My first car was a 1972 Olds Cutlass S, that I always wished was a 442. For as long as I have been a fan of 442s, I was surprised to hear about this.


https://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/...ding-to-mcacn/

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USAF AMMO

The Toromado was the first modern US front wheel drive that debuted in late 1965. It was a luxury car with a v-8 coupled to the fwd. my uncle had one and it sure was a good looking car especially those front fenders. Makes sense that Olds would try the fwd in other cars.

Wow. I was a paperboy when to Toronado came out. The first one I saw was through the residential garage windows of one of my customer's homes. He owned the local GM dealership.

This is an incredible tale of a one-off car based on the Toronado and the 442. Thanks for sharing.

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Wrangler of stray Chiefs
Bob

That had to be a big fabrication project. A lot of time,effort,and money! Nice post.

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Hue 68 noli me tangere

The late 50's, 60's and very early 70's were extremely interesting years for the domestic automobile companies. The bad side was poor fit and finish, lack of durability and lack of safety concerns. The plus side was that you could order almost anything you wanted and get it any color you wanted. On top of that, the manufacturers themselves were pushing boundaries. Just look at what Ford did at Le Mans in 1966. Working for Pontiac, I was fortunate to see some of their creations as well, such as a station wagon type Trans Am. A friend of mine ordered a 1962 bare bones Biscayne with a 409 and four speed. He was the only guy I ever met who Hurst would not guaranty their shifter for because he broke so many of them. In the early 60's, Pontiac Motors made a special run of aluminum front ends, producing just enough so they could be used by stock car drivers. Rules at the time said the factory had to produce 200 (IIRC) parts before they could be considered 'stock'. There were also some interesting variations of the venerable 421 Pontiac engine of the time. While I'm on the subject of Pontiac's and 421's, there were more than one 421 Tempest/GTO produced for "test purposes" too. Dealers even got into the act, ordering small cars with big engines. The standout for me was the 427 Chevy Nova that you could get from Yenko Chevrolet.

From an economic standpoint, grouping options together and limiting the public's choice of colors and equipment makes sense, it's sure has limited the amount of fun it was to order it the way you wanted it, and drive away with a fairly unique car.

Personally, I had two cars of that era I would love to have back. One was a 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix that left the factory with a 421 ** engine and a 4 speed manual trans. The engine had such a high compression ratio that the car came with an extra battery mounted in the trunk. The car was red with black interior. The second car I'd like to still have was a 1964 Chevy Impala Super Sport convertible with the legendary 409 engine. Bright red with a white top and white interior, it was head turner in more ways than one. But while it's fun to remember these cars, one must always remember they were fuel hogs, requiring premium gas, lacked almost any safety devices, rusted out in just a couple of salt laden winters, and couldn't hold a candle to cars of today in almost every category except perhaps styling. That is evident in some car manufacturers returning to styling of the past, like Ford with the Mustang and Chrysler with the Charger.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

Mr Norms (Mopar) and NicKey (with the "backwards K") Chevrolet in Chicago was where I could be found hanging around 1966 till June of 1969.
Elston Ave or Skips Drive In on North Ave and watch all the great drag racing.
Just like Archie Bunker and Edith sang, "Those were the days".
Amazing time to be alive.

I remember looking through the window of the dealership when the new mustang came out. This was after getting kicked out of the showroom for blocking the view of "paying customers". Obviously the skinny high school kid wasn't about to buy anything. I moved on to the Chevy dealership and looked at Corvettes and then the Camaro when it came out. As has been said, it was a great time to be a car guy, I just wish I was a few years older and could have afforded to buy one of those. Later on I have owned all those dream cars but they were used and just not the same as buying one off the showroom floor (or ordering one, remember when you could do that?)

Did you know Olds made a partner to the 442 called the 642? It only came in silver, but they dropped it because the clear coat kept flaking off.

What year? Never heard of that model. Did a google check, nothing on it.

I had a friend who was really into street-rodding F-100s. Usually, he would put in some flavor of GM power plant. He did a good half dozen of his own, and helped a lot of his buddies with the conversion.

His crowning achievement was to put a Toronado subframe into a '53. It was impossible to tell at a glance, but it sure was funny when ha smoked the front tires at a stop light.

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Not in jail.

That would be easy to do, since the 442 stood for 4-bbl, 4-spd, dual exhaust. Make the 4-bbl a six-pack instead, and there you have it. I reckon they decided to leave well enough alone.

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Been up since before breakfast

A production 442 with 3 deuces? Pontiac had the 389 Tri-Power, 3 Rochester 2 barrels with vacuum operated progressive linkage in the '64 GTO.
Never heard or seen a Olds 442 factory setup like that.

It was supposed to be a joke, but I guess it missed the mark. S&W model 442 vs S&W 642??? Still not funny?

I thought it was a joke, but hey I've been wrong before.
I knew S&W made those models, but Oldsmobile the 642, NAW.
Thanks for getting the gray matter working.

Very nice gag, actually.

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Oh well, what the hell.

Had a buddy who's Dad picked out his first car for him, and it was a 1968 Toronado. This was about 1975 or '76. That thing rode like a dream compared to everyone else's car of the day, that were all jacked up in the rear with air shocks and a set of 50's or 60's in the rear. But man did it suck down the gas. He drove it a couple of years, and his next car was a 1970 Doodlebug! Talk about a change in ride and fuel milage! I miss the cars of those days, and gas was still way under a buck a gallon too.

I think two things that made it a great time to be a car guy. One was plethora of muscle cars available, and the other was the ease to work on them. A hundred dollars worth of Craftsman tools would let you do a lot of work, and there was ROOM to work in. Yes, computers and fuel injection systems make for more fuel efficient and faster cars, but you need a whole raft of specialized tools to work on them. A lot of quick fixes could be done in those days with a couple screwdrivers a pair of pliers and an adjustable wrench. Not the best tools, granted, but if you were stuck on the road with a carburetor that needed to be rebuilt, they'd do the job.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

How many of you remember using a matchbook cover to set the points in your distributor on the side of the rode, or at the drive in? My '69 Mach I 428 CJ had a dual point Mallory that caused me to have a glovebox full of points for it. But it was worth it! Dang I miss that car!

Just the excuse I need to post a pic of what I treated myself to upon feet dry:

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Dad had a 72 Buick Riviera with a 455 and auto transmission and the hood seemed a mile long. In the spring of 1974 on a Sunday afternoon, I was driving home from practice at H.S. with a buddy. I live in the sticks, so I took a left turn at 60+ mph. The buddy dove to the floor because his dad's caddy would have crashed trying that turn. After a couple of minutes he climbed back into his seat and said he never even felt the turn. They don't build them like they use too! On a good day it got about 12 mpg!

Ivan

My favorite aunt lived up in the steep hillsides of town and had a steep driveway. She loved Olds Tornados, the weight of the V-8 over the driving and steering wheels worked fine on snowy roads. They were all boats.

She died in 2001 and I was the executor of her estate. She had kept a 1979 Tornado "for a spare" and every single little thing on it still worked, even the in-dash analog clock, which was always the first thing on a new car to stop working. I almost kept it for me but another old car in my driveway wasn't a very needful thing.

I believe Jay Leno took a Toranado and converted it to rear wheel drive.



I drove a 1972 Cutlass Convertible in HS and after. The only car I ever had where I made a profit when I sold it. Few years later I nearly bought a 1968 Hurst Olds version.

I believe this is a '71 but same colors.

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Isaiah 41:10

My first car was a 1964 442 not a bad car for a 20 something kid at the time. Boy the cars then were built to last stinks getting old and thinking about the cars and motor cycles we had. My Knuckle head drag cars & drag bikes.

Every year brought something not only new but exciting. Something that you could SEE in the styling or in the drive train that was different than before. Not some new O2 sensor that reads the exhaust. When the gas crunch came everything had to be smaller, more efficient, they had already added smog controls that already robbed power. (In those days you could just disconnect them when they gave too much trouble, which was frequently). I wonder how cars would have evolved without having the gas crunch? One thing I can say is that we learned a LOT from having to comply with all of those requirements.

Thunderbird - I liked this one...

Corvette Stingray - I really liked this one!!!!

Mustang - I was CRAZY about this one! Went to the "Mustang Tournament of Thrills with the riding on two wheels and lots of ramps and stuff. They even crashed a few old cars and played around with some gasoline fires. An 11 year old's dream.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Saw my first Toronado at Ray Waits Olds in Charleston SC 66/67..

Roger Odum ran a 66 442 with 3/2 bbl carbs at Orangeburgh Drag Strip.

Also at Walterboro, Effingham in Savannah. Blaney too.. Roger had a bit

of trouble keeping up with a little Chery ll Nova SS 327ci/350hp.. He would

get me out the hole with his 400s torque, but that little 327 usually got to

the other end FIRST... I didn't feel too bad if l lost tho..His car came on a

trailer.. I drove to the track.. Roger went on to bigger and better things..

A few " Big O" dealerships around the Low Country in The Promise Land..

I still have memories of those days..Likely he has of MY tail lights

My first car was a 1962 Oldsmobile 88. Huge four door sedan. it had a 394 with a 2 barrel carb. Most important to a young 17 year old was the size of that back seat. ah-hem.

That's so cool!

One of the coolest thing that GM ever did with the Toronado drive train was to market a line of motorhomes. These things are still popular. People rebuild them and continue to use them, today. They were one of the first luxury motorhomes that would get 12+ mpg.

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A high school friend's dad had a Toronado. We all loved riding in it. He sold it after a couple of years because it ate front tires like popcorn.

I have a car with points that is not a daily driver but still gets driven plenty.

I don't carry a matchbook cover, but for the times when I don't have a feeler gauge(British cars tend to make you carry tools) a business card has saved my rear end more than once. The ones my work uses are 15 thousands, which is within the spec point gap for my car.

I actually ran a Pertronix unit for a while(electronic points replacement) but switched back to mechanical points for a variety of reasons. Fortunately, I've actually found a good source for points for my car(most of the ones on the market are junk) so I have fewer problems than I use to. I still keep a spare set in the car . Still, though, it amazes people when you're stuck on the side of the road, spend 5 minutes messing under the hood(which can include putting the car in 4th and rolling it to get the distributor cam in the correct position) and have your car running again.

Electronics rarely break, but when they do you're stuck. I'm also not about to trade messing with the choke on a cold morning and hoping that the battery will hold out long enough to get the car started(while cranking through the molasses known as oil in the sump) for just flipping the key on a fuel injected car and having it start.

My first car out of High School was a 68 Olds 442, sure wish I still had it!
At the time Sunoco 260 was .50 cents a gallon too!



GM made sure they screwed the Olds line over really good before they shut them down!

Ivan,

I had a 72 Buick Rev GS had the 455 and a special trans. Factory high stall torque converter. I loved it. My Dad was a Buick guy. So he wanted it when I was ready to sell.

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My brother is my Hero

Big E3,

I passed one of those, same color, two days ago. It looked like new.

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My brother is my Hero

those are some good lookin rides !
had my share too. started with an olds 62 starfire . nice and lots of chrome but it had the slim jim tranny and was subject to tranny problems.
had a 66 gto while in the service ... the tri power set up with a 3 speed manual tranny , lots of hoarse power.
out of the service i was driving a 70 gto , not the judge but it had the ram-air funcitional hood scoops with a 4 speed .
great cars and i must be honest and say i did not treat them with kid gloves. had my foot on the gas constantly .
sitting in my garage today ( yes i adore pontiac's . had 2 couple of catalina's when i was married even ! ) is a 07 grand prix with the 3800 v6 and super charged , 108,000 miles . it was a one owner and is in pristine shape. dont drive it in the winter .... got a older jeep grand cherokee for bad weather.
i will add as someone has mentioned here , the newer cars drive SO much better than the old ones ! no real comparison ! enjoy that gp in the good weather but i do wish i had kept one of my older cars . if nothing else just for the memories of it .... spent a lot of time & miles in those old buggies !