![]() The tested car was pretty loaded, and stickered at $4950. Add a few key options, and pretty soon you’re in Starfire territory. The Jetstar I started at $3592 the Starfire at $4128. The Jetstar I was fairly quick, despite the slow shifting, with a 0-60 time of 7.5 seconds, and the 1/4 mile in 16.3 mph.Īnd to keep the price down, it also came with manual steering and brakes, and a vinyl interior instead of the Starfire’s leather. ![]() Oh, and it lurched hard into 1st gear when the speed dropped to about 5 mph. So they just left it to shift automatically, which it did at 4500 rpm. No wonder these “slim Jims” have such a poor rep. The testers tried to trick the transmission by holding the shifter in a lower gear until the engine was revving higher than it would for an automatic shift, but the result was an even slower shift “ it felt as if it were trying to pull a spoon out of a jar of cold molasses“. CL notes again that this unit is a slow shifter. And of course it developed a rep for certain frailties, although I hear those can all be taken care of nowadays. Not surprisingly, only 112 were ever sold that way the obvious choice was the optional “Roto-Hydramatic”, which was adequate at the time, but certainly not illustrious. ![]() It came standard with the same husky 345 hp 394 V8 that was also in the Starfire, but the standard transmission was a three-speed manual. But with less chrome ornamentation than the rather gaudy Starfire, it looked better than its more expensive sibling. It was a clean and understated car, a bit too much so compared to the more dynamic GP. That’s not to say it wasn’t without its charms, by any stretch. Meanwhile, the more affordable GP was red hot, so Olds decided they needed a GP of their own, or a Stripper Starfire. But sales were always low, especially after the Riviera appeared. At least in 1963 it got a version of the roof the GP got that year, to look a bit more distinctive. In a nutshell, the 1961-1962 Starfire was fully-loaded, and intended to (attempt to) compete with the Thunderbird as well as the Riviera, but of course it suffered from looking just like what it was: a tarted up 88. ![]() What’s up with Olds? Did they flunk rocket science? Hmm, looks so much like a Starfire, why do they have two similar big sporty coupes? Pontiac just has the Grand Prix, Buick the Riviera. The Jetstar I confused eleven-year old me when it arrived in 1964. ![]()
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