I can remember, as if it was yesterday, when Oldsmobile introduced the amazing new Toronado. Yes, I said "amazing" and, although I will admit a certain bias toward Oldsmobiles, as my father drove them throughout my childhood and young adult life, and retired as a Oldsmobile salesman, I think I can easily justify using such a powerful adjective.

And, speaking of "powerful", let's start right there. The Toronado was a sizeable car which delivered amazing, some would say remarkable performance, given its two-and-a-quarter ton curb weight. I have personally seen the drum style speedometer of a first generation Toronado spin its way to the 160 MPH mark. Now, before you send those emails, I was NOT the one behind the wheel. I was an innocent, back seat passenger during this 'test run' which occurred on Interstate 270 somewhere between my home in Ferguson and the S.I.U. campus in Edwardsville. And, I certainly don't recommend or condone this type of behavior! Unless, of course, it is done on a professional race track. (Have you heard? Gateway International has been re-born!!)

In another instance, I heard, first hand from the owner/driver, that he once stripped down the 1967 Toronado he had restored in his garage, taking out the spare tire, back seat and anything else that wasn't welded to the car... put a scant 2-3 gallons of gas in the tank and set out to have it radar timed by a "professional" on a not-to-be-named interstate in the wee hours of the morning. The merlot colored "Toro" (as fans of the car often call them) clocked 166! Don't ask me how they achieved that sort of performance from a 4,496 pound "rocket"— I'm not an engineer. All I do know is that the highly aerodynamic hulk was powered by a 7.0 liter V-8 which was in short time replaced by a 7.5 liter version. (That's 425 and 455 cubic inches respectively for us old timers.)

The first thing that struck me about the Toronado, upon introduction, was it's very striking appearance— unlike anything else on the road. It had huge wheel openings loaded with fat tires (for the time) and slotted steel wheels with a style more fitting for an over the road semi. The front end was huge with a hood that looked like Officer Don Miller could have set his Bell helicopter down on it with ease.

Unlike today's front drive platforms, the spacious Toronado had a totally flat front floor— a selling point for the car which made perfect sense to me and I never really understood why they stopped making fwd cars that way.

Did you know that the Toronado design was never intended for production? Yep, it's true. The design was a 'styling exercise" painted by Olds stylist David North a few years before the car was introduced. Dubbed the "Flame Red Car", just weeks after North completed the painting, the Oldsmobile Division chose his design for a car destined to compete with Thunderbird and Riviera in the "personal luxury car" class.

Do you fit this profile? 1. You are a middle aged person or older. 2. You believe your first car is possibly still intact, and could be located. 3. The car could be purchased from its current owner. 4. You are willing to purchase the car and pay for a professional restoration. If you meet the above criteria, you may be able to participate in a special project to be carried out by local restoration expert Dale Oestreich of Precision Restorations in St. Louis.

A Hollywood film maker (who remains anonymous at this time) recently approached Dale with an offer to do a full length television documentary about the restoration of a person's first automobile. The project was inspired by a Chevy Runs Deep themed television commercial that tells the story of two sons who found the 1965 Chevrolet Impala SS their dad owned for twenty years but had to sell. The sons searched for five years but finally found the car and bought it back for their dad.

If you think you may be a candidate for this project, contact Dale at 314-652-1966 . (A fitting phone number, I might add.) If you don't already know, you'll find out when you read the trivia answers that follow.

More information, including details of the project, disclaimers and a picture of Precision Restoration's very unique "half-restored" Toronado, visit my web site at www.thefinman.com.

Trivia Answers: 1. The Toronado debuted for model year 1966 and the final issue was 1992.

2. Toronado was the name of the horse ridden by fictional character Zorro.