For more than half a century, the 98 was the flagship of the Oldsmobile division at General Motors. Let’s start at the beginning in 1941.

So what did 98 originally mean, anyway? In the beginning—1941, that is—98 was the designation for the big Oldsmobile 90 series platform combined with an 8-cylinder engine, and thus its largest and most powerful car. (There was a 96, too, with 6-cylinder power, but it lasted just one year.) Olds downplayed the 98 designation initially, preferring the Custom Cruiser label for its flagship model, but gradually the Lansing division embraced the 98 name, and in 1952 the copywriters began spelling it out as “Ninety-Eight.”

For 1941, Olds offered a complicated lineup of six models, but as befitting a flagship, the 98 rode on the longest 125-in wheelbase chassis and sported the GM C-body corporate body shell. The sturdy X-braced ladder frame supported coil springs on all four corners, independent at the front with the familiar Olds twin trailing arms at the rear. A very conventional L-head powerplant, the straight eight displaced 257 cubic inches (3.25×3.875-in bore x stroke) and managed to pump out 110 hp at 3,600 rpm.

As we would expect, the 98 Custom Cruiser’s cabin was as luxurious as any Oldsmobile could be in ’41, with a choice of four two-tone, leather-trimmed upholstery themes. Standard extras included a clock, a deluxe steering wheel, and a fold-out rear armrest. Exterior items exclusive to the 98: large hub caps with trim rings, bright metal fender details, and a clear plastic hood ornament.

Body styles for the 98 in ’41 were limited to a Club Coupe, a Convertible Coupe, a four-door Sedan, and a snazzy four-door convertible sedan, which Olds called a Convertible Phaeton (above). The priciest Olds in ’41 by a mile, the Phaeton listed at $1,575 and there were few takers. Only 119 were produced, reportedly. With prices in the $1,100 range, the Club Coupe (around 6,300 units) and four-door Sedan (22,000) were far more popular, making an actual contribution to Oldsmobile’s total volume of 270,000 in 1941.

One selling feature that Buick, DeSoto, and the others in the 98’s class couldn’t offer was the groundbreaking Hydra-Matic transmission, below. (See our feature on the first truly automatic transmission here.) Introduced in 1940, it was available on all Olds models as a $100 option in 1941, when Cadillac offered it as well.  It took a few years for car buyers to warm up to the stunning new feature, but eventually they did, and the Hydra-Matic’s take rate surged to more than 90 percent. The 98 model name proved to be a winner, too, as it remained in the Oldsmobile lineup through 1996.