Oldsmobile Starfire Coupe 1962

by

Model number: LDC20208BK

Review of the model:

The 1962 Oldsmobile Starfire were not an ordinary car of its time. It was an high performance luxury coupe with all the bells and whistles in a fairly big size.
Therefore you will not had been seen this car on every corner in the town.

This 1962 Oldsmobile is also not an common model car and to my knowledge only Lucky Die-cast premium signature series, have made a model in 1:18 scale. One of the recognizable features of this model is the massive amount of trim in chrome and stainless steel from bumper to bumper just like the real car. I must say it looks fantastic when the color contrast is; Provincial White hardtop and Regal Black body. Speaking of colors, Oldsmobile always had a favorite color: The Burgundy Mist Poly, this red/purple color can still be see on the turbine shaped hubcaps on this very model.

A special feature that was hot fashion in those days was; the hardtop coupe looks like a closed convertible. The roof itself was very thin and had the neck above the rear window just to simulate a real ragtop. Clearly seen on the model as Lucky Die-cast had made a fine job here.

As often said before I weight the paint and prep work high on a model for giving a realism and models from Yatming Group are always very well produced, but on this particular model car a bit buffing with a soft cotton cloth was needed. Otherwise the model is well assembled only with a small amount of flaws and I here think about the careless mount of the stickers on the instrument panel – sure a minor issue as one easily can fix this with a pair of tweezers.

The interior looks fantastic as the real car. High-end Oldsmobile’s had real leather interior and on this model the red/maroon saloon looks amazing. Signature series from Lucky Die Cast often don’t use real carpet and on this model the carpet is missing both in the floor inside as in the trunk compartment. – A bit of a shame in my book.

Let’s walk around the car and see all the individual parts and highlights. Up front the grill is the face of the car. We can’t find any flaws here everything is perfect made and assembled. The real lenses fit and are orientated right. The grill itself has the blackwash paint to simulate real mesh and in the center is a fine Oldsmobile Star-emblem. The hood is well casted with the center trim line in chrome and when opens, the hinges are very realistic made in miniature. Looking down on the high performance motor we can confirm nothing is missing here; Wires, hoses and the correct stickers are all present.

The door hinges is realistic made with spring mechanism and close well with only small gabs. And speaking of the doors; you can move the door windows up or down just with a little push from your fingers – a cool feature also when you will protect the interior from dust when the model is parked.

Emblems around the model are tampon-stamped painted and look good (front fender, C-pillar, deck lid and center of hub caps) although I would prefer the etched-metal as Sun Star Models have, but remember the model have a slight lower purchase price than Sun Stars. – Some will say you get what you pay for!

The rear of the car is fantastic designed and Oldsmobile’s always had a distinctive rear with the brake lights as rocket exhaust. Remember from the mid fifties to the late sixties Space age design was hot! The four red rear brake lights is only painted with opaque red color over chrome background and look good, but I had preferred real red plastic lenses as on other Signature series models. If we open the deck lid the trunk have a spare tire up front and a well made jack lay on the trunk floor.

The “glass” windows is made of god plastic with only a small amount of distortion and looks good. The entire trim package on this model is made of chrome and not painted silver as seen on some parts on other models. The tires with thin white wall lines and tread pattern that surrounds the glorious turbine hub caps is perfect, and gives the model an exclusive feel just like the real 1962 Oldsmobile Starfire Coupe. Other fine details such as real stainless steel antenna, hollow exhaust pipes and real license plates are among the vastness in attention to details on this model.

Lucky Die Cast made this model in two paint schemes and the other is in all Metallic red also known as Garnet Mist Poly. And the choice is yours. I can highly recommend this 1962 Starfire to all collectors.
 

I will give this model 5 out of 6 stars  ******

Below here are pictures of the model, historical description, old brochures, technical data and some movie clips of the real car. So please enjoy!

1962 Oldsmobile Starfire Coupe

Fashion model Monique Chevalier in front of the new 1962 Oldsmobile Starfire

Easy recognizable be the heavy amount of side trim

In 1:18 scale the price drops to $100

One of GM finest car of 62

History:

Oldsmobile Starfire 1961-1962

The first full-fledged Starfire series arrived with Oldsmobile's 1961 models, which were advertised as "Distinguished . . . Distinctive . . . Decidedly New." Introduced as a personal-luxury convertible, the Starfire was designed to compete with the four-passenger Thunderbird and used much the same design formula.

Thus, it was offered only with two doors -- coupe (beginning 1962) or convertible -- and featured a fancy interior, a high-powered version of the legendary Rocket V-8, striking exterior chrome/aluminum trim, and a beefed-up 88 chassis. The Starfire series lasted until the revolutionary Toronado picked up the Oldsmobile personal-luxury banner.

Although Oldsmobile officials had already decided to produce the new 1961 Starfire, they deliberately held it back for a mid-year introduction. The delay was used so as not to upstage the debut of Oldsmobile's long-awaited compact, the F-85.

Taking a page from its 1953 Fiesta program, Oldsmobile chose the General Motors 1961 Motorama, which opened on Nov. 3, 1960, at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City, to show off the new one-model series. Jack F. Wolfram, Oldsmobile general manager, told a New York auto show press conference that the Starfire was scheduled for a limited-production run "at a later date."

The first Starfires began arriving at selected Oldsmobile dealerships in January 1961. Unlike the Starfires of the Fifties, the new Olds convertible shared its 123-in.-wheelbase chassis with the 88 models. The front grille and rear design treatment, however, were more akin to the Ninety-Eight.


The 1961 Starfire rode a 123-in. wheelbase like the 88, but grille and rear trim were more like the Ninety-Eight.
Exterior styling touches exclusive to the Starfire included two slim parallel hood moldings and a 4-in.-wide band of brushed aluminum on the sides. But it was the Starfire's interior that stood out as its most striking feature; leather-covered bucket seats separated a multi-faceted console that had a chrome-plated automatic transmission shifter, tachometer, and much more.

The Starfire's sparkling performance came from the Rocket V-8, a 395-cubic-in. V-8 that cranked out 330 HP and 440 lbs/ft of torque at 2800 rpm. It looked as well as it ran, sporting a chrome-plated air cleaner perched atop the four-barrel carburetor and shiny valve covers and oil filler cap. Of course, the 10.25:1 compression ratio meant that it burned only premium fuel.

The special Waldorf-Astoria Starfire was painted in a deep luster Autumn Mist and complemented by a red leather interior and white convertible top. Production Starfires came in 15 exterior colors and interiors of gray, fawn, blue, and red. Convertible tops could be had in white, black, green, blue, fawn, and red.

A price tag of $4,647 made the Starfire the most expensive Olds since the special Fiesta convertible that listed at $5,717 in 1953, and $8 more expensive than the 1961 T-Bird ragtop. The production run was far more ambitious than the limited-production Fiesta and 7,600 of the 1961 Starfires were built -- making it the second most popular 1961 Olds convertible.

The introduction of the Starfire came too late to include the first-year model in most 1961 Oldsmobile literature, but a special tri-fold, six-panel brochure outlined Starfire virtues. Even rarer was a direct-to-dealer piece urging dealerships to stage special open houses to showcase the new model, giving interested dealerships with up to 500 invitations and envelopes.

Oldsmobile product planners expanded the Starfire lineup in 1962 with the addition of a coupe. Despite direct competition from the new Pontiac Grand Prix, this model year would mark the all-time high production record for the Starfire as a separate series. A complete sheetmetal revamp gave the Starfire a clean, new look. As expected, the coupe outsold the convertible by about five to one; total Starfire production reached 41,988.

Along with the exterior restyling, the 1962 Oldsmobile Starfire's exclusive V-8 turned out an additional 15 HP -- 345 from the same 394 cubic in. as the previous year. For 1962 it featured a new combustion chamber shape and a slightly higher 10.5:1 compression ratio.

The exterior styling treatment centered on an expanded brushed-aluminum side trim package. The standard equipment list was as impressive as previous model years. Sticker price on the new coupe started at $4,131 actually $50 less expensive than the Ninety-Eight Sports Coupe. The Starfire convertible remained the most expensive car in the Olds lineup at $4,744.

The Starfire slipped quietly from the Oldsmobile roster after 1966, replaced by the dramatic all-new Toronado. The name didn't die, however, for it was revived in 1975 for an unabashed Chevy Monza clone, which itself was basically a recycled Vega. The little Starfire hatchback was retired without fanfare after the 1980 model run.

The year 1987 marks the 90th anniversary of Oldsmobile in the automobile business. During six of those years a production run of nearly 120,000 Starfires was made. For most of its tenure, the Starfire rightfully reigned as the top-of-the-line Oldsmobile.

Certainly there were flashier cars in the Sixties, but when compared to its lowlier brethren -- the 88s, Ninety-Eights, and Jetstars -- the Starfire stood out proudly as Oldsmobile's flagship. It should also be accorded its historical slot as Oldsmobile's first venture into the personal-luxury field.

While it certainly wasn't the "sports car" that Olds PR types and marketers of the day labeled it, it was a solid automotive value -- all traditional Oldsmobile from bumper to bumper.

The Oldsmobile Starfire managed to hold an important door open through the mid-Sixties until the revolutionary Toronado was ready to roar through to genuinely stun the American automotive market.
 

Technical specification:

1962 Oldsmobile Starfire Coupe

Oldsmobile Starfire Coupe Hydra-Matic Drive (aut. 3) , model year 1962, version for North America (up to October)
2-door coupe body type
RWD (rear- wheel drive), automatic 3-speed gearbox
gasoline (petrol) engine with displacement: 6460 cm3 / 394.2 cui, advertised power: 257.2 kW / 345 hp / 350 PS ( SAE gross ), torque: 597 Nm / 440 lb-ft

Dimensions: outside length: 5433 mm / 213.9 in, width: 1979 mm / 77.9 in, wheelbase: 3124 mm / 123 in
reference weights: shipping weight 1911 kg / 4213 lbs base curb weight: 1966 kg / 4334 lbs
Top speed: 195 km/h (121 mph)
accelerations: 0- 60 mph 8.4© s; 0- 100 km/h 8.8

Detailed Performance Review
fuel consumption and mileage: average estimated by a-c©: 26.8 l/100km / 10.5 mpg (imp.) / 8.8 mpg (U.S.) / 3.7 km/l.
 

Old brochures of the car

Video of the real car from Youtube

If you have any question or comment your are free to contact me at: aeronautic@stofanet.dk

Dealers are welcome to get their models reviewed too.

Aeronautic Dec. 2019

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