1964-1972 Oldsmobile Vista-Cruiser

Jumbo shrimp.

Military intelligence. 

Civil war.

Hot station wagon. 

Oxymorons all? In the past, I have sung the glories of a station wagon precisely once, in that case the 1955-57 Chevy Nomad which I described then as a "beautiful and gloriously dysfunctional car lust ". Then again, I probably would have happily praised the Dodge Magnum had not our own Chris Hafner already done so. 

And that pretty much covered all the bases for my Wagon Lust. Until now. There are two reasons why this one has been added to the corral of Things I Lust After: 1) Some guy in my neighborhood has an old red one he's restoring that I think looks really cool, and 2) This old C&D review of a 455 (!) VIsta-Cruiser:

It goes, stops, steers, and handles like hell. It is so fast you wouldn't believe it. It does a big 94 in the quarter-mile, with an ET of 14.7 seconds, but unlike so many cars that deliver lots of sturm und drang in the quarter, it is perfectly happy to turn a corner or stop at the end.. . .Anybody who ever criticized American cars' handling should try this Oldsmobile. With its voluptuous bodywork, trick Super Chief roof, enormous engine, and great overall size and bulk, it is as purely American as any car could be, but its behavior on the road is so impeccable that it's a machine to make converts of us all. By the same token, anybody who ever defended typical American car handling as "good enough" ought to take our Oldsmobile home tonight.

If that doesn't blow your (fender) skirts up, I don't know what will.

I should point out at this juncture that I could have just as easily only included the 1964-67 generation since that's the one I really like and, based on my Car Lust history (see here, here, and here), it may seem utterly incongruous that I omitted the '73-'77 versions. Like I said, my station wagon lusts are pretty specific. You can also probably lump into this post the Buick Sport Wagon (another oxymoron in some many quarters) since they are basically the same vehicle (save for the Ventiports, of course!). But whatever, these Lust things aren't supposed to make a whole lot of sense anyway. 

According to How Stuff Works (which you should read for a proper history of these things, if so inclined), the raised roof line and window of the Vista Cruiser -- the feature that makes it stand out in a crowd, as it were -- may have been at least indirectly inspired by a previous design feature of another one of GM's products, the PD-4501 Scenicruiser that they built for Greyhound. The Scenicruiser is probably worthy of a Car Lust post in and of itself (Bus Lust anyone?). I vaguely remember seeing some of these on the road in the later 1960s on one of our semi-yearly trips from Wisconsin to Alabama for family vacations. Itself probably inspired by Vista-Dome trains, the Scenicruiser was prototyped in 1949 by Raymond Loewy (he of Avanti fame) to give bus passengers an elevated seating level and a 360-degree view of their surroundings. It was more or less a double-decker design with the driver and 10 seats in the (forward) lower deck and 33 seats on the upper deck in the domed area. Equipped with air-ride suspension, air conditioning and a restroom, one might argue that the Greyhound Scenicruiser represented the zenith of bus travel in the United States. See Greyhound's web site for some photos of a beautifully restored Scenicruiser. 

While not quite as expansive as the Scenicruiser's, the Vista Cruiser's elevated dome windows were quite . . . . dissimilarly unfunctional. Motor Trend disagreed, saying the "added glass area gives rear-seat (and to an extent front-seat) passengers a greater view of the surrounding countryside" (quoted from HSW). To an extent, this is true since the glass on the VC extended all the way to the end of the body (rather than stopping at the rear pillar). On the other hand, it's difficult to see how three inches of tinted glass near the top of the roofline gives anyone a "greater view of the surrounding countryside" except by trivial definition. The added headroom did, however, provide added cargo space and allowed rear passengers a bit more room than other wagons did. Plus, it could be had with a front-facing 3rd-row seat rather than the rear- or side-facing seats common at the time. 

The original VC was based on the Olds Cutlass (the Sport Wagon was based on a lengthened version of the Skylark wagon). The original '64 had one base engine, the 330in³ (5.4L) Jetfire Rocket V8 (upgradeable to a 4-barrel) that put out between 210-330 bhp for the first generation. The Sport Wagon was a bit more restrained with two engine options, a 300in³ Wildcat 310 (go figure) with 210 bhp and a higher-compression 4-barrel Wildcat 355 with 250 bhp. Neither of these were too shabby, although given their weight (round about 3700 lbs) you weren't going to win many drag races with them. But then, they were station wagons. 

There was a major  redesign for 1968 and this one is probably the classic design that most people would remember and, if I'm honest, most would probably prefer. There is far more body sculpting involved and there is much more going on nearly everywhere. It underwent a further redesign for the 1970 model which straightened up some of the curves, and I find the '70-'72 more attractive than the earlier Gen2's, at least the front end. Oldsmobile switched to Rocket V8's for the engine lineup, a 350in³ and 400in³, and the 455in³ available on 1970+. Yes, that would be the 350+ bhp 455. So I suppose on that count anyway, one must go with the Gen2 as perhaps the high water mark of the Vista Cruiser/Sport Wagon line. 

To me, the Gen2's look a bit too heavy, which is something I've commented upon before with the Marauder and Star Chief. I generally find the early 1960s cars to be more or less clean and refined in look; elegant, if you will. Sometime around 1965 they tended to start bulging out in various places and looking more like hulking battleships than the smooth, easygoing yachts of before. This may appear somewhat at odds with my similar love for the heavily sculpted and ornamented cars of the 1970s. But the latter seem to be lighter of design than their later 1960s counterparts, getting back to that more elegant, leaner look rather than just bulk for bulk's sake. 

I can really do without the fake wood grain too.

All that said, there were a couple of true muscle car Vista Cruisers that were produced in 1970. Both were equipped with the 442 W30 package. 1970 was probably the zenith of the muscle car era at Oldsmobile and I guess they decided to let the Vistas in on a piece of the action. The W30 engine was a 455 that developed 370 horsepowers and a whopping 500 torques. 442 hoods had a couple of (functional) Air Induction hood scoops and an all-aluminum intake manifold. Be that as it may, the whereabouts of the two W30s are apparently unknown at this time. There are replicas floating around though, one of which I shall allow you to feast your eyes on:

The Vista Cruiser soldiered on after a 1973 redesign, while the Sport Wagon went to that great wrecking yard in the sky. It looks okay, I suppose, and the '76-'77 might even be considered somewhat handsome. Never could take the inverted bulges between the wheels though. The trapezoidal back end also struck me as somewhat odd. The "Vista" part is also now gone, although they seem to have increased the amount of glass altogether. But it lost its distinctiveness and became something altogether unexceptional. 

Despite all this, I think these might be one of the few wagons that I think really benefits from some "hot rodding". Put some mag wheels and fat tires on one of the first two generations and you've got a respectable looking sport wagon, one that might fit in where muscle cars like to congregate; if not pounding the pavement for a quarter mile, at least causing some heads to turn at the local drive-in. And it's the Vista Dome that does it. Raising the roof like that gives the whole of the car a much more balanced look and makes the car look more like a freeway loper than a pondering family hauler. Functionally, perhaps it wasn't quite the true "vista" generator its designers thought it was, but I think it adds an important design element to the overall look-and-feel of the car, turning a plain-jane family car into (at least potentially) a decent looking street cruiser. 

 

 

Both the top photo and the Scenicruiser ad are from Wikipedia. The nice blue-and-fake-wood-grain '72 is from this site which will undoubtedly become Hafner's new favorite web destination. The 1977 can be found here. The 442 replica is from ClassicMuscleCars.com.

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