Toronado!

Big, brawny yet beautiful.  The original was the best looking of them all.

I appreciate all the technical hurtles GM engineers overcame, these cars were brutes for sure, most agree they look great, etc., etc...     but I never warmed up to these.

It was a very good looking automobile and I am happy to have a 1/18 diecast replica of the original Oldsmobile Toronado, but I am not a fan for a number of reasons of the fwd layout. My family had an initially downsized 1981 Toronado and a giant GMC motorhome that used the V-8 fwd Toronado power unit.

I believe at one time, Jay Leno had a 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado powered by a V-8 Corvette 1,000 hp engine driving the rear wheels in a rwd layout.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, inside and out, need I say more ?

But I have never seen one in the flesh here in the Netherlands.

I was never a fan as at the time it came out, everything was rear wheel drive.  Who would want a front wheel drive car?  I guess after all the years now that is all you can get.  American Muscle went out the door as what is there now other than large SUV's, pickup trucks and a couple of cars, rear wheel drive has gone away.

@jack-dodds 

I agree Jack.. I was 12 when the Toro was introduced and I couldn’t believe how beautiful its design was along with the ‘66 Riviera. The FWD layout was foreign to a scrappy youngster like me.

Steve

A friend had this 1966 Toronado. Great looking and certainly outstanding acceleration. The front wheel drive pulled very sharply sideways during acceleration. You could handle it well in dry conditions. Not as well in rain and really difficult (dangerous) in our Canadian winters. He took it off the road from October to April after trying to use it year round. I have had a lot of front wheel drive cars since and they had nothing like the same problems. Still, I prefer four wheel drive in my Audi and Subaru. Best of all worlds.

I had a 1970 Toro. It was a magnificent car in all respects except for the shortcoming David mentions. I drove cross-country in it and traveled north to Montana, just to drive where there was no speed limit at the time. While I discovered Mantana to be monotonous, similar to West Texas, that car could sit at 120 MPH all day long without batting an eye. Now, gas consumption was a whole 'nother story! 

@jkuvakas Yes.  I only drove one once.  I recall my late father in law remarking how incredibly thirsty it was.

I've never liked the styling of these. An ex-girlfriend had a  '67 Riv that was spectacular though. Especially from the back seat.😉

Not a fan of the Toro because of the unconventional FWD and the harsh in your face styling. I preferred the more refined Buick Riviera with RWD. As we now know FWD became the norm.

I think I've mentioned this before, but in case not here is again.  When was 16 years old in 1967, I took my Drivers training in a brand new Toronado. 

A friend in college drove the families late model 1966 or 1967 Toronado and I recall it was a very nice car.  I do prefer the cleaner front end styling of the 1967.  My first front-wheel drive car was a new 1976 Eldo convertible and from then on I was sold on front-wheel drive, especially in bad weather like snow.

Posted by: @jkuvakas

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"...that car could sit at 120 MPH all day long without batting an eye."

Now that's impressive!  😎 😎 😎