1997 Oldsmobile Aurora - the Rallyrora

So Out Motorsports is hosting a rallycross in late August:

https://www.outmotorsports.com/event/rallycross-2021/ 

As the owner of said queer motorsport organization and organizer of said event, I figured I ought to shop for a horrible car to use for this event. Given our challenge is "makes and/or models that don't exist anymore" I had my sights on a few things, but it came to a head when a friend who's currently with his grandparents in Florida sent me a link to this car. Said friend has purchased a $350 5-speed Mercury Milan for the rallycross and is now helping the rest of us find cars in his free time.

It's a 1997 Olds Aurora with the 4.0L Northstar V8 (yay) and 122k miles. Currently not running due to an appetite for fuel pumps. The seller had it for 11 years and it was nestled among a 1960s Mustang and some older Mopar stuff. He told my friend that he was tired of dealing with it and he really just wants to work on older carbureted things at this point. So, for $500 it's now mine. And it's in Florida. 

Matt is going to be towing it up to DC with another friend's new daily-driver purchase and I'll get my eyes on it in a few weeks. Not sure why it's eating fuel pumps unless the relay is sending continuous power to the pump and burning it out because no fuel is moving through it when the car is otherwise off? We'll have to poke around. Good news is that it cranks hard and sounds like it has good compression and there's no milkshake between oil sump and coolant reservoir.

He also thinks it's got a habit of the headlights staying on when the key is off/removed. So I'm wondering if an ignition switch is to blame here or some bigger body control module sort of thing. The seller included a few maintenance records and it's had the PCM replaced in 2012, not sure what else is in the folder but Matt sent me the PCM repair order as a teaser. Said the car looked dry underneath, both front and rear, which is also promising enough.

This is gonna be awful, I can't wait. 

And if any of you want to come rallycross with us, hit that link up above and sign up.

Paint it like the only Aurora that matters. 

!!! I think four of my five cars would count as orphaned, if they were not already over budget. And broken.

Maybe I'll bring one of them anyway. Summit Point is not all that far from me, and I've been thinking about getting into rallycross.

The Aurora is an inspired choice. If you feel really ambitious, you could paint it up like this (Axe beat me to it):

Or this:

thats auroresome

Always wanted one of those just so I could drop it and dress it up like the road race cars

I drove one of these as a beater car for a while it was a small tank. It jumped so many rail road tracks. 

And I thought my Lumina was too big for Rallycross...

If I remember correctly the dashboard on these is pretty well laid out with good ergo and driver-centered.  I also seem to remember a big shifter knob/handle.  

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

And I thought my Lumina was too big for Rallycross...

We crashed an SCCA rallycross last year and brought three S-Classes, among other things. A Lumina sounds totally reasonable in comparison.

John Welsh said:

If I remember correctly the dashboard on these is pretty well laid out with good ergo and driver-centered.  I also seem to remember a big shifter knob/handle.  

Yep! It's a good-looking interior IMO. And a HUGE shifter.

Brake_L8 (Forum Supporter) said:

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

And I thought my Lumina was too big for Rallycross...

We crashed an SCCA rallycross last year and brought three S-Classes, among other things. A Lumina sounds totally reasonable in comparison.

It looks like your Aurora has the same dried up and cracked leather seats my Lumina has. The plastic dashboard looks familiar too.

The speedometer and tach look like they came out of the same parts bin.

It must be a GM thing. 

I like the "futuristic" rocket styling of these. I saw some really cool ones in the early 200s at the LA auto show. They had body kits and custom paint. Can't find a single picture of them on the interwebs. 

AAAAALLLLLEEEERRROOOOO from my archives.

Wait, is this different from the one you guys brought to the DC rallycross event last year?

Also, I feel like my shot of Mays' Benz beats the one you used on the site :)

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

Brake_L8 (Forum Supporter) said:

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

And I thought my Lumina was too big for Rallycross...

We crashed an SCCA rallycross last year and brought three S-Classes, among other things. A Lumina sounds totally reasonable in comparison.

It looks like your Aurora has the same dried up and cracked leather seats my Lumina has. The plastic dashboard looks familiar too.

The speedometer and tach look like they came out of the same parts bin.

It must be a GM thing. 

GM leather in the '80s and '90s was TERRIBLE.

Sorry I was wrong, Olds was pushing the Alero as a "turner car". Better get up on my early 2000s olds

^Too bad the 4cyl Alero was very difficult to tune to get any more power from. Maybe the V6 was more receptive.

In reply to GCrites80s :

Shootstar had the same issues the Northstar did. Great motor, just expensive as hell when it broke.

irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:

AAAAALLLLLEEEERRROOOOO from my archives.

Wait, is this different from the one you guys brought to the DC rallycross event last year?

 

Also, I feel like my shot of Mays' Benz beats the one you used on the site :)

THAT beige Oldsmobile was a supercharged LSS (which was an Eighty-Eight) with the S/C 3800 V6 on the "H-body" platform. Aurora is the little V8 and is technically a G-body. They're both old beige GM sedans past their expiry date, but Loretta the LSS has been sold by now. Nate will be bringing something, potentially Daewoo-flavored, this year instead.

That is a RAD shot of the 190E, too. I'll have to use that in some promo.

I was in high school when the Aurora came out. I thought they were cool. 

When I worked at a gm dealership around 2001 a customer brought his in and was talking about it. He said he really liked it because it was a "RWD v8 sedan, just like he wanted." I explained to him that it was not, in fact, rwd. He looked like a kid finding the truth about Santa claus. Clinging to the last bit of hope, he countered, "If it were fwd, why is there a driveshaft hump in the floor?" With a genuine sense of Hah, Gotcha! But alas, it was for the exhaust. He left looking so downtrodden. I bet he hated the car after that, even though he had been driving and enjoying it for years.