A person almost expects to see bull horns on the hood of any car known as El Toro, but this 1974 Oldsmobile Toronado El Toro is devoid of bull horns, as no Toronado owner said. Ever. This unusual 1 of 300 custom can be found listed here on eBay in Fraser, Michigan, just 22 miles north of Detroit but almost 100 miles east of the former home of Oldsmobile – Lansing, MI. There is an unmet opening bid price of $10,000 and no reserve after that.
There isn’t a lot of information on the interstream about the El Toro other than they were made by a company called CZAR based in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. They weren’t actually “made” by them, but they customized Toronados into what you see here, and for that, I personally thank them, whoever they were. Yeah, it’s mostly doo-dads, jim-cracks and other things fastened to the outside of a regular Oldsmobile Toronado but this was just after the original Super Fly movie came out in 1972, which by the way had one of the best tag lines in movie history: “A dude with a plan to stick it to The Man”, not to mention a great movie poster.
Most Super Fly-type cars were much more, oh, let’s say, creative, than Czar’s treatment of the Toronado was. This car is like a 1984 Hyundai in comparison to a real Super Fly car, an Eldorado. This car is sort of like in Super Fly: The Next Chapter where Youngblood Priest – the main character – stops selling cocaine, goes to Wharton Business school, sells his blinged-out Eldorado and becomes a button-down member of society with a wife and 2.5 kids but he can’t shake his love of having chrome trunk straps on his car. That’s the sort of car this is.
Still, there’s something interesting about this semi-custom Toronado, in sort of a self-deprecating way and I’m nothing if not self-deprecating. I bet that a few of you wore white shoes and a white belt in this era. We all have that one photo that we hope never surfaces, just as business-like Oldsmobile Toronado groups around the world hope that nobody ever highlights an El Toro by Czar, Inc. It’s a little too late for that now. Czar, Inc.’s shenanigans didn’t stop at Toronados, there is at least one Cutlass floating around out there, or I hope there is.
The interior, though! Well, it’s mainly the padded shag carpet, but still, that’s righteous! There should have been a dash plaque with your name on it, a resting pillow (?!), and you’d better sit down for this – there was also a shaver, a travel kit, and… Tito, hand me a tissue.. a portable bar! I don’t see any of those things here and there are no engine photos. You can see more photos including an engine photo but no El Toro interior goodies on the Motor City Auto Auction website here. Would you drive this righteous ride? I’m going to be very disappointing if one of you doesn’t buy this car. Very disappointed.
My mother used to say “if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything”.
El Toro poo-poo?
The flat floor of these 60s & 70s big front drivers makes it ez to slip in a custom carpet – might not be a bad idea since “factory” replacements are of thin/poor quality.
I would do black and white checkered tile myself.
I thought of something nice to say! I think it looks like a hearse Coupe concept vehicle.
Pull up the rug and lay down some hardwood flooring
HA!
Superflaw.
Double-HA!
yuk!
Curiously, the demand for bintage ppmobiles has not met expectations.
This makes me want to start a Toronado rescue shop, where this example and the other 299 can be rehabilitated back into clean, respectable members of the car community.
Where’s dirty Harry ? Someone in this pimp ride needs a hole in their head
If that halo bar on the roof lit up it would be perfect!
Timothy J
I can see Fred Sanford behind the wheel of this jukebox!!
uh-oh…I kinda like the carpet lol
I bet it’s smooth.
300 Spartans gave their lives to save Greece…Leonidas would fall on his sword before he drove this slap across the face of Aphrodite! Drag it away and have it flayed..
Not quite ready for Cars n Coffee. More likely, Chariots and Charades…
I prefer the standard Toronado without all the ginger bread. But hey, someone liked this one time.
I am the tasteless person on this site who really likes this, probably because it is so tasteless lol.
I remember as a kid, my Dad had associates who owned cars like this. Yeah, sure, he was a biker who ran in a rough crowd from the west coast, but he “dispensed” certain substances to people of different heritage, and he was one of the larger distributors in Milwaukee at the time (I think I phrased that pretty well lol). These cars didn’t appeal to his biker friends, but some of the other people further down the chain sure drove these.
Boy, the stories this car could tell if it could talk…..
I don’t care for any of the exterior “upgrades” but that carpet is awesome! I’m surprised in the crazy 70s US automakers didn’t get a little bolder with carpets.
Cool Toronado, chrome in front grill is interesting, customized makes it stand out more than just an Olds Toronado