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Cars from Mars produced by American automobile manufacturers may be exciting, but their practicality lies more in the 21st century than today.

Oldsmobile Division, however, is taking a different tack. Olds unveiled its Achieva concept car early this year, and now the automobile is on a fast track for production.

Oldsmobile’s management seems reluctant to reveal the division’s plans for the Achieva and the Cutlass Calais, but the same doesn’t apply to the Olds dealers. The dealers say the Achieva will replace the Calais in 1992. They expect to see the car in November or December.

“I haven’t seen the car in its finished form,” said Joe Myers, president of Collins Oldsmobile. “But our sales manager saw it in Las Vegas.

“They (Oldsmobile) had it out there for sales managers to see. Everybody is very excited about it.”

Causing the excitement was an automobile that was new but distinctively Oldsmobile. The wheelbase is 107.2 inches, and the overall length 186.6 inches. That makes it a little larger than the Calais that it will replace. As either a two-door or four-door five-passenger sedan, the Achieva utilizes engine and drive train configurations from the Calais. The driver-cockpit layout is straightforward Oldsmobile design.

“The Calais body style has been around for awhile,” said Dave Watts, sales manager for Dellen Oldsmobile. “We still do well with it, but people tells us they’re ready for a change. The Achieva is more contemporary, and we think we’ll do even better with it.”

Under the hood lie provisions for Olds’ Quad 4 family of dual-cam, 16-valve, 2.3-liter engines, plus a power plant that still is waiting in the wings.

This is a single-overhead-cam eight-valve motor that puts out less horsepower than the double-overhead-cam four-cylinder, but is less expensive to build.

The single-cam four that will debut this fall is rated at 120 horsepower, quite respectable for 140 cubic inches of displacement.

That doesn’t, of course, match the 190-horsepower Quad 4 which powered the limited edition Cutlass Calais Quad 442 W41 model that appeared on the market last March. With four valves per cylinder, the dual-cam engine just plain provides more air flow than is possible with two valves per cylinder.

The Achieva is set up to take any of these four-cylinder power plants, which seemingly would indicate that Oldsmobile intends to have a rather broad price spread.

“We haven’t heard anything about a price,” Myers said. “But we’re hoping it will come out priced with the Calais of today.”

There is a good possibility that the exterior of a production Achieva will not be a carbon copy of the concept car, but it will be close.

The body paneling is aerodynamic, retaining an Oldsmobile look. The styling is the work of a team headed by Olds’ exterior chief designer, Ed Welburn, who said, “We resisted doing a very round shape.”

There is nothing radical here. The car has a low front end in the best tradition of today’s production vehicles . Flush-mounted glass adds to the smooth lines .

Inside, the design of the cockpit follows one of the best driver-oriented layouts known. A wraparound instrument panel contains big analog gauges that are positioned for easy and instant reading.

This is in the best sports-car tradition, and has been used innumerable times because the full instrumentation tells you virtually everything that is going on with the engine.

The transmission’s shift lever is mounted handily on the center console just to the right of the steering wheel rim. There’s no fumbling around to shift gears here, the lever is right next to you. The other controls also are within convenient reach.

Overall, the arrangement of the interior facets is a more contemporary design of the features associated with Olds’ entry-level Calais.

“I think what is happening is they want to keep the car in the same demographics (a s the Calais) so as not to lose that low-end buyer,” Watts said. “They’ve made improvements on the interior, and I feel the styling has been enhanced.

“The sales people who have been with Oldsmobile for awhile are very impressed with it.”

The Calais accounts for a good chunk of the sales by Oldsmobile dealers – in excess of 30 percent at some agencies. As a consequence, dealers say Olds’ management has been very careful in finalizing the product that will be offered to the public.

“That’s right,” Myers said. ‘GM is clinicing (sales analyzing) its cars very rigidly to make sure they are the right thing for the marketplace. And that car (the Achieva) has been through three changes before they finally got what they want.” CAPT:

Oldsmobile’s Achieva concept car reflects the automobile that Olds dealers say will replace the Calais for 1992.

The driver’s cockpit of Achieva is designed for convenience.