced in 1974 and running through 1980 was Oldsmobile’s entry-level product and a badge-engineered version of the Chevrolet Monza quite a step down from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s when the Oldsmobile Cutlass was America’s best-selling auto. Yet another example of GM ignoring a brand and then pulling the plug when it still had potential. It was the end of the line for the Oldsmobile brand as GM ended production. When the last Oldsmobile rolled off the assembly line in April 2004, more than 35 million Oldsmobiles had been built during the brand’s lifetime.

What are they worth now? Not a lot a coupe in Concours Condition according to Hagerty will sell for $67,500, Good for $31,000. The convertible with its small numbers a bit more as I found them for as high as $90,000 for sale on Hemmings.

Thanks for stopping by and reading about this car spot. Be sure to check out my others along with Mark’s car reviews. Come back next Friday for another one of my spots along with some of its history. Have a super great weekend.