1972 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Convertible

I bought the Delta 88 in March/1983 as the second owner in Seattle, Washington. It had ~90,000 miles at that time and in the first 20 years I've owned it, I've put about 70,000 more miles on on the Oldsmobile Convertible. I've been averaging about 2,000 miles/year the last several years now that I have a family ... so it doesn't get driven as much outa the garage. The Delta 88 Convertible has stayed in pretty good shape and hasn't required much mechanical work; although the gas gauge stopped working on me a few years ago and I found that out the "hard" way - there is no tripometer, so I know carefully write down the mileage when I fill it up!

As some people know, I'm a bit ... uhhhh ... "stubborn" (!) about putting up the convertible top, and in fact, am often asked if it has one or even works. The true answer is YES to both ... but again, Alek is a bit stubborn and it hasn't been up in years. It's actually not bad in the weather as long as you are moving, since due to the airflow, all the water/snow/whatever goes behind you! ;-)

Some highlights/pictures of the Olds Convertible:

First big road trip for the Delta 88 was Seattle to San Antonio, Texas (via Denver) on my way to Air Force training. Ironically, the biggest breakdown the car has ever had was a semi-failure of the distributor cap in the first 200 miles after leaving Seattle with my Mom. Here is a picture in Denver with my grandparents
Driving over Colorado Mountain Passes, Rocky Mountain National Park, and it has even seen some 14'er trailheads!)
Used as Wedding getaway car several times with security provided by the G-men
Golf Tournament Prize and wheels to the golf tourney
Hanging out in the driveway and with Little Dirk helping drive
Assisting with weapons testing in a 20 foot diameter shock tube - picture1 and picture 2
It is a great car to transport shade trees
Makes a great HulkMobile!
Try punching these terms into your favorite Search Engine as the Delta 88 is:
- The Coldest Car, the Coolest Car, and the Longest Car on the Internet! ;-)

Some other misc. trivia/stories:

First day I bought it, 8 of us went crusing from McMahon Hall across the UW campus.
No ski rack required - just pop the skies in the back seat! ;-)
On its 10th year of ownership, I parked it at work and unknowlingly backed and buried the tailpipe in the grass behind the parking spot at work; the old potato in the tailpipe trick - ooops! I had to get a ride home from work that night since we hadn't figured it out, but the weather forecast was good, so I wasn't worried about it raining on it. Unfortunately, I had parked the car right in the path of a broken sprinkler head that sprayed a perfect fountain of water into the back seat. Suffice to say, my co-workers thought that was pretty funny when I showed up for work the next day as the Delta 88 Convertible was doing double duty as a bathtub! ;-)