Vehicle Description
Chassis No. E54S003701 JS
Engine No. V247
The General Motors Motorama was no mere car show; it was a cultural
event. Between 1949 and 1961, the American public could visit the
Motorama as it traveled between the country's major cities,
showcasing the latest ideas in how the automobile would influence
American life. The show cars exhibited by GM at these events were
both the latest production vehicles, accompanied by professionally
choreographed song and dance routines, and the forerunners of what
would today be known as concept vehicles. Harley Earl called them
dream cars, because, in large part, that was what they were -
confections of fantasy that combined advanced engineering and
design in ways that would tantalize the show going public and, yes,
even find their way to production GM cars.
One of the best-known Motorama stars was the Oldsmobile F-88 of
1954, known internally as XP-20. Following in the Corvette's
footsteps as a two-passenger sports car, it was based upon a
similar 102-inch-wheelbase frame and featured fiberglass bodywork,
but that was where similarities ended. Everywhere that one looks,
features forecast the future: the shape of the tailfins and exhaust
outlets echo that to come on the 1959 Cadillac, the shapes of the
front fenders looked ahead to the production 1955-56 Oldsmobiles,
and a hint of the chrome "hashmarks" soon to decorate the Buick
Limited appeared in the rear quarters.
Clever tricks were abundant throughout, including a spare tire
enclosed behind a rolled valance under the tail of the car,
subsequently adopted for the Chevrolet Cameo Carrier truck; custom
vents at the top of the windshield header; and front fender vents
cleverly disguised behind cast "F88" emblems. The interior was
finished in pigskin with a pearlescent finish, and sported
heat-pressed floor mats similar to the upholstery pattern of the
1954 Buick Skylark. GM spared no expense, with extensive use of
handmade custom trim and hardware pieces. Under the hood was a
tuned 150 horsepower version of the 324-cubic-inch Oldsmobile V8,
mated to a Hydramatic transmission; indications are that this was a
fully engineered job, so that the F-88 could in fact actually be
driven, not just pushed as were many of the Motorama
automobiles.
As with several other Motorama cars, more than one example of the
F-88 was produced. The respected automotive journalist Michael Lamm
explored the matter extensively in an extremely in-depth article on
the F-88 written for the October 2003 issue of Collectible
Automobile magazine, and historian David Temple has performed
further investigations published in his book GM Motorama: The
Glamorous Show Cars of a Cultural Phenomenon. Both authors came to
the conclusion that three F-88s were originally built: the original
gold-hued Motorama show car; a second example eventually fitted
with a supercharged engine for Harley Earl; and a third for GM
executive Sherrod Skinner. Earl's car was subsequently rebodied to
create the so-called F-88 Mk II, while Skinner's car was presumably
dismantled in-period.
How a Dream Car Survived
Lamm noted that Gordon Apker, the owner of the F-88 offered here,
possessed a shipping confirmation sheet dated 2 March 1955, that
recorded the sale of "surplus materials" including "obsolete parts
and required engineering blueprints for the Oldsmobile XP-20" to
include a pair of door strikers, two front fender "88" medallions,
a pair of parking light assemblies, two exhaust port support
assemblies, one front-end fiberglass skin, and two engineering
drawings of the car's front surface. The buyer was none other than
E.L. Cord, the renowned automaker of the Classic Era, at 500 Doheny
Road in Beverly Hills, California, the address of his well-known
estate, Cordhaven. Cord's grandchildren later recalled playing on
crates in the family's six-car garage that were always explained as
containing "an experimental Corvette."
According to Lamm's history, these crates were subsequently
acquired by Bill Barker, a supplier of prop military vehicles to
the film studios, then by Jim Brucker, himself a renowned film car
purveyor and proprietor of the Movieworld museum in Buena Park,
California. Brucker shortly resold the crates to Leo Gephart, who
received them along with a 1954 Chevrolet Corvette chassis. Gephart
then traded the project to an Ohio Oldsmobile dealer, who resold it
to a restorer in Michigan. This restorer then sold the car back to
Gephart, a third time, in 1980.
Well-known restorer Lon Krueger of Arizona then acquired the
project. Noted dream car historian and collector Joe Bortz also saw
the car during this stage, noting to author David Temple that the
car had a fiberglass body with the doors not yet cut out. This body
had apparently been mounted to the aforementioned donor 1954
Corvette chassis. In a conversation with Lamm, Mr. Krueger recalled
that the car "was very complete. There was very little missing. But
the car had been taken apart. A lot of the stuff, including
blueprints and copies of the parts list...were inside the wooden
crates. When I uncrated this stuff, none of these other previous
owners...had ever taken anything out of the packing straw. When I
got the car, the body was on the chassis, it had the Olds V-8 in
it, and it had remnants in these boxes of an interior. The whole
dashboard, the windshield frame, the grille, bumpers, all that
stuff was all crated up. To the best of my memory, we had pretty
much all the instrumentation."
Mr. Krueger noted that the original front fender wells bore green
paint, which along with the relatively early production number of
the V8 engine indicated that most portions of the Cord F-88 had
probably belonged to the original Motorama car. Further, much of
the F-88 trim provided seemed to have been earlier fitted to a car,
which indicates that to some degree one or more of the three F-88s
was broken down to assemble the kit for Cord. Some parts, such as
the original upholstery for the inner door panels and the Plexiglas
headlight bubbles, had deteriorated and been damaged in storage,
and so had to be carefully replicated.
Don Williams of the Blackhawk Collection acquired the car during
Mr. Krueger's restoration. In 1991 Williams sold the freshly
completed F-88 to well-known enthusiast, Bruce Lustman, a noted
vintage racer and collector of sports cars, who kept it for about
six years and during that time exhibited it at the Pebble Beach
Concours d'Elegance. In 1997 it was borrowed by Oldsmobile to help
celebrate the GM division's 100th anniversary, and was afterward
cosmetically freshened anew by Krueger before being sold to the
late, respected collector and friend to many, Gordon Apker of Kent,
Washington. Known as a frequent concours participant who was an
avid, longtime enthusiast of postwar show cars and 1950s American
automobiles, Mr. Apker exhibited the F-88 as one of the highlights
of his distinguished collection. In his ownership it was proudly
featured in Stuart Leuthner's 2005 book, Wheels: A Passion for
Collecting Cars.
Amidst considerable fanfare and national press attention in early
2005, the F-88 was acquired from Mr. Apker for the Gateway
Automobile Museum, specifically to become the collection's
attention-grabbing centerpiece - which it literally has remained,
exhibited on a turntable within a purpose-built room at the heart
of the museum. Having emerged only occasionally, most prominently
for the 2008 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance where it was the
subject of that year's concours poster, its condition remains
utterly immaculate, and it is still ...for more information please
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