The Oldsmobile Aerotech Beat The Bugatti Veyron's Top Speed In 1987

By Matt Nelson

For as long as the automobile has been around, a few folks have always been interested in seeing just how fast it can go. The very first land speed record in a car was set all the way back in 1898, when a Frenchman by the name of Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat took an all-electric Jeantaud Duc motor carriage all the way up to a blistering 39.24 mph. Back then, this was ludicrously fast. However, we think of 39 mph as rather pokey, and even annoyingly slow should we be late for something.

It wouldn't be until 1949 that a production car would receive an official top speed record. That year, a Jaguar XK120 was taken out and had its throttle pinned wide open until the little sports car reached a 124.6 mph average across four total runs. Again, most of us have gone this sort of speed before in cars like a Volkswagen Jetta or a Lexus ES. However, less than 40 years later, Oldsmobile set a blistering land speed record with something called the Aerotech concept. Its official stop speed? 257.123 mph, beating the Bugatti Veyron's 253-mph top speed.

A Long Time In The Making

Quick Facts About The Oldsmobile Aerotech

• Actually a collection of three total concept models
• Work began on the project in 1985
• First unveiled to the public in 1987
• Initially designed with Le Mans competition in mind
• Further development was canceled in 1992

In the mid-1980s, General Motors was looking for ways to diversify its portfolio. One of the ways thought up to achieve this was to become more involved in racing, specifically the 24 Hours of Le Mans competition. However, trumping this desire was Oldsmobile's apparent need to re-capture its performance image, which had significantly dwindled since the close of the classic American muscle car era. So, in 1985, assistant chief Oldsmobile designer Ed Welburn set about sculpting a Le Mans-inspired supercar.

Preliminary drawings were quickly shuffled up to GM's top brass and received swift approval. Once greenlit, the Aerotech project began to take on its full form. Wind tunnel testing showed a few flaws in the initial mock-up's aerodynamic design, but were corrected with help from Max Schenkel, a higher-up on the project. Originally, and to the disdain of some other members of the project, Welburn preferred the Aerotech to have a long-tailed design, and would draw inspiration for the feature from the Porsche 917LH. However, a short tail was ultimately used.

Finally, in 1986, the first Aerotech was ready for real-world testing. At the General Motors proving ground in Mesa, Arizona, the Aerotech managed to achieve a top speed of 218 mph thanks to its turbocharged 2.3-liter inline-four. The test driver, A.J. Foyt, stated that the concept handled the high speed with a surprising amount of stability, thanks in part to its short tail design. Several more runs were completed, ensuring the Aerotech could handle sitting at a high rate of speed for long periods of time.

The Record-Breaking Run

It was at this point in time that GM senior management greenlit another Aerotech using Welburn's preferred long-tail configuration. In addition to the elongated rear section, this new iteration would also boast a twin-turbocharged 2.3-liter inline-four. This second car was quickly completed, and the official record-breaking attempt began on August 26th, 1987. FIA officials were called in to observe in order to make the record official, should the car succeed.

At first, the short-tailed Aerotech failed to achieve a speed higher than roughly 250 mph, falling short of a speed record set by the conceptual Mercedes-Benz CIII-IV. However, the next day, Foyt insisted on testing out the as-yet-unproven long-tailed iteration. The Merc's record was quickly shattered, as the Aerotech managed to achieve a top speed of 267 mph on two flying runs. That same day, it also set a closed-course land speed record of 257.12 mph.

Under The "Hood"

The first iteration of the Olds Aerotech took advantage of a 2.3-liter inline-four engine sporting a single turbocharger. However, the mill itself wasn't designed or built by Oldsmobile. It was actually developed by a company called Bratton Heads of Detroit. The mill was loosely based on GM's Quad-4 inline-four, although loosely. The mill managed to produce up to 900 horsepower, a staggering amount for an engine of that size at the time. In the long-tail version, a company called Feuling Engineering of Ventura took the Bratton Heads of Detroit mill and made some tweaks, enlarged it, and also shoehorned a twin-turbo setup into it.

The rest of the Aerotech was similarly impressive. Its frame was closely related to the sort you'd find in an Indy Car, and was actually directly derived from a winning 1985 CART 84C chassis, built by March Engineering. However, the chassis was modified extensively to be able to handle extremely high speeds while remaining stable over bumps. The Aerotechs also boasted adjustable air dams situated underneath the model, which controlled airflow, allowing the concepts to be hunkered down without creating too much drag, which could potentially slow the car down.

We'll go over the long-tailed Oldsmobile Aerotech's specs in the table down below:

*Specs courtesy of Outright Oldsmobile

Other Oldsmobile Aerotechs Were Built, Too

Come late 1992, yet another Aerotech joined the fold. This time, a fully-fledged V8 lived underneath its body shell. The mill in question was an Oldsmobile Aurora 4.0-liter. The other two existing Aerotechs, the short-tailed and long-tailed originals, were also retrofitted with Aurora motors. In addition, both older models were granted function head and tail lights for use at night. In total, all three Aerotechs broke 47 land speed records, including two endurance speed records totaling 10,000 kilometers and 25,000 kilometers. For eight days straight, a team of drivers piloted the three Aerotechs nonstop to break the aforementioned records.

Two other concepts utilized the Aerotech concept name, but weren't designed for record-breaking. The Aerotech II, a sport wagon, was unveiled in 1989 at the Detroit Auto Show. Reportedly, it was meant to test the waters regarding an Oldsmobile sport wagon or shooting brake for the American market. Another model, the Aerotech III, was introduced in 1990. However, the III was virtually just a preliminary version of the then-upcoming Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme.

Sources: OutrightOlds.com,HOT ROD Magazine, OldConceptCars.com

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This article originally appeared on CarBuzz and is republished here with permission.