1967 Oldsmobile Toronado Deluxe By Mark & Yvonne Bandy

This car as many of you know was the first front wheel drive car since the Cord 810 and 812 of the elate 1930's. The first year of production was 1966. Ours was the 1967 model year and was offered with front disc brakes and radial tires. There were only 20,020 of the Deluxe models made that year with the total production including the standard model only reaching 21,790. The car is powered by a 425 cubic inch 385hp super rocket V-8 engine. It features power windows, power front bench seat, remote trunk release, tilt/telescopic steering, a "no hump" floorboard, rear door handles for opening the "two-door" car from the backseat and a barrel speedometer. My fifth grade teacher bought this car new while I was in her class and I thought it was the most beautiful car I'd ever seen. She owned it for over 20 years and traded it in at the Springhill Motor Company in Springhill, Louisiana where she originally purchased it. The owners (The Colvin's) kept the car for several years and eventually sold it to a man in Springhill who was the president of Springhill Bank and Trust Company. He owned if for a few years and said he had many good drives in the car. Eventually he sold the car to someone else who started a restoration but never completed it. We purchases the car from him a little over 10 years ago and it has been a love/hate relationship ever since. Love the car but hate to try and find parts for it. That really became evident in April of 2004 when it caught fire on the way to the Red River Street Rod Show. Luckily there were some out of town firemen at a local fast food restaurant in town for a competition and they came and had the fire out before the local unit got there. It has really been an uphill battle since that time but I believe (after having to recently buy a donor car for the motor---Thanks Dick and Doug--- that wasn't repaired properly after the fire) and having it rebuilt I think we're on our way to the sunny side once again. We haven't had the car in our possession for more that a couple of months since the fire of 2004. They say this Toronado is one of the last big sleepers of that generation and will soon come to be a valuable classic and achieve collector status. We sure hope so because we think is deserves to be recognized as the icon and pioneering automobile that it is.