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Did you ever, ever see anyone lash anything to one of these trunk top racks?
The worst part is, those things never had anything on the side to which one might hook bungee cords or rope, so they were doomed to be useless.
As someone who crams as much camping gear into my ’91 Tbird as possible, a “useable” trunk rack would be nice. I found a cheap alternative. It is an inflatable roof rack that actually works quite well. I had a similar load strapped on for 1500 miles without a lick of trouble. One cinch down after the first few hundred miles was the only effort needed.
Maybe not THAT trunk rack, but I know I’d never be able to take a trip more than 2 days long without my trunk rack.
@Chuck Goolsbee,
Nice rack… :)
Ah lugage racks, actually that Generation of Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera was pretty tastefully styled, if blandly. Might want to check that Old’s vin # pretty carefully, my exwife’s 1994 model looked exactally the same.
My buddy Jeff had a Somerset Regal that had a trunk rack installed to cover up some light hail damage to the trunk. It looked alright on a Buick but made it more symbolic somehow of the 80s, although he didn’t start driving till the early 1990s.
The useless trunk mounted luggage racks of the ’80’s are the predecessor of the equally useless trunk mounted spoilers of the ’90’s. The beat goes on.
The Cutlass Ciera, however, was pretty decent, if occasionally crude mid sized car. They STILL roam the streets of Western Michigan to this day, like what, 15 years after the last one rolled off the line!
I still would like to have a latest-version of the A-body station wagon (Olds, Buick, Chevy. Whatever, so long as its in good condition). That was a nice size with a decent cargo carrying capacity. With the later 3.1 V6, it could get out of it’s own way…
I love the wagon version of the A-body and have wondered if the 3300 that they later dropped into the Buick Century before it died would fit between the frame rails of the old A-body predicessor. Now that would be cool.
educatordan, the 60 degree V6 you want is the 3.5 that came out with the last generation of Pontiac G6, Malibu and Saturn Aura. 200 to 240 reliable horsepower. I think that would be a drop in, but I don’t know how it would interface with the old 4T65 tranny.
Better yet would be the ‘high-feature’ 3.6 V6 from the last-model Buick Rendezvous. That would be the 260 HP motor. It should be the right size to fit in the A-body’s frame rails, but again, I’m not sure what would happen with the tranny. Or any of the much more advanced electronics that the newer engines would require.
I’ll take the Olds Ciera version. Graft on a Vista Cruiser roof, add on the AWD drive system from the early ’90’s version of the STE and I’m good to go.
I think the luggage rack is a lost art. I’m a function over form guy. I drove a somerset something or other during grad school (The Golden Nugget of Love f/85′) A nice lady chased me down at the airport pickup lane to tell me I forgot to put my luggage in the trunk. I love em.
Well you can still buy one if you really want. http://www.prolineracks.com/trunk-deck-racks.html I think cars have to have a few creases in the sheetmetal to look right with one, like this Impala (http://www.tintdude.com/2003/impala1.jpg) would look ok but then the trunk is so huge, who needs it?
Notice the perception-bridging chrome window trim on the Accord… and the Olds. Someone send Lutz a memo.
Luggage racks have real value to those of us who drive cars without trunks.
http://www.classiccarrier.com/carmodel.php?carmodel=9
Also terrifyingly dangerous in a convertible in an accident.
I saw what I believe was an 80s vintage Olds or Buick the other day, with a shiny chrome luggage rack on the trunk deck and a nice tan half-roof landau top set against flawless dark burgundy paint. All in all it was a fairly attractive vehicle, especially for one from the 80s.
Maybe I’ve lived in Florida for too long, but I’m developing a soft spot for automotive accoutrements such as these. It seems today that accessorizing your vehicle is all about adding huge rims, mesh or billet grills, and fake ventiports or fender vents. Cars from the 70s and 80s had panache, and accessories that added style without hip-hop vulgarity.
If I ever end up in possession of a 80s Town Car or Caddilac, it’s going to get a landau top, a luggage rack, and perhaps a set of bull horns on the front of the hood.
Now this is style.
Yeah, that’s style alright, and that’s the right car for it. You need a loooong hood so you can see around them. Unfortunately that long hood causes problems too…don’t ever drive into an alley, because when you come out the other end between the buildings you have to get half the car out into the street before you can see if anyone’s coming.
Ha, this brings me back. Growing up, my family had an Olds Cutlass Ciera when I was younger, but it didn’t have the rack or the striped taillights. It was a decent car and outlasted the later model Mercury Sable wagon we bought to replace it. Overall it was a very vanilla vehicle with grey on grey everything. It even had roll-up windows and I remember all the controls being very simple. I loved the cushy Velour seats with the oddball ribbed texture, and the 3.1 had some balls (though the auto kind of defanged it). Same engine was in my friend’s Z24 with a stick, and man, that thing was mean.
Well, here I am to help out with the Olds :) That car is either a ’91 or a ’92. That roofline did debut for 1989, but the tail lights didn’t get those stripes until ’91, and from ’93 till the car’s demise in ’96, the rubstrip that went around the car was painted body color, instead of the black shown here.
And for Dan, FWIW the 3.3 liter engine was offered for a time as an option on the Ciera. I remember when my folks were car shopping in ’92 and they looked at a Ciera (didn’t buy) it did have that engine.
-Richard
Niedermeyer! I knew this wasn’t an 80s model! Now go find a little FWD Skyhawk to pick on! ;)
Skylark: yes, and coming soon; Skyhawk: I wish; none to be found.
Here in Canada, winter (with a little help from the salt trucks) found a natural cure for trunk racks… long rusty drip marks which ensured that the owner would never, ever want another one.
My father had two of these abominations (yeah, yeah, yeah, my father’s Oldsmobile, I get it) an ’83 and an ’89. Both were like driving a hog with a steering wheel attached to its head.
As for trunk racks, my ’92 Mustang LX, 5.0 convertible had a rack like this and I actually tried to use it once. I ended up losing my P.J.’s on I-75 somewhere near Sarasota.
Damn, it isn’t an International Series! What a waste of a perfectly excellent trunk rack.
What, no comment on the other 80s design fad, wire-wheel covers??? Personally, I hated them back then maybe because it seemed everything above a Yugo had ’em. Now, they’ve grown on me. Four rules if your car has wire-wheel covers:
1. Keep them clean and keep snow out of the spokes — looks terrible
2. Whitewalls only please — this is not a BMW
3. Don’t lose the lock key
4. Keep the lock tabs lubricated with white lithium grease so they don’t squeak going down the road
My pet peeve was people who bought base model Olds’ with factory “rally wheels” and then put whitewalls on them.
I wish somebody had given me the tip about white lithium grease when the factory wire covers were driving me crazy on my 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. Never lost the lock key though, had it right up till those bastards in Detroit stole it over Thanksgiving weekend 2000. When it was my dad’s car he had a seperate bucket for his wire wheels and whitewall tires filled with specialized cleaning products. The man is meticulous, what can I say?
One of my dream cars would be a late 80s Cadillac Fleetwood with true white wheels. http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/1/2258/3541/5644270020_large.jpg now that’s classy!
Ah, the d’ignorance version to boot, actually saw one of these today in amazingly good condition for such an old MI car, looked like brand new. Only problem with these was the 307 or even worse the HT 4100 engines. Shame GM never saw fit to put a decent engine in these. Myself I liked Dayton wire wheels a lot better than either the Cadillac or Lincoln factory versions both of which I thought they did an amazingly good job of making real wire wheels look like fake wire wheel covers.
Hey you could get the 5.7 (350)V8 in that body style. Of course in typical GM fashion they built about 5 of them that didn’t go to coachbuilders. Everytime I see one of those Cadillacs I check the badge on the trunk to see what engine it has. Personal polling seems that it was about 80% 5.0, 15% 4100, and 5% 5.7. But that’s pretty unscientific.
@getacargetacheck – the wire wheel covers are/were a leftover 1970’s fad that managed to limp through most of the 1980’s. I don’t know if you remember the introduction of the fabulous mid 1970’s cruisers, the Chrysler Cordoba, the Ford Elite and the Chevy Monte Carlo, but all of those road barges came with optional wire wheel covers, which were a TOTAL pain the ass to live with, especially on the potholed streets of the upper midwest… Many of my friends owned those cars back in the late 1970’s early 1980’s because they were cheap to buy in the first era of $1.00/ gallon gasoline.
If the locks didn’t seize from the road salt, they got loose and clicked and clacked a lot or when they did fall off, it was like launching some sort of circular pipe/nail bomb when it finally reached it’s unintended target.
One of the best things to ever happen was the advent of the plastic wheel cover in the 1980’s and 1990’s. At least when those let loose, they were nowhere near as lethal as one of those wire wheel cover units from a late 1970’s Sedan deVille. I’m frankly amazed that there weren’t more accidental decapitations from errant wheel covers back in the day…
I actually used a trunk rack once, on my sister’s 4-door Ciera. I’d picked up a 28″ tube TV for her, and the box wouldn’t fit into the trunk or through the doors. I ran a nylon rope inside the back through the back windows and tied it down on the rack. I drove only about 5 miles with it, on surface streets, watching for bumps, and it worked when she plugged it in.
educatordan, compared to the G-Body abominations that are popular now with the hip hop crowd, whitewalls on rallys seems almost tasteful. Seriously, although it seems like a bad match now, whitewalls on Olds rally wheels was the classic Cutlass Supreme combo all throughout the 70s up through 1987. I’m not surprised your car was stolen. The Cutlass Supreme was for many years the number one stolen car in America. Definitely one of the finest riding cars available, especially the Broughams with those cushy, pillowed velour seats and crypt-quiet ride. There was a real difference in look/feel between that car and its Malibu sister. I remember those Cadillac Brougham wire wheels. Jaguar tried going all retro with those on the XJS, but it just wasn’t the same as the old knock offs to me.
When I worked at YMCA Service Learning Accademy on 7mile in Detroit, MI; I pulled up to work the first day, the only white teacher at an all black charter school, the retired Detroit motorcycle cop who was our security guard looked me and the car up and down. This was in August of 1999. (He was African-American BTW.)
Security: “That’s a 1987 model isn’t it?”
Me: “Yeah, good eye.”
Security: “What’s the driveline?”
Me: “307V8, quadrajet 4brl, 4speed auto, and a posi-trac rear.”
Security: “That’s a drug running car.”
I’m suprized it took as long as it did to disapear from my appartment complex parking lot.
When is the photo homage to that classiest of 80’s “upgrades”, the rear window louvers? I had a 3-piece set on my ’75 Camaro in the late 80’s. Like the trunk mounted luggage rack, you used to see them everywhere but not so much anymore.
Got a few memories of the GM A-bodies, as I inherited two of them. Both Buick Century’s. The first was my mother’s last dirty trick on me: ’85 Estate wagon, fake wood paneling, fake wire wheel covers, V-6, four speed auto, maroon velour interior. Had to get rid of my tricked out Escort GT to take it (don’t ask, family pressure). Unfortunately, it was one of the best running and most reliable cars I’d ever owned. I was embarrassed to be seen in it, but couldn’t afford to trade it in.
The other was a base model ’84 four door sedan, 4 cylinder, three speed auto. Got it when dad died as part of the estate. Got rid of it shortly after. Shouldn’t have – it was just as reliable as the wagon, and a lot easier to put up with as general transportation.
Have always had a positive attitude towards Buick since then. Someday when I’m down to getting a boring four door automatic piece of transportation, I’ll probably go back.
You know, there actually is a practical application for luggage racks like these, as well as some rear spoilers! Allow me to explain…My ’87 Cutlass Supreme coupe had a rack installed, nicely done at that, and I found that whenever I was backing the car up I could look in the rear-view mirror and see the rack sticking up, and I used that to judge where the rear of the car was, and I never backed into anything. Spoilers work for that too. When you are only five and a half foot tall like me, you appreciate things like that…
Those A-bodies could be good basic, cheap transportation. In the 90’s the unit I supervised had the use of two ’89 Celebrity wagons. Built in the OKC plant, which ranked high in quality. Four cylinder, automatic, air, heavy duty seats. We got about 90,000 mostly highway miles from each of them before the cars were pulled back. Oil changes were about all the service they got or needed. No breakdowns. Thirty mpg or more at the legal limit. I could drive 500 miles a day and arrive home feeling fine. At seven years old the only cosmetic problem was flaking paint on the window frames (GM must have used awfully cheap black paint there) and both cars still had the batteries installed at the factory. If I could find an example that hasn’t been abused and beaten up, I’d buy it just to haul stuff.
From 1985-1988 I “personalized” dozens of GM A,C,H, and W-bodies with aftermarket racks in a new-car prep dept. Every one made me want to hurl; the worst one was a new black ’89 Lesabre T-Type coupe that had a tasteful standard-equipt spoiler and I had to put on a rack anyway (at the buyer’s request). Yecccch!
Still not as bad a the SimCon (fake cabriolet) tops though, the worst are cars with a moonroof/cabriolet roof combo.