This is how I got hooked, so it belongs here rather than in the Olds sub-forum. I would have posted the pictures had they been mine, so try the links. To me, there has never been anything more beautiful than the following:
1. The factory picture of the 1975 Cutlass Supreme - it has a beautiful shape and the enamel light blue (Horizon Blue) that year stood out. Weird: so many of the guys in my (extended) family look, or looked, like the guy standing next to the car, at one time or another.
Link - factory ad - dubbed "the little limosine" - on Zola from Hungary's web site
2. Leigh Ann Shimonovich (great name) is another proud Cutlass Supreme owner.
Link - Leigh Ann's beautiful 1975
3. From the deciduous trees, this Cutlass "lives" in the eastern half of the US - the Horizon Blue shows up again - this is a restored Cutlass Supreme with the swiveling buckets. It's a site dedicated to this guy's restoration of his Cutlass, taking it onto the cover of Hot Rod Magazine.
Link - Look at the 3/4 view in front of the mansion with the amber turning lights on - stunning!
4. Here's one from a guy in Kentucky. It's a Cutlass Salon, the top of the line for 1975, and I've never seen one this immaculate. This is a lucky guy.
Link - George Conklin's faultless Cutlass Salon with Kentucky plates proclaiming it a classic car
5. Here's the interior / dashboard view of a Cutlass Salon. Yes, it's a Salon because of the much more substantial bucket seats, the console, the dimmer on the stalk instead of on the floor, and the thicker steering wheel... but look at the climate control center (this one had NO air conditioning) and manual windows! In its day, this was America's most beautiful dashboard.
Link - the Cutlass's beautiful dashboard
6. My favorite color for 1975, Persimmon Metallic, though attached to the nondescript fastback base model. On the Supreme and Salon opera-windowed coupes, this color (much nicer than the recent Pontiac orange and more of a deep rust), combined with the color-keyed factory rally wheels, mesmerized me.
Link - factory ad on Zola from Hungary's web site - basic "non-Supreme" model in Persimmon Metallic
7. The 1975 color chart for Oldsmobile. My favorites: Persimmon, Inca Silver, Canyon Copper, Spectre Blue and, in some cases, Horizon Blue (enamel) and Dove Gray (enamel). By comparison, today's color choices are pathetic.
Link - 1975 factory colors on Zola from Hungary's web site
8. After 1975's warm-up exercise, the 1976 stole North America's heart! They sold 512,000 of these cars in 1976. While most people on the street can't verbalize the qualities of good design, its yatch-like good looks made them sell like hot cakes.
Link - on Zola from Hungary's web site - three words: OH - MY - GOD
Yes, the 1975-1977 Cutlass Supreme and Cutlass Salon colonnade coupes...the automotive loves of my life.
