Editor's Choice

by Jack Baruth

Published: August 23rd, 2013

Running the show here at TTAC has a few privileges. One of them is that on a relatively slow news day I can take the site over to put up pictures of General Motors “box” B/C-body cars from the Seventies and Eighties. These shots were found by The Brougham Society’s Kevin Campbell and they showcase one of my favorite Boxes. With its cliff-face front end and stately finlets, the ’77 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight positively exudes natural dignity. To a generation that had no trouble remembering the dismal interiors of the Model T, the C-47, and the Navy LCVP, the all-green velour salon must have been cheering and impressive in equal measure.

At the age of eleven or so, your humble author was driven around quite a bit in a blue ’77 Regency; my father’s business partner had one. Some time in 1982, both of the old men (age of my father in 1982: 36. Age of your author today: 41) went to the Lincoln dealer and joined the Church of The Panther by purchasing a pair of blue Town Car Signatures. I missed the Ninety-Eight. I thought it was better-looking and had a nicer dashboard. Little did I know that GM would cut the legs out from under the full-sized car before I made it into my teens.

Oh well. What’s past is prologue, but these magnificently proportioned sedans will never return.

#OldsmobileNinety-eight

Jack Baruth

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2 of 227 comments

Tklockau on Aug 25, 2013

Love it! We did one of those on CC a few months ago: http://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1978-oldsmobile-ninety-eight-regency-all-the-brougham-you-want-in-a-tidier-package/ But I like the green one so much better!

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WildcatMatt on Sep 13, 2013

My dad's parents always bought 88s and had one of this vintage, the glove box specifically takes me back. My second car was an '87 Ninety Eight Regency Brougham in that exact shade of green, I sold it with 205,000 on the clock when I graduated from college, and I always appreciated the sort of stately-ness of that car. Thanks so much for posting this!

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