1966 Oldsmobile Toronado

The Oldsmobile Toronado is renowned by many automotive enthusiasts for being a step forward in car design. It began life as a design painting by Oldsmobile stylist David North in 1962 who created a “Flame Red Car” – a compact sports car that was never intended for production. After Oldsmobile was informed by parent company General Motors that it’d be building a competitor to the Buick Riviera and the Ford Thunderbird, the division opted to go forward with North’s design and the rest of the story is history. Oldsmobile had been developing front-wheel drive since 1958 and the Toronado incorporates this with a “Unitized Power Package” powertrain. It also has an Oldsmobile-produced, performance-boosted “Super Rocket V8” rated at 385hp and 475 lb-ft of torque, as well as automatic transmission fitted as standard – an expectation of U.S.-built luxury cars of the time.