The 1954 Cutlass had only a brief career on the Motorama show circuit, but the name became a powerful Oldsmobile selling tool for decades.
Oldsmobile’s first Cutlass reportedly took its name from the U.S. Navy’s hot carrier fighter of the time, the Chance-Vought Corsair F7U. Credit for the Motorama dream car’s design—including the dramatic tapered greenhouse—goes to stylist Irv Rybicki, who ultimately became vice president of design at General Motors. A 43-year veteran at the automaker who headed the styling studios from 1977 to 1986, he was the man who replaced Bill Mitchell.
Like most GM show cars of the period, the Cutlass was crafted in fiberglass and mounted on a shortened production car chassis—here, the wheelbase was trimmed from 122 to 110 inches, creating a two-place coupe. Some of its features, including the crested headlamp brows (1955) and integrated front grille and bumper (1956) would soon appear on Olds production models. The tailfins remind us of the 1961 Cadillac, while the distinctive pointed-greenhouse theme was later seen on the 1956 Olds Golden Rocket show car (see our feature here) and eventually, the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray.
Inside, the Cutlass sported a two-tone leather interior, an instrument panel much like that of the F-88 sports car, and swiveling bucket seats, a feature Chrysler would embrace a few years later. The 324 cubic-inch Olds V8, working through a Hydra-Matic transmission, was here quoted at 250 hp, a racy state of tune as the production V8 was rated at 185 hp. GM’s trade ads for the Rochester 4G four-barrel carburetor prominently featured the Cutlass show car.
On the cover of its February 1955 issue, Auto Age (the car owner’s complete magazine) asked, “Starfire or Cutlass: Which style-line will Oldsmobile follow?” Both and neither, we would later learn. What the editors of Martin Goodman’s short-lived publication could never have predicted was the evergreen quality of the Cutlass name. Oldsmobile first attached a Cutlass badge to a production model in 1961 and soon discovered its remarkable power to sell cars. The Cutlass name was used on a whole variety of mid-sized Oldsmobiiles all the way through 1999.
And they ended up using the name to death, making almost anything short of the Eighty Eight some form of Cutlass. Completely killed the Oldsmobile brand identity.
Maybe so, but they sure sold a lot of them. The Cutlass was the best-selling moniker in the whole industry, if I remember correctly. The saying was “slap the Cutlass name on it and it will sell like hotcakes…”
Remember the DRAGNET episode where Friday/Gannon ask the fellow about a car, and he says “It was a Sword.” Sword? “Yeah, you know, a Cutlass.”
Thanks for this article. Never heard of this show car before. In 1983 I bought a 1972 Olds Cutlass Supreme 2dr HT from a friend’s mother. It had been babied since new and was a beautiful car and a pleasure at highway speeds (and above highway speed limits). So comfortable, right down to the factory 8-track, and I had a lot of those. Only problem, not enough room in the back seat for three growing kids and only 2 seat belts. Two decades later I saw it back in town, still running but a real rusty mess, so sad.
Unknown, or remembered auto till pop-out to make ones day enjoyable!