Designing the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado - Part 1 (with designer Dick Ruzzin)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ต.ค. 2024
- Learn more about the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado's design development in this interview with Dick Ruzzin, former junior designer in Oldsmobile studio during the Toronado's development and later design director of Chevrolet, Cadillac, and Opel studios.
You can purchase Dick's book, Bella Mangusta, here:
www.amazon.com...
The '66 Toronado was just a stunning car. Even today, I can't help staring like a kid in a candy shop. Still futuristic 60 years later. A true styling masterpiece.
Adam, The presence of of Dick Ruzzin on your channel is a poignant reminder of Oldsmobile's halcyon days from the mid-60s though the mid-70s.
1 word AWESOME!!!Cheers Adam from Eluethra Bahamas.
Love that you get these GM designers on video to tell their stories! Unfortunately not much is heard from the designers of vehicles because so much of their work is done behind the scenes out of the public eye.
My 2 favorite GM coupes AND explained by the man who designed them - nearly 60 years later! What more could you ask for? Adam, you continue to knock it out of the park!👏👍✨⭐️☄️
What a cool guy I own a 1991 caprice. Love to see an interview about designing the 90’s caprice.
Working at the GM Tech Center the legacy of all the greats that have worked there over the years looms large for me!
What an exciting and excellent video!!! I think that the 66 Toronado was and is the most striking vehicle ever built. This kind of in-depth research on design is long gone. No one will be doing videos on cars made now. None. No one will care about a 2023 Tesla in 50 years. There are no more future classics produced today. Thanks for this video!
I already don't care about a 2023 Tesla in 2023 😁
@@marinusapeldoorn6631 hilarious!! Me either!
There are, it's just that they're not done in the US.
@@michaelpfaff6009 to tell you the truth, I don't care about any car with on board led screens. For me, watching and swiping screens is not a part of car driving🙄 and I feel Tesla has made more of a computer on wheels than it made a car. And yes Michael, I live in the Netherlands, and up to six months ago I had never even heard of a 66 Toronado, but agree that the Adam car is one of my favorite cars today. Heck it is a beauty!
@@markdc1145 what cars would that be in your opinion?
It's official...Adam has the Juice!
I'd argue that Adam IS the juice. :-)
Totally
Thanks to Dick and Adam for making such a enjoyable watch. Must have been nice to design cars without so many federal regulations, every couple of years it would be a clean slate for the next design. Now all cars look almost the same, a bean shape with a black or charcoal interior with white, gray, silver or black paint.
Ain't saving money great???
Not like that... lol@@dougkabler3032
Very interesting, and great to have Dick Ruzzin on your channel!
Great video Adam two of my favorite gm vehicles .hi from .New Zealand 🇳🇿👍
Adam, an outstanding video with someone was in GM at the time of design. It is so important to get the real history from someone there.
Thank you for getting interviews like this, Adam. Thanks to Dick Ruzzin for making this era of carmaking, the pinnacle of American cars, available to us all on YT. 👍
The 66 toronado is my dream car !
Me To , i' Had a 1966, 1967, & 2 More JunK Yard Bought Cars, 40 Years ago, & Had a Mechanic Soup Up 66 Toro, it Was a NEAT/FUN CAr, OnLy Thing is Put a ELectric FueL Pump , Many Vapor Lock ProbLems@ Summer, But OverAll VERY GLad 4 The ☆ Memorys, Peace.
Absolutely OUTSTANDING, Adam! Thank you so much.
I loved the RWD GM choices of the mid 60s- early 70s, but that fwd Olds was wicked
I really enjoyed the design history lesson from Mr. Ruzzin. Thank you both.
Very interesting although I was surprised there was no mention of David North?
As I have said before, I would LOVE to have that Toro in my classic car collection!!! Great video!
Fantastic videos on the three E cars. Gorgeous cars and GM design at it's best. Wonderful guest designer, so interesting and informative. Mr. Adam, you are the man!
This and part 2 are very exciting pieces on history ,styling and engineering. These 3 cars are in their way, a peak of GM styling philosophy.I now understand Adams bias towards GM styling. Three very different styling results on the E platform common skeleton.1966 was a great year for GM.Dick Ruzzin is the most interesting of any stylist from that period I have heard talking of the work and the styling process. Terrific Third Toronado Tale
I’m from the home of the mighty Oldsmobile!
Recently attended an all Oldsmobile car show held at the huge Auto Owners Insurance parking lot in Lansing Michigan
Saw some really clean 66-70 Toro’s!!
Were there any 1971-1978 Oldsmobile Toronados there as well, flyon?
@@matthew-emerson-cadmer-7409
Hello,
There were lots of 71-78’s as well.
Great show.
Now it all makes sense on how the themes of the GM brands would produce some really neat stuff out of nowhere it seemed.
Super interesting!
This is amazing content!
Keep em coming
As far as groundbreaking body style changes go, I would consider the design of the 1963 Fury lineup (the Sport Fury in particular) an innovation in style and size that ushered in the 1960s. It was very different from the beasts manufactured before and after that.
better than anything today...
Outstanding... Thank you!
1966 Oldsmobile Toronado.
The Oldsmobile Toronado was introduced in 1966 with an innovative design for its time, being designed by Bill Mitchel and David North. The car had a uniquely designed front end with a horizontal grille, roll-up or pop-up headlights, and lights (High-Beam if I can recall) located beneath the grille on the front bumper. The car wasn't coke-designed, instead being more round instead of that design from Muscle Cars in the 1960s and early 1970s. The rear end was rectangular with rectangular-shaped taillights and with the regular Oldsmobile and Toronado badging. The car was the first ever Front-Wheel-Drive car since the demise of the 1930s Cord 811/812 (Specifically, 1937) and had either a 425 cubic inch Oldsmobile Rocket V8 making 385 Horsepower and 400 Pound Feet of Torque or a 455 cubic inch Oldsmobile Rocket V8 making 375 Horsepower and 410 Pound Feet of Torque. This generation would sell on until 1970, getting a newer designed model from 1971-1978, 1978-1985, and 1986-1992, making the name last 26 years.
1966-1967 Buick Riviera.
The Buick Riviera would be introduced in the 1950s as a trim level for the Buick Roadmaster called the "Buick Roadmaster Riviera" (In 1953) and would come with the same 322 cubic inch 2-Barrel Fireball Inline-8/Straight-8. In the 1960s, things began to get even better. In 1962, Buick introduced the Riviera with a design never seen before featuring quad headlights inside an enclosed grille, a coke-body design inspired by the 1962-1963 Studebaker Avanti (The first ever car to use the Coke Body Design), and rear rectangular tail lights with some luxury design on it. It came with either a 401 Cubic Inch (6.6 Litre) Buick 4-Barrel "Nailhead" V8 making 325 Horsepower and 390 Pound Feet of Torque and a 425 Cubic Inch 4-Barrel "Nailhead" V8 making 15 more horsepower while retaining the same Pound Feet of Torque (340 Horsepower and 390 Pound Feet of Torque). It would first get a facelift in 1965 featuring stacked but enclosed tail lights, a new grille, and a new rear-end design.
The same facelift happened in a second-generation 1966-1967 Buick Riviera, featuring a new grille with Horizontal Lines (The 1967 Model Year would add an extremely big, splitting the grille in two), the same coke body design, and longer/wider rectangular tail lights. The 401 cubic inch engine was dropped, leaving the 425 cubic inch V8 as standard. There was also an optional 430 Cubic Inch V8 that made around the same Horsepower (350 if I can recall from memory) and Torque, while the 455 Cubic Inch V8 would be introduced in 1970 making 360 Horsepower and 510 Pound Feet of Torque for the Riviera / Riviera GS, Skylark GS 455, and Skylark GSX Stage 1. It would eventually decline in 1971, 1972, and even 1973, making around the mid-200s in terms of Horsepower (Net Horsepower, before, it was Gross Horsepower).
Regarding the Tornado, high beams and low beams are in the pop up headlights. You are right about David North. The inspiration of the Toronado “the Red Flame” is Mr. North’s work.
You have quite a collection Adam. The only thing I see missing is a 78-88 GM G-Body like a Cutlass or Grand Prix.
David North was the brains behind this landmark car.
Awesome content 👍👍
The best cars came from GM in the 60’s and early 70’s in my eyes!
How in the hell does Adam get these interviews!?! I hope the Smithsonian is saving these great videos. Plus Adam knows how to interview AND knows car history. 🙏🏽
Totally agree with the above statement…important work
I love Riviera but wonder why is there no turn signal repeater on the fender, the turn signals are impossible to see from the side.
It wasn’t a regulation to be able to see them from the side in 67
How are you getting these pillars of the past in the auto industry to appear?
NICE!
Nice!!!! 🙂 👍
The only thing that astounds me about these three old cars is the body styling. They are clearly very different-looking from one another, yet they all give off the same artistic feeling. Odd.
We’re did the Pontiac Grand Prix fit in to the lineup?
It was a full size car. These were “smaller”. But I suspect they were cross shopped
Адам, если бы Вы показывали ещё и крупные планы главного героя, Вам бы цены не было...
GM never think of taking the ferrari design as there next car .
The Buick looks sleeker to me.
No mention David North, Oldsmobile Chief Design Engineer, and original Tornado concept artist.
Watch Part 2
This was a great interview but I kept feeling like he was downplaying David North's contribution. I understand that it took many talented people to create the design and make it all work but it absolutely was based on David North's "Flame Red Car" which he keeps referring to as the red rendering... Still, wonderful information... Thanks for doing this!
@@Genii69There’s an admitted controversy in the design community about who is responsible for that red rendering. Dave certainly claims credit for it, but any full-size airbrush rendering, the subsequent clay model, and the final car is the creation of many people. Dave certainly played a material part, but so did many other people, including designers, sculptors and the Olds studio chief, Stan Wilen. Dave was the Assistant Chief Designer in Olds studio at the time.
Think i' Read Like 30+ Years ago This Front WheeL Drive Transmission Used Aprox; 80 H.P, Compared To Aprox; 60 H.P @ Rear WheeL Drive Cars
Why did Cadillac and Olds not offer a console shifter? You can do that with front-wheel drive. I know they offered just the console, but even that seems rare. Why did Cadillac and Olds have poor suspension compared to the Riviera and the Riviera GS, which was even better than the Riviera? I also wonder if it would be possible if one had the mind to recreate these three models according to today's standards and downsize them to today's standards. That would be interesting.
I owned a 1968 Toronado between 2002 and 2015. It had a standard steering column shifter. I was very jealous of those who owned a '68 Toro with bucket seats and a center console, which included the shifter. Maybe one day I will buy a '68 again, but it has to have this option!
I feel bad for today's 'designers'. What do they get to build? Another raised fat CUV with flat panels. Maybe with an 'angry' grill if lucky.
Why don't you put down chairs and give the guy a respectful seat. This standing opposite to each other is a bit odd