Summary
- The Oldsmobile Toronado was innovative due to its use of front-wheel-drive.
- The restomod version of the Toronado enhances the car's design and gives it a modern muscle car look that could rival the Dodge Challenger.
- The original Toronado is now valued at an average of $21,000, with later models having similar prices. It had a powerful V8 engine and offered more power than many modern front-wheel-drive cars.
HotCars artist Rostislav Prokop hits the ball out of the park with another 60s luxury car in the form of an exclusive render – the Oldsmobile Toronado. Back then, it could have been a muscle car, but there was really one thing that got in the way: the surprising use of front-wheel-drive.
Front-wheel-drive cars weren’t new at this point, but still weren’t the go-to option in the US. General Motors' use of this propulsion method in a big, heavy, large-engined car like the Toronado was innovative or flawed, depending on your point of view.
Perhaps the name was an amalgam of ‘Toro’ which is bull in Spanish, with the last half of ‘Tornado’ to show its virility and potency. Either way, this restomod idea takes those idiosyncratic lines from 1966 and enhances the car’s design until it looks like a modern muscle car fit to take on the Dodge Challenger.
UPDATED AUGUST 2023: Article gets updated with latest values of the Oldsmobile Toronado, and we take a brief look at the most powerful, modern, gasoline-powered front-wheel-drive cars that came after the Toronado.
Futuristic Looks Return For The Oldsmobile Toronado Restomod
Back when space travel and optimism were on people’s minds, aero spatial design added flair to cars that would eventually disappear. Wings, rockets and swoopy, spaceship-inspired designs found their way onto many examples of American (and foreign) automobiles.
The first-generation Toronado also received outlandish front fins that stuck out ahead of the grille and pop-up headlamps, and that’s a returning theme here, along with most of the car’s design foundation.
The ‘Nado gets lowered, and a widebody kit and aero applied, while conserving that long hood, short rear deck design from the 60s.
A dark gray/brown color lends a little classic style to the car, which sits low on black rims, with the side skirt and rear diffuser/ front splitter obvious upgrades to the original car.
How Much Does The 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado Cost?
LED DRLs up front, and rear lights that are now LEDs, but featuring the same design bring the car up to date for drag racing in 2023 alongside that body kit. The grill upfront hints at an ICE engine, but there are no exhausts up back. However, there are, among the other air ducts and scoops, yellow exits behind the front wheels – these could be exhaust outlets, if there were to be another big engine upfront.
Nowadays, a 7.5-liter V8 engine in a front-wheel-drive car would be both interesting and a recipe for torque steer, but this machine could now get reworked with a rear-wheel-drive setup and a twin-turbocharged V8, where 1000 hp is a realistic output just for starters.
This car looks set up as a high-speed track machine, instead of just straight-line supremacy judging from the body kit.
If you’re interested in golden-age automotive Americana at arguably its most quirky, the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado is worth an average of $21,000 with the later model years 1967-1970 all within a similar price range. The 7.5-liter, up-to-400-hp / 510 lb-ft engine came later, so early models like the 1966 would have the 7-liter, 385-hp, 475-lb V8.
Front-Wheel-Drive Performance Cars After The Toronado
Average auction values for the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado are around $23,000. Values for the Toronado vary wildly from just $3,000 all the way up to $50,000. A special 'Mannix' edition Toronado fetched around $101,000 at auction according to Classic.com.
There are many hot hatch front wheel-drivers that offer around 300 hp these days, like the 306-hp Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport S or 301-hp Mini Cooper GP3 and Honda Civic Type-R (FK8) with 306 hp. At the top, there is the 350-hp Lincoln MKZ which came with a 3-liter, twin-turbo Ecoboost V6. Ford's own Focus RS500, a discontinued front-wheel-drive monster, made 350 hp from a 2.5-liter, turbocharged inline-5.
The Oldsmobile Toronado with 400 hp still offered more power than these modern machines all those decades ago, and there was almost nothing like the Toronado before or after.