Oldsmobile Toronado question

[Nick Winter]

What years was the Toronado kitted and who were the manufacturers, also does anybody have them and can take pictures of the front & rear, I'm trying to figure out what year and manufacturer the two built ups are so I can buy parts.

Nick

[wisdonm]

Both JoHan and Palmer made kits of the Toro between '66-'70. Of course the JoHans are better. Very nice powertrain, suspension, and chassis detail.

[Monty]

I know that MPC did a '67, and it's not a repop of the JoHan kit. Steve M. might be able to provide a little more clarification, but I've been told all the '66-'70 JoHan Toronado engines are actually Cadillac engines from the Eldorado kits (also FWD) but with Olds valve covers.

[Monty]

It's the other way around with the engines Monty. They're Olds engines with "CADILLAC" script on the valve covers in the Eldorado kits.

I don't have an MPC Toro to comapre it to one of my JoHans but the way to tell them apart is the MPC has a 1-peice underhood unit while the JoHan has seprate rad and firewall and inner fenders. From what I've seen, the rest of the chassis and interior looks almost identicle,, maybe even copied from the JoHan parts??

See Nick? That's why I hoped Steve would jump back in. I knew there was something goofy about the engines. If memory serves, Steve built a killer blue '72(?). Maybe he'll post a pic of it here.

Steve, you're probably right, although I doubt MPC was the first model company to copy someone else's product. I love the '66 & '67 Toronados, but the JoHans were always way out of my price range. I happened to get my MPC for an unexpectedly low price off ebay awhile back, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was fairly well detailed all the way through, including the undercarriage (as compared to most MPC chassis).

[Rob Hall]

I've never had any of the MPC ones...I have the Johan ones '66-71 (the '67 I have is the AMT issue), don't have the '72 yet..

[Lunajammer]

This is the Johan '70. Seems to me they were the most common. I recall they were still at hobby shops in the 80's, early 90's.

Edited December 11, 2012 by Lunajammer

[Nick Winter]

Turns out I have a '66/'67 and a '70