I was 24 and working seasonally so money was tight most of the time. I had a 1992 Buick Roadmaster, that I purchased from a friend, whose grandfather had passed and they just wanted the car gone. So, I got it for a steal.
Driving it into the shop where I worked, my boss constantly complimented it and talked about how much he missed having a nice luxury car. He had the 68 Toro, which was all original and very well kept. He was constantly bragging about it, and loved to take us for drives on nice days, when there wasn’t much to do in the shop.
One day, while we were on a job site working, he just randomly suggests, “Want to trade your Buick for my Toro?”
I thought he was joking. He wasn’t. So a week later we did. Straight, just signing the titles over to each other.
It was a fun car to own and drive, but expensive as all get out. It had the 455 “400-HP Force-Air” HO engine, which would ping on anything that wasn’t super and got about 9 miles to the gallon. So, being a poor youngster, the thing lived on fumes in the tank, as I only put gas in when I had no choice, and even then it was only a couple bucks I could spare. And, even though I had the coolest car in my group of friends, I rarely volunteered to drive anywhere.
About a year later, my long time girlfriend and I called it quits, and decided to move out of our shared apartment. I didn’t have any savings of course, and knew I was going to have issues affording First, Last, and Deposit on a new place.
So, up for sale the Toro went.
Made a VERY nice profit over what I paid originally for the Buick, so it was a win. But, 20+ years later, I still think about that car. The looks I would get at lights, as they weren’t well known. People knew it was a muscle car, but no idea what it was. The cool features like the hidden lights behind the grill, and the roller style speedometer. It even had the factory 8-Track and a case of 8-Track tapes in the trunk with everything from Beach Boys to Gordan Lightfoot in it.
One side note that was humorous. While I had it up for sale, (Local Nickle Ads, Newspaper, etc. Yes, this was a long time ago,) I called a few specialty dealers to see if any was interested in it.
There was a place a few miles away, that seemed to only specialize in older muscle cars. They had tons of nice Mopars, Ford Mustangs and Torino’s, Chevy Chevelle’s, Nova’s, etc.
I called them up and said I had a 68 Old Toro with the 455 Force Air big block, all original, and if they were interested in looking at it. The guy on the phone said, “Nope, we only buy high performance classic cars. Sorry, not interested.”
I guess, 400HP and 500 lb-ft from the factory, weren’t high enough performance numbers for them?
I honestly think the Toronado is one of the best-looking vehicles of all time. I suppose it’s nice that you made a profit, but damn man. I’d hate to see this one go.