Martin Buckley Backfire

Another costly itch has been scratched: I have bought myself an Oldsmobile Toronado.

Why? Good question. I’m still asking myself, but nonetheless, it’s done and said car arrives in just a few days. I’m not yet sure if it will ‘make the cut’ for Our classics as a keeper, but it does mark a watershed in being my first ‘full-size’ American car.

This has not been a fleeting whim or a half drunken fancy perpetrated during a late-night eBay session: I have been fantasizing about a 1966 Toronado for some time now – decades, in fact. First, there was the Corgi model with the flip-up lights, ‘Golden Jacks’ and removable wheels. Then there was a Brooklands Muscle Portfolio, one of the few I bought with my own money pre-C&SC (as a journalist, I make it my business never to pay for a book on cars), so you can see this goes back a long, long way.

A turning point came last year when, after hours on YouTube watching original adverts and modern critiques (and wondering why someone would spend a million dollars converting one to rear-drive), I finally splashed out and bought… the brochure. By then I was smitten; I rationalised that a ’66 Toronado represented the best value in the classic world in terms of glamour for your money, but when it comes to old cars I can convince myself of anything if I have to.