Remember Oldsmobile? The GM brand that was the first on the chopping block over a decade ago was the poster child of neglected brands. It had just a handful of models, most of them re-badged Chevys. Plus, people just weren’t buying Oldsmobiles like they used to, and the brands name even worked against it, conjuring a picture of senior citizens driving 10 mph under the speed limit in the passing lane. Yet not everything they made was stodgy and boring.

Take the Aerotech. Designed by Ed Welburn, this turbocharged, aerodynamic car went on to break numerous records. Ed Welburn never got a chance to drive this car until a recent trip to GM’s proving grounds in Milford, Michigan, reports the Detroit Free Press.

Welburn, head of GM’s design staff, designed the Aerotech back in the mid-1980’s to be extremely aerodynamic. His expertise has been called on again to make the Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid that goes on sale this fall, as aerodynamic as possible. He walked into a studio in Warren, Michigan, where a picture of the Aerotech was hanging on a wall as inspiration. “I’ve got to drive the car” he reportedly said after seeing the poster. We can understand why.

Powered by a turbocharged four-cylinder Oldsmobile engine, the Aerotech set the closed-course speed record of 257 mph when driven by Indy-driver A.J. Foyt back in 1987. It had over 1,000 horsepower, and was a triumphant design aerodynamics. Underpinning the Aerotech was an Indycar chassis, and a total of three Aerotech cars were designed and built. Yet Welburn never got to drive the Aerotech, only ever seeing the car in a wind tunnel. GM let him take the car out on its Milford Proving Grounds, though they made him follow a pace car out on the track.

Still, we can imagine it put a big smile on Welburn’s face to finally drive that car after so many years. We smile just thinking about it.