The Oldsmobile Toronado was new for the 1966 model year. It was a personal luxury car that lifted elements of GM’s other personal luxury car, the Buick Riviera. Although the Toronado was an E-Platform car like the Riviera, it was a front-wheel drive. The Oldsmobile Toronado would share its platform with the following year’s Cadillac Eldorado.
The Oldsmobile Toronado was the first American-made front-wheel-drive car since the 1937 Cord. It took advantage of the configuration to feature interior floors that were completely flat, offering far more foot room than most other cars. This was a plus, as the Toronado’s sleek fastback design, which was no taller than a Chevy Corvair, did cut into headroom. The Toronado had long doors with two sets of interior door handles, so the rear-seat passengers could exit without bothering the passengers in front.
As the Oldsmobile Toronado was a personal luxury coupe, it came with a long list of available options. Among those were power windows, power seat, headrests, tilt-telescoping steering wheel, air conditioning, remote control outside mirrors, cruise control, AM/FM Stereo, and a power antenna.
The dash on the new Oldsmobile Toronado was unique, utilizing a speedometer that rolled over horizontally, like a slot machine, located immediately above the steering column. The climate controls were located to the left of the steering wheel. Wiper and washer controls were also mounted on the dash to the left of the wheel, and were actuated by separate rocker switches. Gauges were located on both sided of the wheel, in plain sight.
The Oldsmobile Toronado was powered by a 425 cubic-inch Super Rocket V8 producing 385 horsepower and 475 pound-feet of torque, managed by the heavy duty Turbo-Hydramatic three-speed automatic transmission, capable of propelling the big coupe from 0 to 60 mph in 7.5 seconds. It had special tires that had been developed by Firestone called the Toronado Front Drive or TFD. The TFD had stiffer than normal sidewalls with unique tread and a thin whitewall stripe.
Our subject car is a 1967 Oldsmobile Toronado, only the second production year. The 1967 benefitted from the addition of vented front disc brakes and a slightly softer ride. It is particularly attractive in Lucerne Mist with a white vinyl top. The exterior design, with its hidden headlights and fastback leading to the massive, rolled-under chrome rear bumper, must have looked radically advanced in 1967. This example is extremely clean and correct throughout. It appears to be highly original, with very little to fault. Moreover, it is available from Primo Classics International for just $29,500. That’s a lot of cool for not much cash.
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Comments
Looking good. Me personally I go with a ’90 Toronado if I want an old model with modern tech.
Exterior: A++++
ZCAT:
More like A-
Those side marker lights are after-market, JC Whitney bolt-ons.
You could be right.
I was only commenting on the basic beauty of the design.
Good catch Megeebee! Side marker lights were mandated by guess who?!?….for model year 1968 automobiles. Even with this unnecessary addition on this ’67, this is a fine high style example of American design and engineering that made it all fun.
What a fantastic automobile! Love it and the colors (compared to many in that same era) are perfect. I’ve always found this exact Toronado to be quite unique, although a little out there compared to the Riviera. But I’d take either one!
Having owned a 67 Toro in the early 70s brings back memories. With studded snow tires we used it for a plow in the winter and with the special tires for the Toro in the summer it was a hotrod was a burn out king with the big 425. The flat floor boards in the back made excellent room for the kids
I had one of these cars and what a car it was. Love Oldsmobile.
RIP -Oldsmobile and Pontiac ,thank you imports !!!!
The car has NO AIRCONDITIONING. A lot of people think it was standard but it was not in those years, especially in northern areas. The seller neglects to mention this (buyer beware: what else don’t we know).
No air conditioning! so most likely not originally a Florida car Why so much detailing underneath, in trunk and under hood (to cover up northern rust?)? Worth maybe $10K based on Bringatrailer.com activities with similar cars.
a Florida car (rust) given the A/C issue and the fact that it has been way over-detailed underneath, in the trunk and under the hood could indicate a coverup. It’s worth maybe $10K based on Bringatrailer.com activity.
I remember WHEN RADIOS, SEATBELTS AN OTHER THINGS WERE AVAILABLE AS OPTIONS WHEN YOU WAS ORDERING YOUR NEW CAR! But wasn’t an option was SPARE TIRE AN A JACK, THEY WERE STANDARD EQUIPMENT,! The thing today what your talking about is the MANUFACTURERS today! Giving you what your worried about like AC , POWERWINDOWS,HEATED SEATS REMOTE START AUTOMATIC CLIMATE CONTROL, INTERNET, HEATED AN COOL SEATS REALLY,STATIONS FOR CHARGING FOR PHONES, GPS ! Could go on but my point is , when everything Is working life is good an when it doesn’t the WORLD COMES TO AN END! Think about it , the MANUFACTURERS say all that B…S..T IS STANDARD EQUIPMENT! What they are doing is trying to cost justifying the over priced plastic model cars they are FORCING ON US! What you are talking about cars didn’t have AC, that was an option available IF YOU WANTED IT ALONG WITH OTHER THINGS YOU TAKE FOR GRANTED TODAY if you want! Remember it was up the the buyer if they wanted all the options that were available, BUT YOU MAKE IT SOUND THAT THE BUYER COULDN’T GET AC,AN OTHER OPTIONS THAT YOUR SPOILD WITH TODAY if people wanted those options they would’ve ordered them when they got their new car!
Some things are better now. I have a 1963 Studebaker. The maintenance interval is 1000 miles. The dual point distributor is supposed to have the points adjusted every maintenance interval. Old cars were definitely a lot more work to keep running, often rusted out quickly, and were much less likely to start up in winter weather than what we have now.
For the distributor in my old Studebaker, I got a Pertronix drop-in electronic module that replaces one of the sets of points. That made life a little simpler. It seemed like points always had a habit of needing re-gapping at the least opportune moments, going from fine to rough running over a very short time. I also got pretty adept at replacing the little paper fuel filters on GM carbs that plugged up all too often. It took care because it was easy to strip out the threads of the pot metal carb bodies. I always carried a few extra filters in the glove box.
It’s worth whatever somebody will pay for it!
A lot of cars I see at the shows I take my 70 Toronado to do not have A/C. Of course some of the are older but I still don’t know how people can stand it. Especially down here in the south.
Bob posts of a simpler time. When you went to the dealership and the salesman would pull out the spec sheet and you chose what you wanted (or could afford) for your new car. A few “special “ accessories always gave you some bragging rights. When all the neighbors would turn out to see your new car. Pay 5 grand for a new car and everybody thought you were rich. Lol
i had a 1971 and a 1977 awesome cars , when we were paying cheap gas prices it was ok but mileage was poor great ride and lots of power . GM screwed us when they discontinued OLDSMOBILE , Buick is the division that was doomed .
I had a 1972 Toronado. The engine was a detuned 455 with a quadrajet carb. I usually got about 18 MPG in mixed driving, which really isn’t too bad considering the engine displacement and the sheer bulk of the car. Before I got the Toronado, I had a 1969 Chevy G-10 van with a 3-in-the-tree and the venerable 250 L-head six. The G-10 also only eked out about 18 MPG. Of course the van had zero aerodynamic optimization with its all but flat front, thanks to the internal mid engine setup.
That’s incredible.
That’s pretty sweet! 1967 is my favorite year. There is no question the Toronado was pretty radical for its debut years. The Rocket 425 engine was painted blue rather than the expected red in the Toronado. The 3-speed THM transmission was mounted beside and under the engine, and the engine torque was reversed by driving the transmission input with a chain. One of my relatives worked for Goodyear in Akron, Ohio and claimed that GM approached Goodyear as a tire supplier but Goodyear could not get tires to last more than a few thousand miles on the Toronado’s front drive setup.
I had a forest green ‘72 Toronado which I got used with over 100K miles on it. What a beast! There was a rear seat but it wasn’t very comfortable. The Toronado was kind of like an insanely huge bench seat two-seater with a cavernous truck and a hood that felt like looking out over a basketball court. It was a symbol of 1960s optimism and pre-OPEC disregard for fuel consumption. By 1972, anti pollution regulations were starting to be a thing and the Toronado’s engine had become a detuned 455 that put out about 260 BHP and it was still painted blue. I don’t recall how much torque, but it was a lot. US made FWD cars as huge as a Toronado were essentially unknown, and it was great fun to red light drag race high school kids with clouds of smoke coming off the font tires – even when the other car won the race.
I used to own a ‘66, and miss it dearly. Two things about this car turn me off. First are the tacked-on, el cheapo side marker lights; and the other is the vinyl roof. There are some cars that don’t benefit from the look of a vinyl roof, and I’ve always felt this is one of them. It breaks up the smooth shape of the sheet metal.
The marker lights were pretty much an add-on for every car in 1967/1968. It seems the manufacturers were somehow caught off guard by the new regulation requiring the marker lights.
Yeah, vinyl tops. That was a style thing back then. I believe the Toronado could not be had without a vinyl top that year. My parents had a 1970 Dodge Dart and even the lowly Dart had a vinyl top, though I believe it was optional on the Dart.
I meant to add my my neighbor had an ice blue 1966 Toronado that came from a lady in Cincinnati. What a beautiful car! Sadly his Toronado was totaled in a fire caused by a fuel leak.
Back in the ’60s and ’70s, a vinyl top was a cool option that was intended to suggest the car was a convertible, which was considered t be the sportiest of all the models offered in a model year. But most vinyl tops needed a lot of maintenance to make then look like-new. The textured surface always collected a lot of dirt and grime, and the vinyl usually began to deteriorate after five or six years sitting in the sun. Vinyl tops, white wall tires and wire wheel covers are things that most car owners likely don’t miss these days.
As for air conditioning, it really didn’t become standard on most Cadillacs, Lincolns and Imperials until the early-to-mid ’70s. Although, American Motors, which was running a weak fourth to GM, Ford and Chrysler, made a bold move and offered it as standard equipment on the ’67 or ’68 Ambassador 990, as a way of getting buyers to look at their offerings.
Beautiful car. My uncle owned one just a little darker blue than the one in the pic. Brings me back to my childhood. I always thought that Oldsmobile had the best quality of the GM cars back then.
This card is not have air conditioning has copper tubing for a fuel line to the carburetor has JC Whitney side marker lights that’s all I can see as far as picking the car apart not worth $29,500 either
LOL! Well, now you could categorize it as a “restomod!”
interested