1970 was the final year for the eighth generation of the Oldsmobile Ninety Eight. This iteration had debuted in the 1966 model year and, along with its GM platform mate, the Buick Electra, saw a light restyling and a 1" wheelbase stretch for 1969.
The '70 Olds Ninety Eight was available in a variety of coupe and sedan configurations, as well as a convertible, like this Rally Red example parked at a local shop (the same one that works on my rides.)
The Oldsmobile 98 and Buick Electra convertibles were the top of the General Motors totem pole for the buyer who wanted a sporty luxobarge, stickering right around five grand when optioned out, which was still about a thousand less than a Coupe De Ville.
The Ninety Eight ragtop only came with one powertrain in 1970: A 455 cubic inch Rocket V-8 hooked to a Turbo HydraMatic 400 3-speed slushbox. Featuring a single 4-bbl Rochester carburetor and a 10.25:1 compression ratio necessitating premium gas, it was rated at 365 SAE gross horsepower, enough to move two and a quarter tons of ragtop with reasonable alacrity.
Sorry for the somewhat potato-quality photos. The autofocus of the little Canon PowerShot SX500 IS budget superzoom gets confused and hunts around a lot in the light misty drizzle. (Also, I had inadvertently left the ISO set to 800 from some evening shooting I'd been doing the other day, and the little 1/2.3" sensor is crazy noisy at anything over 400.)
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