Cheers or Jeers: 24,000 Mile 1937 Oldsmobile F37

[wildmanjoe]

Cheers or Jeers: 24,000 Mile 1937 Oldsmobile F37

Link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/...=item2a1a916d3a

1937 Oldsmobile! FOR SALE

Oldsmobile was one of America’s leading automobile producers in the early 20th century, at a time when Chevrolet and Ford were a bit farther behind. The first production automobile was introduced in 1897 by Ransom E. Olds, which makes Oldsmobile the second oldest nameplate in America, falling right behind Studebaker.

The Oldsmobile L37 was capable of achieving 40 miles to just one gallon of gas. This super popular model has been exported worldwide, and in some instances, customers received custom bodies by famous coachbuilders. Maltby of Folkestone, England was the designer behind the sleek, elegant convertible sedan coachwork that made up the Oldsmobile L37. In this same year, Oldsmobile introduced the safety semi-automatic transmission as an option that cost $100.

[balthazar]

Cheers. Plus you get the added bonus of a built-in bottle topper - read a story where the lower grille louvers on the F37 were (unintentionally) well-spaced to be able to pop a bottle cap off.

[§carlet §wordfish]

40 mpg for real? I give it cheers just for that. If I had 10 grand, I would so dump my Sunfire and buy this for a daily driver.

[balthazar]

No way ; 40 is too optimistic.

[G. David Felt]

Cheers for the amazing old car!

Cheers for the bottle top opener grill

Cheers for even attempting to try and get that 40 MPG

Over all what is NOT to LIKE about this beauty.

[daves87rs]

Cheers!!

[§carlet §wordfish]

No way ; 40 is too optimistic.

What would be a more realistic estimate?

[balthazar]

Between 15-20.

Looked at a '35 Chevy 6 drivereport for verification; owner reported just over 17 combined on that one.

Unless something pre-'55 was a lightweight with OD, breaking 20 was uncommon.

Then again, gas then was around .30/gal.

[G. David Felt]

Balthazar, I see lots of references to L37 of the same Oldsmobile that supposedly got 40 miles to the gallon.

http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z9800/Oldsmobile-L-37-Eight.aspx

[Drew Dowdell]

[balthazar]

Balthazar, I see lots of references to L37 of the same Oldsmobile that supposedly got 40 miles to the gallon.

In '50, the new OHV Olds 88 returned 20.19 MPG in the Mobilgas Economy run (average speed 41 MPH). And there the cars were 'blueprinted' for max mileage for bragging/advertising rites.

Prior to Mobilgas, the economy runs were called 'Gilmore-Yosemite'. Here's a link to the 1936 winners by class, with all their MPGs.

Olds 6 was 23, Olds 8 was 19. Only car over 30 was the Willys 4.

40 out of a full-sized Olds in this era is fantasy.

[SAmadei]

I agree 40 mpg is fantasy, but I suppose GM did some testing that gave them some weak footing to brag 40 mpg.

The economy runs sound like they were on mountainous roads and have a lot of fuel wasting acceleration/deceleration... sure, they probably resulted in accurate numbers, but not numbers that marking wants to hear.

Considering they had the semi-automatic 4 speed tranny in '37, I'm sure that it helped mileage in some sort of rigged test that GM got 40 mpg on (or 39.5 mpg rounded up).

[balthazar]

I have a bunch of Olds' print ads from the '38-39 era - no mention of MPG claims.

1 ad mentions a 'Econo-Master' engine but gives no numeric claim.

I didn't read the specifics RE the Gilmore-Yosemite test, but I can tell you the Mobilgas runs squeezed the best MPG out of the cars in it, ever.

I guarantee you the '40 MPG' thing did NOT originate @ GM... ESP with the actual being so far from 40.

[G. David Felt]

I have a bunch of Olds' print ads from the '38-39 era - no mention of MPG claims.

1 ad mentions a 'Econo-Master' engine but gives no numeric claim.

I didn't read the specifics RE the Gilmore-Yosemite test, but I can tell you the Mobilgas runs squeezed the best MPG out of the cars in it, ever.

I guarantee you the '40 MPG' thing did NOT originate @ GM... ESP with the actual being so far from 40.

Very cool, Thank you Balthazar for the info.