1962 Oldsmobile Starfire

The Oldsmobile Starfire caused a sensation from the moment it was first introduced in mid-1961. It was a high-performance, high style, luxury automobile that was true to the company's rich performance history. The car rested on a 123-inch wheelbase which it shared with the Eighty-Eight line and offered a host of distinctive features.

The Oldsmobile Starfire nameplate had initially made its debut with the 1954 through 1956 Ninety-Eight series convertible. For 1957, all Ninety-Eight series models were dubbed the 'Starfire 98.' The name was retired briefly but returned for 1961 as its own separate model offered solely as a convertible. A two-door Holiday Hardtop with seating for five joined the convertible in 1962.

The Starfire was Oldsmobile's entry into the personal luxury market where it competed with the torpedo Thunderbirds introduced in 1961. These cars were the most luxurious, expensive, and top-of-the-line Oldsmobiles of the early 1960s.

Priced around $4,000, the Starfire was equipped with all the features found in the Super Eight-Eight plus brushed aluminum side panels, a sporty cockpit featuring bucket seats, leather upholstery, floor console, and power-operated front seats. Power was from a 394 cubic-inch 'Starfire' V-8 engine that offered 345 horsepower (an increase from the 330 hp produced the previous year) and 440 pound-feet of torque, courtesy of a Rochester four-barrel carburetor, 10.5:1 compression, a revised camshaft profile, an efficient combustion chamber design, and a free-flowing dual exhaust system. The engine was paired with a console-shift Hydra-Matic automatic transmission.

The styling was refined for 1962, and although GM had been toning down its chrome trim after the untamed 1959 models, the 1962 Starfire received brushed aluminum side panels. At nearly a foot-wide, it was anything but garnish and certainly unique and distinctive.

Oldsmobile had its best sales year since 1956 and jumped from sixth to fourth place in industry production. The most popular body style of the Starfire was the Holiday Two-Door Hardtop with 34,839 examples built having a factory base price of $4,130. 7,149 examples were convertible with a base price of $4,745 making them the most expensive car in the Oldsmobile lineup.

The styling introduced in 1961 continued through 1966 with sweeping annual model changes. After nearly a decade, the Starfire name returned in 1975 as a subcompact four-passenger automobile and a badge-engineered version of the Chevrolet Monza. While the Starfire of the 1960s had reigned at the top of Oldsmobile's lineup, the 1975 through 1980 Starfire was the company's entry-level model. It was also the smallest Oldsmobile equipped with a four-cylinder engine since the Model 43 of 1922.

by Daniel Vaughan | Aug 2020