The Toronado was a two-door coupe produced by the Oldsmobile division of General Motors from 1966 to 1992.

The name "Toronado" has no meaning, and was originally invented for a 1963 Chevrolet show car.  Conceived as Oldsmobile's full-size personal luxury car and competing directly with the Ford Thunderbird and Buick Riviera, the Toronado is historically significant as the first front-wheel drive automobile produced in the United States since the demise of the Cord in 1937.

The Toronado was structurally related to the 1966 read-wheel-drive Buick Riviera and the following year's Cadillac Eldorado, although each had quite different styling.  The Toronado continued to share its E-body platform with the Riviera and Eldorado for most of its 28-year history.  Buick Riviera did not switch to front-wheel drive until the 1979 model year.

The original Toronado began as a design painting by Oldsmobile stylist David North in 1962.  His design, dubbed the "Flame Red Car", was for a compact sports/personal car, and never intended for production.  A few weeks after the design was finished, however, Oldsmobile division was informed that it would be permitted to build a personal car in the Riviera/Thunderbird class for the 1966 model year, and North's design was selected.  For production economy, the still-unnamed car was to share the so-called E-body shell with the redesigned 1966 Buick Riviera, which was substantially bigger than North had envisioned.  Despite the efforts of Oldsmobile and General Motors styling chief Bill Mitchell to put the car on the smaller A-body intermediate, they were overruled for cost reason.

During its seven-year development period, several General Motors innovations and designs came about because of the Toronado:

• Heavy-duty Turbo-Hydromantic 400 3-speed transmission (named THM425 in FWD form)
• Rochester Quadrajet 4-barrel carburetor
• Spherical shaped exhaust-manifold flange gaskets, which provided freedom of movement in the exhaust system and prevented leaks.
• "Draft-Free" ventilation system, which reduced wind noise considerable by eliminating the conventional front-door vent windows

Firestone also designed an 8.85" x 15" tire especially for the Toronado call the Toronado-Front-Drive (TFD) tire.  It had a stiffer sidewall than normal, and the tread and stylishly thin white pin-stripe were also unique.

The unusual Toronado powertrain was dubbed the Unitized Power Package (UPP).  It was designed to combine an engine and transmission into an engine bay no larger than a conventional read-wheel car.

Source: GOOGLE