1951 Oldsmobile 88 and Super 88: An Outgoing Budget Model and an Incoming Volume Leader, Side by Side

For 1951 Oldsmobile dropped the six-cylinder Series 76 entirely, leaving every Oldsmobile powered by the Rocket V8. The 88 itself, internally referred to by Over-Drive as the 88-A, actually continued on the 1950 body and its 119.5-inch wheelbase, offered only as a two-door or four-door sedan, and was dropped before the model year even finished. Its replacement arrived alongside it rather than after it: a new, more upscale Super 88 launched on a fresh 120-inch wheelbase in five body styles, effectively splitting what had been a single 88 series into an outgoing budget model and an incoming volume leader within the very same model year, an unusually direct overlap for two cars carrying such closely related names.^1,2

Over-Drive's production table shows just 34,640 of the old-body 88s built, split 11,792 two-door sedans and 22,848 four-door sedans, against 149,545 Super 88s across its five bodies: 34,963 two-door sedans, 7,328 club coupes, 13,279 Holiday hardtop coupes, 3,844 convertibles, and 90,131 four-door sedans. That last figure, the Super 88 four-door sedan alone, made it the single most popular Oldsmobile body style of 1951, outselling the entire outgoing 88 series by nearly three to one on its own.²

The Rocket 303 carried over its familiar rating split: 135 horsepower at 3,600 rpm and 263 lb-ft at 1,800 as a bare engine on 7.5:1 compression, or 129 horsepower and 255 lb-ft once the AMA specification sheet accounted for standard accessories like the fan, generator, and water pump. The standard three-speed manual, which Over-Drive notes was Buick-sourced, ran gear ratios of 2.3933, 1.5259, and 1.000 with a 2.534 reverse, while the $150 optional Hydra-Matic stepped through 3.8195, 2.6341, 1.4500, and 1.000 with a notably steep 4.3045 reverse gear, a much lower ratio than the manual's own reverse and a reminder that automatic-transmission reverse gearing in this era often traded smoothness for a genuinely low ratio.^2,3

The two series' dimensions diverged along with their platforms: the 88 measured 202.0 inches long, 75.19 inches wide, and 64.06 inches tall, while the Super 88 stretched to 204.0 inches long and 76.0 inches wide but actually sat lower at 63.63 inches, both sharing the same 57.0-inch front and 59.0-inch rear track and 7.60x15 tires. Shipping weights climbed with body style across the Super 88 range, from 3,506 pounds for the Club Coupe up to 3,858 pounds for the DeLuxe Convertible Coupe, a 352-pound spread that reflected how much heavier the open car's structure and top mechanism were than the closed coupe's.^2,4

Interior trim tracked the split between the two series' market positions: the 88 offered a choice of two upholstery materials, nylon or nylon cord, while the Super 88 stepped up to three, colored leathers, nylon cloth, or nylon cord, adding a genuine leather option the plainer 88 never got. Both series drew from the same twelve-color exterior palette, running from Black and Cascade Green through Chariot Red and Palm Green, so the visual distinction between an outgoing 88 and an incoming Super 88 on a dealer lot came down almost entirely to body style and trim level rather than to paint choice.²