It's funny how your tastes change over time. There are cars that I hated growing up that I now like, while there are others that I was indifferent to that I now am obssessed with. The 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado is one of the latter. When I was a little kid, we went to see my godparents, Ann and Chuck Swanson, and parked behind their house was a 66 or 67 Toronado. My memory of it seems to be that the car was kind of back in the bushes, but this had to be around 1968 so it could not have been more than 2 years old. Anyway, I noticed that the car was a neat shape, but it did not make much more of an impression on me than that.
My interest in these amazing cars was awakend a few years ago, when Jay Leno had a 66 Toronado converted from front wheel to rear wheel drive and added a 1,000+ horsepower engine. It is an amazing machine, and so beautiful. There is one story where Leno talks about encountering a Bentley Continental GT on the highway and then he proceeds to blow its doors off. I LOVE THAT!!!
To read more about this beautiful and amazing one-of-a-kind car, go to: http://www.hotrod.com/featuredvehicles/113_0502_1966_oldsmobile_tornado/index.html
More recently, my car buddy Jim and I were driving home from the hospital where Lorette (my friend and Jim's wife) works. There was a 66 Toro parked in the driveway on one of the side streets. I thought the car was gorgeous, so I went and researched them.
Oldsmobile introduced the Toronado for the 1966 model year. It was like nothing else on the street. The GM styling team responsible for the Toronado said they were going for the "feel" of the Cord 810 and 812 of the 1930s (see picture below).
For the first time since the 1930s, an American automaker used front wheel drive. How forward thinking was that? It wasn't until the 1980s that FWD became mainstream. In addition to this mechanical similarity, the Toro had a horizontal grille and hidden headlights. Looking at the cars together, you can see that the cars appear very different, unlike today's "heritage" cars which look very much like their spiritual forebears (think the current Mustang compared to the 67-68 Mustang; the upcoming Camaro and Challenger compared to their 1969 and 1970s predecessors). The Toronado captures the essence of that Cord but is definitely its own car. One must remember, however, that automotive design and manufacturing had changed so much more between the 1930s and 1960s versus the 1960s and 2000s. 
The front drive Toronado was developed and built around the same time as Cadillac's front drive Eldorado (introduced in 1967); another of my favorite cars today. Both cars were the "sportiest" full-sized cars offered by their brands (if anything that weighs 4500+ pounds can be considered sporty), but the Toronado was tuned more for sport than the Eldorado which definitely leaned toward luxury. The pictures below show the Toronado's more sporting nature versus the Eldorado's more traditional interior. The Toronado's dash is really aggressive looking.
The speedometer in the Toronado (called a barrel speedometer) was somewhat controversial, but looked cool. The Eldo's speedo looks like any you'd see in a full-sized car.
Toronado "Barrel" Speedo 
Eldorado Speedo
Toronado's 425 cubic inch V8 (385 hp)
Eldorado's 429 cubic inch V8 (340 hp)While they had better than average performance and handling in their day (despite being FWD), their current value is much less than their muscle car counterparts. This amazes me. They are more rare than most of the muscle cars. They have big block V8s. They are fast and they handle better. Both cars are beautiful - the Toronado is curvaceous and sleek; the Eldorado is angular and sleek. So, why does their value lag behind? I do not know. Parts are not easy to find and there is no aftermarket source for them. However, I think their reasonable production numbers and the probability that they were mostly adult owned, combined with GMs excellent quality in the mid-1960s means that their should be enough left to support an aftermarket. Maybe someday.
One of the reasons I started this blog which I have only shown to a handful of friends, so far, is to highlight some of the cars that do not get the attention that the muscle cars do today. These cars are two of those and I hope that I can encourage some enthusiasts to restore something different.
Don't get me wrong. I love the muscle cars. However, I have seen so many Chevelles, GTOs and Hemi Cudas in the magazines that I do not feel like I have too much more to learn about them. Plus, they are all in the stratosphere, price-wise. However, when I get my saved search emails for the 66/67 Toronado and the 67/68 Eldorado with their affordable prices, I think to myself - "Maybe someday will be sooner than I expect."
What cars from the 50s/60s/70s do you like that you think need more press time? Email me at channing@greene-shipman.org.
Channing - 27 April 2008
Acknowledgements: Most photos displayed of the Eldorado and Toronado in this posting cam e from Hemmings Classic Cars magazine, December 2006 issue.
The photo of Jay Leno's awesome Toro was from hotrod.com - http://www.hotrod.com/index.html
The photo of the Cord is from John Malks' Cordnet - http://www.automaven.com/index.html
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