Welcome to Little Car in the Big City, where I highlight fascinating cars I found walking around a town that is known for being bigger than everything else, but where every car is fighting to stand out: New York, New York.
I have a dark and dirty secret to confess. Alright I lied, as it is neither dark nor dirty nor much of a secret and if anyone asked I would readily confess, but what better place to tell secrets than the entire Internet with your real name attached to them? So here goes nothing:
I am not always here on the weekends.
Yes, it's true. A horrifying admission, but true nonetheless. Usually it's because of random real-life stuff, and usually we put the site in our supremely capable Kinja-based AI, Patrick George, who is strangely one of our top writers. I saw this superb 1959 Oldsmobile Super 88 on one of my super-secret jaunts a few months ago, when I headed upstate for a wedding. So consider this not your regular LCBC, but maybe LCJSOAWIAKONIWRBAGSFASHOS (that's Little Car Just South Of Albany Where It's Actually Kind Of Nice, It Would Actually Be A Great Spot For A Summer Home Or Something).
That being said, I'm totally glad I stumbled on this car. The late 1950s was one of the best times for American automotive artistic direction, and the Olds 88 was one of the emblems of that era. Long and low, with a wraparound windshield, the Olds 88 was basically a lowrider before it even left the factory. Coupled with the fact that when it did leave the factory it came with a 394-cubic inch V8 shoving 315 horses out the back, and you've got a pretty sweet ride altogether.
Damn near everything GM made in 1959 was based on its "B-body" design, including the Super 88, and back then Olds slotted right between the Chevys and the Cadillacs, and you can see that from its tailfins. No, seriously. Whereas the Caddys had enormous ones and a lot of the Chevys had barely any, the Olds had the nice rounded-off fins in the back.
This particular Oldsmobile Super 88 looks like a perfect restoration project, too, even if it does look like it's been sitting in the grass just about forever. It was parked in front of what looked like an old mechanic's garage, but the grass and the wildflowers had long taken over the front lot. Even still, all the glass is intact and somehow it's only got just over 60,000 original miles on the odometer.
My only questions is, who the hell would just park this thing, and why?