I have that Hemmings issue with the Starfire, the main reason I bought it. Oldsmobile had great automatics in the big cars back then, so to "downgrade" to a 4-speed was very seldom done. I have only heard of 2 Starfires with 4-speeds to date. They would be Muncies with extra long tailhousings, like the full-sized U.S. Pontiacs.

My brother used to own a '66 Delta 88 with a high-compression 425 2-barrel. Only 310 horses but long on torque, the thing would burn rubber all day long. He "loaned" it to someone in 1978, then somebody vandalized it by dropping a cinder block through the windshield. Then the police towed it. He never bothered to retrieve it. A shame because it was a good car. I still have the Canadian Owner's Manual for it. It had originally been a lease out of Gus Brown in Whitby.

Thanks for sharing this Big Dreams.

Two things come to mind.

1. We emigrated to Canada from the UK in the fall of '67, and my father immediately purchased a low mileage '66 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 from a friend.
Four door hardtop beautiful car way bigger and more optioned out than anything we had ever cast eyes on before. I remember my dad turning onto Yonge Street with the car from Sheppard Ave. East and going onto the wrong side of the road English style. I was in the front seat with him and 13 year old me was pretty surprised. He immediately realized what he had done and swung over the the proper side and disaster was everted.

2. Three years later in '70 one of my 16 year old buddies picked up a '63 or 64 Olds Starfire with a four speed even though they didn't have their licence and drove it around the Bayview Village Shopping Centre parking lot until his father found out and forced him to sell it. Even though it was only 6 or 7 years old it was completely beaten on and would have been a big resto job, but I figured it was a rare car with the four speed and console. Lord knows what happened to it but I suspect the scrapper soon after. I did the same thing with a Volkswagen Kharmann Ghia the same summer. Try and do that there today!