CLUNKBUCKET

As unlikely as Oldsmobile is to come up in conversation about modern performance automobiles, remember that the 1961 Oldsmobile F-85 Cutlass featured a factory turbocharger and water methanol injection system bolted up to its aluminum block V8. Second-generation Cutlass F-85 cars got a intermediate size designation, along with iron-block Jetfire Rocket 345 horsepower V8 engine. Scads of power and Jetaway transmission meant that F-85 got up and left with the futuristic velocity of a modern fighter aircraft! Jet age styling cues on the F-85 exterior meant there was serious business underhood. Over a decade before the F-85 Oldsmobile was the XF-85 Goblin jet fighter. The XF-85 was a tiny jet interceptor meant to be launched, and then stowed away, in the cavernous bomb bay of a B-36 bomber. While the mid-sixties Oldsmobile Cutlass F-85 sold well among elderly drivers and younger hooligans alike, the XF-85 Goblin program was canceled after the Air Force determined the practice of launching and stowing fighters inside a giant flying bombers created more problems then it solved. The second-generation 1964 Oldsmobile F-85 shown here belongs to Cynthia and Charlene Nolan of the Outcasts car club, and was seen accelerating away from the Strangers car show at San Jose’s History Park at near takeoff speed. One can only hope she hit the afterburners out on the freeway.