Despite the geriatric image it acquired in its declining years, GM's Oldsmobile division once had a reputation for engineering innovation. It was Oldsmobile that introduced the world's first fully automatic transmission, the first high-compression OHV V8 engine, the first turbocharged production car, and, of course, the first front-wheel-drive car built in America since 1937: the Toronado.

FORWARD THINKING

THE UPP CONCEPT

BELTZ AND BRACES

THE FLAME RED CAR

Around the same time, Oldsmobile was also lobbying for its own personal-luxury car to compete with the popular Ford Thunderbird. Oldsmobile already had one erstwhile Thunderbird rival, the Starfire, but it was really just a fancier version of the regular Super Eighty-Eight. It was far less distinctive than the Thunderbird, and its sales had been disappointing.

In 1962, chief Oldsmobile stylist Stan Wilen gave his designers a chance to blow off steam by creating dream cars that they themselves might like to own. The unanimous favorite of these designs was a rendering by Dave North, known as the "Flame Red Car." North's creation also got an enthusiastic response from Wilen's boss, GM styling VP Bill Mitchell. North had not conceived the Flame Red Car with production in mind, but Bill Mitchell thought it would make a fine personal car. As with the earlier Buick Riviera, Mitchell began lobbying for the corporation to build it.

If Mitchell had had his way, the Flame Red Car would have been built on the new A-body intermediate platform, which debuted in 1964 to replace the previous Y-body Oldsmobile F-85, Buick Special, and Pontiac Tempest. Using the A-body would have made the car relatively compact and sporty, with modest weight and good performance.

A few weeks after North's design was finished, however, Ed Cole, then the head of the car and truck group to whom the division managers reported, ordered Oldsmobile to develop a personal-luxury coupe to share the bigger E-body shell of the Buick Riviera. Mitchell and Wilen showed North's design to Cole and Jack Wolfram. Cole and Wolfram both liked the design, but Cole was adamant that the car had to use the bigger E-body. Mitchell was not pleased, but, given the choice between enlarging the design and not building it at all, he grudgingly acquiesced. Stan Wilen ordered his studio to scale up Dave North's design for the bigger platform.

As frustrating as the decision to adopt the bigger E-body was for Mitchell and Wilen, it ended up dovetailing with Oldsmobile's plans for front-wheel drive. The Olds E-car would be a more expensive, smaller-volume car, aimed at buyers who were more willing to pay a premium for stylistic or technical novelty. A front-drive personal-luxury car was a much easier sell to corporate management than a FWD family car.


This is a '66 Toronado, showing the original front-end styling, which was quite close to Dave North's original "Flame Red Car." The forward-canted fenders, pop-up headlamps, and minimalist grille were intended to evoke the "coffin-nose" Cord 810 and 812 of the late 1930s. The Toronado had Oldsmobile's biggest and most powerful engine, the 385-hp 425 (7.0L) V8. It was largely identical to the engine in other big Oldsmobiles, except for the oil pan and the intake manifold, which was a new low-rise design to clear the Toronado's low hood. The latter contributed to a number of engine fires -- the carburetor's fuel lines were very close to the manifold, which tended to get dangerously hot. (Photo © 2007 Karrmann; used under a Creative Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 license)

Ed Cole was amenable to that idea, and in the spring of 1964, the executive committee approved front-wheel drive for the Oldsmobile E-body. Originally, senior management wanted the Buick and Cadillac E-bodies to be FWD, as well, sharing the costs between all three divisions. Cadillac cautiously agreed, although their own front-drive E-body, the Eldorado, would be delayed until 1967. Buick balked at the FWD proposal, and eventually won approval to retain its own front-engine, rear-drive platform. Thus, when the new Oldsmobile bowed for the 1966 model year, it would stand alone -- the only front-wheel-drive car in America, and the first in nearly 30 years.

Olds considered various names for the new car. Early reports suggested the name "Holiday," which Oldsmobile had used for its pillarless hardtops since 1949. (Buick had used the Riviera name in much the same way.) Other possibilities included Cirrus (later a Chrysler sedan) and Sirocco (later a Volkswagen). Finally, Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen, then general manager of Chevrolet, offered a name Chevy had registered for a 1963 show car, for which the division had no further plans. Thus, the Olds front-drive E-car became the Oldsmobile Toronado.

UNDER THE SKIN

Unlike the new breed of transverse-engine, front-wheel-drive subcompacts that were beginning to appear in Europe at that time, the Toronado's engine was mounted longitudinally, although it was offset a few inches to the right, compared to other Oldsmobiles. This engine, a mostly standard Olds 425 (7.0 L) V8, was linked to a modified Turbo Hydramatic transmission. The Turbo Hydramatic's torque converter was mounted on the back of the engine, as usual, but the transmission itself was turned 180 degrees and mounted below and to the left of the engine. The torque converter turbine drove the transmission input shaft by means of a short metal chain, developed in partnership between GM's Hydra-Matic division and Borg-Warner's Morse Chain Division. The differential, meanwhile, was a very slim planetary unit, which was mounted in front of the transmission, driving the front wheels via short half-shafts with Rzeppa-type constant-velocity (CV) joints at each end. Except for the differential, CV joints, and the chain drive itself, most of the package used off-the-shelf hardware, even the transmission. Although the transmission's gears and clutch packs had to be modified to operate backward, most of its major components were shared with the standard, rear-drive TH400.

The Toronado's Unitized Power Package was compact, clever, and cost-effective, but it was also similar enough to Fred Hooven's design at Ford to constitute patent infringement, although the similarity appears to have been coincidental. Although GM executives were extremely cagey about the subject for many years, GM apparently had to pay royalties to Ford for using the UPP. Ironically, Ford itself never used the design, and well into the 1970s, Ford chairman Henry Ford II was openly dismissive of front-wheel drive.

The original Toronado had slotted wheels, a touch borrowed from the 1930s Cord 810/812, and finned drum brakes, both intended to provide better brake cooling. Despite these efforts, the Toro's total effective brake area was hopelessly inadequate for its weight, resulting in long stopping distances and serious brake fade, hard to excuse in a car capable of more than 130 mph (210 kph).

The rest of the Toronado was an interesting mixture of the new and the familiar. Like the Cord 810/812 and the Citroën Traction Avant, it was a semi-monocoque structure. The body was unitized aft of the cowl, but a long, bolted-on front subframe carried the front suspension and powertrain. The front suspension used a conventional unequal-length A-arm arrangement, but the springs were torsion bars, rather than GM's customary coil springs, which would have interfered with the half-shafts. The rear suspension was a simple beam axle, carried on parallel single leaf springs, but the rear axle had four shock absorbers, rather than the usual two. The extra shocks were mounted horizontally, so that they would function as trailing arms, locating the axle, as well as absorbing impacts. Olds commissioned Firestone to develop a unique tire for the Toronado, the T-FD (Toronado Front Drive), which had a lower profile for better grip.


The Toronado's long-nose, short-deck proportions were very stylish, but it did nothing for its packaging efficiency, front-wheel drive or no. Although its dimensions were very similar to those of the Buick Riviera, it weighed almost 300 pounds (136 kg) more than the Buick. The Toronado carried 62% of its weight on the front wheels, compared to about 55% for the Riv.

Not only did sharing the E-body make the Toronado about 7 inches (18 cm) longer and 4 inches  (10 cm) wider than an A-body Olds Cutlass, it negated most of the potential space and weight advantages of its front-wheel-drive layout. That was no surprise; the UPP may have been compact, but it was installed in an engine bay the same size as that of the rear-wheel-drive Buick Riviera. Embarrassingly, the Toronado was more than 200 pounds (91 kg) heavier than the Riviera, and fully half a ton heavier than a well-equipped A-body Olds Cutlass. The only packaging advantage to the Toronado's FWD was its flat cabin floor, although the absence of a driveshaft tunnel didn't make the interior significantly roomier.


The Toronado's dash was appropriately space-age, with full instrumentation (minus a tachometer), an unusual rolling-drum speedometer, and this wild-looking wheel.

Despite the Toronado's bulk, Olds stylists did an adroit job of scaling up Dave North's original design. The production Toronado preserved the Flame Red Car's dramatic, semi-fastback roofline, pronounced wheel arches, knife-edged front fenders, and retractable headlights (another styling homage to the Cord). The minimalist grille bothered John Beltz, who by then Oldsmobile's chief engineer, but Stan Wilen convinced him to leave it alone, something for which Wilen said Beltz later thanked him. Like the Riviera, the Toronado had no front vent windows, discarding a feature that GM had introduced with great fanfare about 30 years earlier. In their place, it featured GM's first effort at flow-through ventilation, with cabin air exhausted through a grille at the base of the rear window. In all, the Toronado was a distinctive car that bore little resemblance to any other Oldsmobile. From a marketing standpoint, that may have been a mistake, but it became a milestone of American design.


Use of GM's "E-body," shared with the Buick Riviera and (from 1967 on) the Cadillac Eldorado, made the Toronado a very large car. The '68 was 211.6 inches  (5,375 mm) long (about a half inch (13 mm) longer than the '66-'67s, thanks to the new grille) on a 119-inch (3,022-mm) wheelbase, with an overall width of 76.4 inches (1,941 mm). With every available option, it weighed 4,655 pounds (2,112 kg). Although the Toronado's mechanical package was shared only with the Cadillac Eldorado, its semi-fastback styling (which GM stylists called "the monocoque look") was a major influence on the 1968 A-body intermediates.


To the credit of GM stylists, the similarities between the Riviera and the Toronado are well-concealed, although they share the same body shell and most dimensions. The Riviera's fenders are broader and more curvaceous (which is why the Riviera's overall width is about two inches (50 mm) greater than the Toronado's), but the roofline is similar, as is the air extractor grille below the rear window. Surprisingly, the Riviera did not share the Toronado's semi-unitary structure or front subframe -- it rode a separate, cruciform frame.

CAR OF THE YEAR

With a base price of $4,617, the Toronado was by far the most expensive Oldsmobile model, and that price tag did not include amenities like power windows, air conditioning, or a radio. A fully equipped Toronado approached $6,000, which was verging on Cadillac territory in those days. It was a bold move for Oldsmobile.

The contemporary press, weary of the mechanical sameness of most Detroit offerings, showered the Toronado with hosannas. Motor Trend inevitably named it Car of the Year, and other magazines were similarly smitten. They cast a jaundiced eye on its girth, and some harsh words were reserved for its pathetic brakes, but its sheer innovation won over most critics.


The Toronado's broadly flared fenders contrive to make its bulk look aggressive, rather than merely big. This car has the original slotted steel wheels, with front disc brakes. The discs were a great improvement over the standard drums, which did not so much stop the car as gently suggest it consider slowing down. Even with discs, though, the brakes faded dramatically in repeated stops.

The Toronado was not an overwhelmingly fast car. Despite its claimed 385 horsepower (287 kW), and the ease with which it could send its front tires up in smoke, its weight and relatively tall gearing kept acceleration in the "moderately brisk" category. 0-60 mph (0-97 kph) took a little under 9 seconds. With a longer run, it was capable of nearly 135 mph (217 kph). It was not as quick as a Buick Riviera Gran Sport, but it was notably faster than a contemporary Thunderbird.

Oldsmobile sold 40,963 Toronados in 1966, not bad for an entirely new and rather expensive car,but 1967 sales dipped depressingly to 21,790. Stylistically, the '67s weren't significantly different from the '66s, except for a restyled grille, but radial tires and front disc brakes became available, which was a helpful improvement in stopping power. The 1968s, like our photo car, got a new front clip with the gaping grille openings Stan Wilen had previously talked John Beltz out of demanding. The 425 was replaced by a redesigned 455 (7.5L) engine, with better mid-range torque. A GT model was added, claiming an even 400 gross horsepower (298 kW). Total sales rose to 26,454.


The '68 Toronado got a new front clip with far more chrome than the original, but it retained concealed headlamps. Unlike the original's pop-up lights, the '68 actually had two sets of grilles -- the fronts rotated up into the nose to expose the second, on which the headlamps were mounted. For all the over-engineering, the motor often failed, and many owners leave them permanently in the open position. The '68 Toronado had a new 455 cu. in. (7.5L) engine, down from 385 to 375 gross horsepower (287 to 279 kW), but with a mammoth 510 lb-ft (691 N-m) of torque. A Force-Air version was optional, with 400 hp (298 kW) and 500 lb-ft  (672 N-m) of torque.

Car and Driver's reviewers wondered why Oldsmobile hadn't done more to promote the car's front-wheel drive, noting that it wasn't even mentioned in the owner's manual. It was a paradox -- in most respects, the Toronado's FWD was a gimmick, providing no real advantage in performance or packaging, but it was a gimmick that Oldsmobile didn't really promote. John Beltz, who became general manager of Oldsmobile in 1969, said in a December 1970 interview with Motor Trend, "[W]e are selling Toronados; we're not selling front-wheel-drive."

We wonder if Oldsmobile's reticence had something to do with to the Ford patent. Oldsmobile may originally have intended to promote front-wheel drive more heavily, but changed its plans late in the game, reluctant to brag too loudly about an innovation on which it was paying royalties to a rival.

Whatever the reason, Oldsmobile's ambivalence deprived the Toronado of a coherent identity. Unlike the Eldorado, which was unmistakeably a Cadillac, the Toronado bore little resemblance to other Olds models. It was not so much a flagship for the brand as it was an interesting anomaly, and its modest sales reflected that marginal status.

So, why did they bother? The answer may lie in a conversation between stylist Stan Wilen and GM chairman Fred Donner, not long after the Toronado's release. In a 1976 interview with Michael Lamm of Special Interest Autos, Wilen recalled that Donner came into the Olds studio one day and remarked that cars like the Toronado were good for the company, even if they weren't extraordinary sales successes. They demonstrated to customers that GM was not staid or complacent, Donner said, "that we're constantly striving to do something better."

As good as that sounds, it also reveals GM's profound disinterest in real innovation. In the corporation's view, the FWD Toronado was not a testbed for new ideas, it was a promotion, like the Motorama show cars of a decade earlier. It was a way for GM to show off its engineering might on neat concepts that they had no intention of applying to their bread-and-butter products.

THE PATRON SAINT OF LOST CAUSES

John Beltz may have hoped the Toronado would be a proof-of-concept for the front-wheel-drive family car he originally conceived. If the division had continued to develop the FWD V6 sedan he and Watt had built in 1960, Olds might have had a sophisticated and viable compact sedan by the early seventies, a credible rival for European and Japanese competitors. By the time the Toronado appeared, however, it was obvious that GM management wasn't interested in any such thing.

The Toronado soldiered on through the seventies and eighties, but it proved to be something of a technological dead end. Cadillac briefly considered using the Unitized Power Package for the 1976 Cadillac Seville, but discarded the idea early on, ostensibly because the plant building the Eldorado and Toronado's differential didn't have the capacity to supply a third car line. GM didn't introduce another front-wheel-drive car until the downsized Buick Riviera adopted it in 1979 -- fully 13 years after the introduction of the original Toronado. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) rules did eventually push GM to switch most of its car lines to front-wheel drive in the mid-eighties, but those cars used a more orthodox transverse front-engine layout, not the novel UPP. Ironically, more than 30 years after Beltz and Watt's prototype, GM still struggled to build a really competitive front-wheel-drive family car.

As front-wheel drive became ubiquitous, the Toronado became less and less relevant. By 1986, the newly downsized Toronado offered nothing that couldn't be found in the similarly priced Riviera, or any number of less-expensive GM models. Sales slowed to a trickle, and Oldsmobile canceled it in 1992. The division's Aurora luxury sedan, which bowed for 1995, carried some styling cues reminiscent of the original Toronado, but the Toronado name was not revived. Oldsmobile itself died in 2004.


The final Toronado, downsized in 1986, was restyled in 1990, gaining about a foot of length (30 cm) and around 100 pounds (45 kg) -- although it was still 1,200 pounds (545 kg) lighter than the '66. Smoked lights and blackout trim contrived to distinguish the Toronado from the somewhat smaller but similar-looking Cutlass Calais I-series. Sole powertrain was GM's 3800 (231 cu. in.) V6, providing 165 horsepower (123 kW) and only adequate acceleration. Only 6,446 were sold in 1992, its final year.

None of this diminishes the achievement of the original Toronado, which remains a remarkable car, both technologically and stylistically. As with turbocharging, fuel injection, air suspension, and so many other technologies GM tried and discarded, however, what makes it frustrating are not so much its own flaws, but the knowledge that it could have been the harbinger of so much more.

# # #

NOTES ON SOURCES

Our sources for this article included Michael Lamm, "Toro & Cord: So different and yet so much alike!" Special Interest Autos #35, July-August 1976, reprinted in Terry Ehrich, ed., The Hemmings Book of Oldsmobiles (Bennington, VT: Hemmings Motor News, 2001); John Katz, "1966 Oldsmobile Toronado vs. 1967 Cadillac Eldorado: The Front Line of Front-Wheel Drive," Special Interest Autos #168, November-December 1998, reprinted in Terry Ehrich, ed., The Hemmings Motor News Book of Cadillacs (Hemmings Motor News Collector-Car Books) (Bennington, VT: Hemmings Motor News, 2000); Dave Holls and Michael Lamm, A Century of Automotive Style: 100 Years of American Car Design (Stockton, CA: Lamm-Morada Publishing Co. Inc., 1997); "Road Research Report: Olds Toronado," Car and Driver, November 1965 (Vol. 11, No. 5), pp. 29-35, 94-99; and "Motor Trend Interview: John Beltz," Motor Trend, December 1970 (Vol. 22, No. 12), pp. 72-76, 92-93.

Driving impressions and performance figures came from the road tests "Oldsmobile Toronado" (Car Life, February 1966) and "Oldsmobile Toronado" (Car and Driver, April 1968), both of which are reprinted in R.M. Clarke, ed., Oldsmobile Muscle Portfolio 1964-1971 (Muscle Portfolios) (Cobham, Surrey: Brooklands Books Ltd., 1999), and Jim Brokaw, "Almost a Limousine," Motor Trend, December 1970 (Vol. 22, No. 12), pp. 67-71.

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Comments (2)

• 2009-04-05 05:32:49 | Amateur Auto Historian  - US Citizens do not have titles of royalty

  The comparison of the Toronado to the Riviera is slightly askew from the more directly similar Cadillac Eldorado, which used the same GM front wheel drive system, whereas Riviera comparison leads to Thunderbird, Lincoln Continental Mark cars, and then in '67, even the larger intermediate AMC Marlin.

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• 2009-04-05 05:49:10 | Administrator

  It's true that Buick rejected front-wheel drive for the Riviera until the late 1970s, but the Riviera, Eldorado, and Toronado all shared the same E-body shell. (They did not share the same chassis, curiously. The Riviera used a cruciform platform frame, while the Eldo and Toronado had a welded, semi-unitized structure with a front subframe carrying the powertrain.) It would be reasonable to describe them as fraternal triplets; not identical, but closely related.

  Although the Toronado was not that mechanically similar to the Riviera, the need to share its body shell strongly influenced its design, particularly its overall size. Their overall dimensions are nearly identical. They were also direct competitors; the Toronado was actually a few hundred dollars more expensive than the Riviera, but their "fully equipped" prices were very similar.

  All the personal-luxury cars were intended to compete in the same market segment as the Thunderbird. The Eldorado and Continental Mark were aimed at a richer buyer, naturally, but they were conceptually similar to their less-expensive brethren. The Eldo, naturally, was very similar to the Toronado, whereas the Continental Mark III was derived from the Thunderbird.

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