With its “supersonic shape,” the 88 Delta dream car could be “a prediction of things to come,” said Oldsmobile in 1955. It’s fun to imagine.

The General Motors styling studios prepared an entire fleet of custom-built dream cars for the 1955 Motoroma, its car-show extravagaza in five major U.S. cities. Some of these vehicles foreshadowed future GM production models, while others were pure flights of fancy. Oldsmobile’s entry, the 88 Delta, boasted a classic, almost Italianate look that  the Lansing division called “the supersonic shape.”

The Delta was “an excursion beyond tomorrow,” the show brochure declared, one that  “may well be a prediction of things to come.” That suggestion set us thinking. As we know, Olds production styling took a different direction through the rest  of the 1950s, away from the Delta’s clean, European theme, but it’s fun to ponder the possibilities. What if the production 1958 Oldsmobile 88 had looked more like this?

Built on a standard Olds chassis with 120-in wheelbase, the 88 Delta was a large car but didn’t look it, thanks in parrt  to its sleek 53-inch height, a full six inches lower than the production car. Like most GM show vehicles of the period, the two-door pillarless hardtop’s body construction was in fiberglass, but with sweeping wheel openings trimmed in bright metal and a brushed aluminum applique covering the roof.

A spare tire compartment was nestled below the rear bumper, between the dual exhaust outlets, while twin fuel tanks were built into the rear quarters. According to the printed materials, a  324 cubic-inch Rocket V8 with 250 hp was under the hood, but since the Delta was reportedly a glider, not a driver, we don’t know if an engine was actually installed. The lack of a clutch pedal indicates the V8 was to be coupled to a Hydra-Matic automatic transmission. The two-piece wheels employed a steel rim bolted to an aluminum hub and drum, much like the Kelsey-Hayes 8-lug wheels used by Pontiac some years later. (See our feature here.)

Runner or not, the Delta featured a fully detailed cockpit with four individual bucket seats, a twin-pod instrument panel, and a full-length center console with a roomy storage compartment between the rear seats. Very nice. Clearly, the  GM interior designers were looking to the sports and touring cars of Europe for some of  their inspiration.

Still, we think the exterior front-end styling might be the most compelling  feature. The treatment includes a headlamp on top, a driving light at the bottom, and a brake cooling  duct between them on both sides—a layout perfect for the quad-headlamp systems that arrived at GM in 1957-58.

At one point the 88 Delta was painted two-tone Emerald Green with a matching green interior, as there are color photos to prove it (below). However, for its Motorama appearance at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, the exterior and interior were finished in Metallic Blue two-tone, a favorite of GM styling boss Harley Earl. He felt the color flattered most shapes.

No color still photos of the blue version seem to have survived. One widely circulated photo is actually a black-and-white image that was colorized in recent years. Dream car historian David Temple did such a good job it’s difficult to tell. To see the 88 Delta in the original blue, please refer to the Motorama video feature we posted here. While the Delta’s remarkable styling never took hold at Oldsmobile, the name did. The Delta 88 label was adoped on Olds production models in 1965 and became a mainstay at the division for years.