Front-wheel Drive 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado Was Stylish, Innovative

SOUTH KENT, CT – Factors such as price, reliability, safety and even utility are behind most new car purchases these days, but marque and styling formerly held more sway. Cars in the 1950s and 1960s didn’t look alike as they so commonly do now. The annual arrival of new models produced gasps of awe back then, and brand loyalty got passed from generation to generation.

“I grew up in an Oldsmobile family. It was like the guy in ‘Christmas Story.’ Some men are Baptists, some men are Catholics, my old man was an Oldsmobile man. It went with the territory,” said Mark Misercola, his recollection providing an explanation as to why there are three old Oldsmobiles in his garage in South Kent.

“My father had great success with these cars,” he said of his father’s affinity for the brand that was started by Ransom E. Olds in Lansing, Mich. in 1897. “He had them for 10 years or more, up in Buffalo. They had a lot of holes in them but they were still going,” he said. 

Currently in Misercola’s garage are two 1960 Oldsmobile Super 88 models – a two-door convertible in white and a four-door sedan in gold. The centerpiece of his collection is a first-year 1966 Toronado in maroon that Misercola has owned for about six years. The Toronado was a landmark model and the reason why My Ride sought him out. 

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“Motor Trend” magazine declared the 1966 Toronado to be is “Car of the Year” for its creativity and performance.

“Oldsmobile was the innovation division (of General Motors),” said Misercola. “This thing had been worked on for five, six years, went through millions of miles of testing. Oldsmobile put all of its marketing muscle behind it. This was the car that was going to revolutionize the auto market and it did. There were no other front-wheel drive cars when this came out.”

The Toronado was the first front-wheel drive car since the pricey Cord brand went bankrupt in 1937. It is also memorable because of its shape, its retractable headlights and its flat floor in the passenger compartment. 

“It was inspired by the coffin nose on the ’36, ’37 Cord. You look at them side by side and you can see the similarities. It’s got the hideaway headlights that were vacuum actuated. The front floorboard was flat. Nobody has ever seen that before,” Misercola said.

“The drive train is not there. You’ve got six feet of hood in front of and that’s got the engine – forward-mounted – you’ve got the transmission right behind it. It’s all squished in like a pancake, so there’s no need for a hump.”

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Misercola’s Toronado is the second one that he’s owned. His first car was a 1968 Toronado that he got he straight out of high school. His awareness of the model goes back to its introduction when he was in fourth or fifth grade. 

“It was big news,” he said. “And the advertising – right out of the ‘Mad Men’ era. This was the car for the man you aspired to be. This was the car that was the muscle car for executives. You saw those ads. Some people aspired to be the Marlboro Man, I wanted to be the guy, the executive with the car and looking like I was successful. I bought into all that.”

Misercola’s current Toronado, which has roughly 70,000 miles on its odometer, has an interesting back story. He found it in Providence, R.I. 

“Turned out the car originated in my hometown up in Buffalo. It was owned by an Oldsmobile zone dealer who used to take new prospective buyers out. He did that for a couple of years, got transferred to New England. I understand he worked for the company for a long time, kept the car, but then he got sick, unfortunately died. The car sat for a long time. The family was just looking to see to make sure it went to a good home,” he said.

The Toronado “may have sat for as long as 15 or 20 years. The body was in good shape. There wasn’t a whole lot of rust, but mechanically it was running on six cylinders and hadn’t been started up in a while. The previous owners got it started, got it running, but we couldn’t drive it back. We had to have it towed back.”

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The Toronado has a 425-cubic-inch V8 engine with automatic transmission. The engine was rebuilt to get the car back on the road. It has a planetary drive. “When it’s changing gears you can hear it making this kind of whirring noise that is different. It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie, and it’s very cool. It’s hard to describe the ride. The feel and the ride is unparalleled,” said Misercola, who appreciates the way the Toronado drives.

The Toronado gets driven regularly by Misercola but it’s not over-used. My Ride spotted it last September at the New England Oldsmobile Club’s annual show at the Southington Drive-In.  “When you drive it, you know that this is not a conventional rear-wheel drive car. It’s pulling you. It kinda hugs the corner. It’s huge but it hugs the corners.”

See the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado in action in this YouTube video from RIDE-CT…