One of the most influential American vehicles of the 20th Century, the 1949 Olds 88 has the pedigree to be one of the most desirable US-built classics, but instead, it's sometimes cheaper than a ...

It might not have been the most popular muscle car, but it was the first. The late 1960s and early 1970s were undeniably the most popular time for the American muscle car, before emissions standards ...

Launched in 1949, the Rocket 88 was powered by a high-compression, overhead valve, 5.0-liter V-8 that developed 135 horsepower, considerably more than a contemporary Ford flathead, and 253 lb-ft of ...

Mid-fifties automotive design sure was something, eh? Tri-five Chevys, ritzy Cadillacs, Lincoln Continentals cosplaying as boats … The styling departments at American automakers must have been some of ...

Before the muscle car wars had names, before Pontiac’s GTO and Chrysler’s Road Runner strutted across billboards, there was the Oldsmobile 88. Back in 1949, Oldsmobile dropped a Rocket V8 into a ...

Oldsmobile's swell sales slogan for 1951 may have been a less-memorable "Ride the Rocket and Save!", but it was the auto manufacturer's pitch a year prior following the release of their all-new line ...

Debuting with the 1949 model year, the Oldsmobile 88 soon became the brand’s image leader and most profitable line in the rapidly expanding post-World War II economy. The sleek new lines of the 88 ...

Jackie Brenston was a sax player and singer, working with his band The Delta Cats. In 1951 he recorded, for Sam Phillips Sun Records in Memphis, the song “Rocket 88” which is widely credited as the ...

Q: Greg, I had a ’49 Olds Rocket 88 sedan that had been parked behind my grandfather’s barn in northern New Jersey. I was just 16 at the time, and I drove my ramshackle pickup to the Olds, took the ...

The song’s bragging, suggestive lyrics, incidentally, pay homage to the Oldsmobile 88, a vehicle whose powerful engine and relatively compact size made it a popular entry-level car in the early 1950s.