General Motors launched an ambitious expansion program in the late ’20s, creating four new companion makes. While not a total success, the effort produced some interesting cars, including the 1929-31 Viking.

In the 1920s, as General Motors president Alfred P. Sloan and his executive committee crafted the first real divisional product strategy for the automaker, with Cadillac at the top of the pricing ladder and Chevrolet at the bottom, they discovered an apparent shortcoming in their plan. And a potential opportunity: There were significant or at least perceptible price gaps between each GM car make and the next. To fill these gaps—and, it was hoped, sell more cars—the company created what it called “companion makes.” Note Sloan’s characteristic caution: Instead of launching four all-new makes, a risky move indeed, the new brands were partnered with existing divisions.

To fill the market opening between Cadillac and Buick, Sloan and crew introduced a junior Cadillac brand called LaSalle. The price gap between Chevrolet and Oakland was bridged with a new Oakland sub-brand, Pontiac. (Read about the 1926 Pontiac here.) And between Buick and Oldsmobile, where they discerned the widest price gap, they created two new companion makes, with Buick’s Marquette priced just below Buick, and Viking, priced above its Oldsmobile parent brand. That made Viking unique in at least one regard: While the rest of the companion brands were price-ranked below their parent marques, the Viking was actually more expensive than Oldsmobile. At $1595, the Viking was priced more in Buick territory than in the existing $1000-1200 Oldsmobile range.

While thoroughly up to date, the Viking chassis, above, was also totally conventional, with a pressed-steel ladder frame, five sturdy crossmembers, and semi-elliptic leaf springs front and rear. The wheelbase was a generous 125 inches, a foot longer than Oldsmobile, with Lovejoy hydraulic shock absorbers and internal-expanding mechanical brakes at all four wheels. Where the Viking stood apart from the rest of the mid-priced field was in its engine, below.

While the 1932 Ford V8 is often described as the first American production V8 of monobloc constuction, that’s not really so, as Viking used a one-piece block casting from its introduction in 1929. (GM’s 1930 Oakland V8 was also a monobloc.) An ambitious design, the Viking V8 employed a compact, L-shaped combustion chamber and horizontal valve layout (a hybrid L-head configuration also used by Lycoming and Packard). The elaborate arched intake manifold was engineered to provide equal runner length and full fuel vaporization, while the 83-lb, two-plane crankshaft made the engine remarkably smooth, though it rode on only three babbit main bearings. A 3.375-in. bore and 3.625-in. stroke yielded 259.5 cubic inches, providing a rated output of 81 hp at 3000 rpm—considerably more than the 62 hp of the Oldsmobile inline six. Chief engineer of the V8 was Charles L. McCuen, who had only a fifth-grade formal education but eventually became a GM vice president.

While the Viking was sold and serviced by Oldsmobile dealers, it was not marketed as an Olds per se. Brochures and advertising made only subtle reference to The Olds Motor Works, Lansing, Michigan. At the April 10, 1929 introduction, three body styles were offered: a Four-Door sedan as shown above and below, a Close-Coupled Sedan (no quarter windows, popularly known as a brougham), and a Convertible Coupe with rumble seat, each one available in Standard or Deluxe trim.

While the LaSalle and Pontiac companion makes were successful for GM, Marquette and Viking were not, and observers have cited a number of reasons. First, they came to market just as an auto industry boom was coming to an end and the U.S. economy was headed for the rocks. Next, they were slotted into a market space between Olds and Buick that existed on paper, but apparently not in practice. Olds hoped to move 5,000 Vikings per month, but only around 4,000 Vikings were produced in all of 1929 and barely 2,800 in 1930. A few hundred cars were sold in 1931, assembled mainly from leftover 1930 parts.