GM Design: Oldsmobile in the 1980s

[Blake Noble]

There's going to be more where this came from, trust me on that. :AH-HA_wink:

Oldsmobile Achieva

Full story: link

[Z-06]

Is that Ed Welburn?

[Justin Bimmer]

Look like Ed Welburn is there.

[Blake Noble]

Oldsmobile Toronado

Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera Holiday Coupe

Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais Kelly American Challenge Car

Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme

Edited August 14, 2009 by whiteknight

[Blake Noble]

Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight/Ninety-Eight

Edited August 14, 2009 by whiteknight

[Blake Noble]

Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight/Ninety-Eight Cont.

Cadillac, Buick, and many others are to come. Link to the site all of this material came from when it's finished (that might take a longgggg time).

[!!!TED!!!]

Well, you just made my day. Some of those renderings I have seen before, but alot of them I have not! It was only a matter of time that Gary Smith's site Deans Garage was mentioned.

Gary Smith is my hero, the man behind the Achieva!

This is my favorite era of GM design!!!! Thank you so much for sharing!

[mustang84]

This is one of the most interesting links / threads I have read in a long time. Very awesome stuff.

[!!!TED!!!]

Oh, these are from Garys other site. I havn't checked that in a while.

This is how bad-ass the designer of the Achieva is, he is sharing all his amazing renderings from GM.

http://deansgarage.com/ <--A MUST SEE FOR GM FANS!

http://cruizart.com/

[Robert Hall]

Very cool..love this kind of artifacts.

[NINETY EIGHT REGENCY]

Thank you ! Thank you! I really enjoyed that. I liked those Ninety Eights and Eighty Eights. I liked them all actually. Some of them would have really been successful designs for Oldsmobile. Those Ninety Eight drawings would work in todays market. I see how my two cars were influenced by those designs.

If only....

[!!!TED!!!]

Thank you ! Thank you! I really enjoyed that. I liked those Ninety Eights and Eighty Eights. I liked them all actually. Some of them would have really been successful designs for Oldsmobile. Those Ninety Eight drawings would work in todays market. I see how my two cars were influenced by those designs.

If only....

Did you catch this about the Achieva?

Because I suppose the rendering was red and the fiberglass model was red, it became known as the red car. It was designed in 1986, but didn’t come out until 1992. The design affected the Olds 98 and 88 that were designed after the Acheiva but came out sooner.

[NINETY EIGHT REGENCY]

Did you catch this about the Achieva?

I saw it. You are loving that aren't you? LOL! I kept looking at the Achieva and saying it was a pint sized Ninety Eight.

Did you see this?

Achieva Upper

The Achieva was built off of the same platform as the Buick Skylark and the Pontiac Grand Am. But the Achieva lost the upper wars, so the coupe has the Grand Am upper, and the sedan had the Buick upper. The sedan looks especially bad with the Buick roof.

See.... this is why GM is in the position it is in now. This is the kind of compromises that cost them.

[fightingbee]

The coupe has the Buick upper too. The GA had a bit thicker C-pillar and smaller quarter glass than the Olds/Buick.

Edited August 15, 2009 by fightingbee

[Blake Noble]

Hmm ... I don't know. I can see both Buick and Pontiac traits in the Achieva's roofline.

TED, 98, it was my pleasure.

I have to admit that I have a new found respect for the Acheiva's design. Smith is right in that it is far less busier than it's other N-Body counterparts. The coupe is downright clean. There's a classic Cutlass quality to the front fascia.

[bobo]

Excellent thread.

This one looks very strongly like the original production Saturns:

Some people may recall that I drove an Achieva (with an upside down Rocket emblem on the front) for a few years at work. It was an endearing car, but obviously not one of GM's finer pieces of work. The car I drove was retired, and I was hoping to buy it at auction, but I got there too late. It had around 120,000 miles on the clock, and it went for something like $1300.

Design-wise, the thing that bothered me was the semi-skirted rear wheels on the sedan, though this was a strong part of the original design. I do like the original slanted roof of the concept. It's a shame that the awkward Buick Skylark drove some of the design decisions.

[GMTruckGuy74]

I've always been an admirer of the new-for-'92 Oldsmobile Achieva, heck it was the very first "new" car I ever got to test drive (a '92 Acieva SC coupe, loaded, in bright red). If I could have afforded it then (I was 17 at the time), I would have jumped on it and got ri of my used '78 Camaro. Thanks for posting these pictures, and being a GMC Truck fanatic, I'm hoping you have some pictures to post in the GMC thread.

[ponchoman49]

Todays designers could learn from some of these pics. They would look good for 2010 and are far more interesting to look at than the plain generic melted bars of soap from Japan that we have to look at today.

[mustang84]

This is major win. Make it RWD, push the front wheel up 6-8 inches, and tone down the rub strip.

[Nick]

I wonder if the 4th gen Camaro drew styling cues from some of those Achieva renderings...

[Croc]

I always liked certain aspects of that era of Olds styling, namely the Achieva and Toronado...but then there were the faux vented windows and sideskirts on the 98s and 88s, and the Ciera that never died.

My favorite W-bodies were always Oldsmobiles, too.

[!!!TED!!!]

I always liked certain aspects of that era of Olds styling, namely the Achieva and Toronado...but then there were the faux vented windows and sideskirts on the 98s and 88s, and the Ciera that never died.

That was the beauty of this era of styling. Designers found ways to incorporate traditional American design cues into modern aero packages. Fender skirts were such silly old-school cues, but when tied into aero shapes, they make alot of sense.

I absolutely love cars like the original (pre-update) 1991 Caprice. It blends classic Caprice cues in a totaly new shape. Especially from this angle:

[A Horse With No Name]

Todays designers could learn from some of these pics. They would look good for 2010 and are far more interesting to look at than the plain generic melted bars of soap from Japan that we have to look at today.

Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner.

These cars look much better thant he current Avalon, Maxima, Accord, et al.

Nice work!

Chris