Automotive

This Mint 1999 Oldsmobile Intrigue Led a Pack of Heroes at Radwood LA

By TechKee Admin

Posted on December 2, 2018

Call it a “Meh Car” all you want, but this minty fresh 1999 Oldsmobile Intrigue had my coworker Andrew and me, well, intrigued. Among the many gems at Radwood Los Angeles this past weekend, it was this generic Kansas City-built sedan that was best able to capture our hearts.

The 1980s and 1990s car show returned to LA on Sunday, this time at the Petersen Automotive Museum. If you weren’t there, you missed an extremely rad time. This being LA and all, turnout was incredible.

Based on the paint and the shape of the interior, I’d have guessed this front-drive, W-body mid-size sedan’s 3.5-liter Twin Cam V6 hasn’t spun many revs over its 20 years of existence. But Chris from Instagram’s mountainwestcarspotter was kind enough to plug the plate into his Carfax app, and found that it appears to have over 120,000 miles on it.

That someone actually drives this thing and keeps it in such good shape only further solidifies this Intrigue’s spot as the hero of Radwood LA.

Yes, that brown bit of American automotive forgetability won hero-status over even this—Matt Farah’s perfect Lamborghini Countach:

It’s a vehicle interior is basically a Werther’s Original, and I’m a big fan of that smooth, brown caramel-y goodness. You should be, too:

Yes, my hot take of the day is that the Intrigue wins out even over this Bugatti EB110:

And over a Vector W8:

“It’s hot, but it is Intrigue levels of hot?”—This is the question I asked myself as I ogled over this rear end:

Also present: the actual Acura CL-X Concept from 1995, which presaged a few Acura designs that would come the next decade. Seeing it in person was an extremely rare treat, thanks to the folks at Honda.

And here’s just a photo dump of lots of other cars that are, objectively, better than a well-used 1999 Oldsmobile Intrigue, and yet—because of my clearly deranged automotive taste—still weren’t able to take home the meaningless “Hero of Radwood LA” award that I just made up.