Toronado collection in Salt Lake City

[bill_freeman]

I am a mechanical engineer, currently living in North Carolina. In the early 60s I was a partner Utah Speed Shop, a sports car – race car shop in Ogden, Utah. My partner and I are still very close friends and collaborated on many projects over the years.

I have built many hot rod-sports cars. I was into Austin Healeys in the early 60s and built and raced Healeys with sb Chevy engines, also Healeys with 215″ Olds engine, a 370″ DeSoto hemi and a 364″ Buick.

The 4 bbl 215″ reverse rotation Olds engine I am selling was originally turbocharged and I installed it in a 1964 Corvair van. I drove it for years and sold it to a friend who had been wanting me to sell to him for a long time. Soon after, he rolled it at high speed on a canyon road. I bought the wreckage from his insurance company. About all that was salveagable was the engine, transaxle and the Corvair Spyder dashboard.

I also built an NSU Sport Prinz with a 4 carb 164″ Corvair engine, a 350″ sb Chevy powered rear engine tube space frame Super-Modified and various other unique combinations of engine and vehicle.

Some photos here of the rear engine super modified I built and raced in 1969 http://gallery…ipflapco/100008 I still have this car.

Then I got very interested in Generation 1 Toronados (1966-1970) and began collecting them in about 1971. My intent was to set up a shop specialized in exclusively Gen 1 Toronados, with some added modifications of my own design.

Early Toronados are unbeatable for driving in heavy snow or slush, a common condition in Utah. They have a robust front suspension and drive train. It is very rare to find one with a bad engine or transmission. The drive train and front suspension was used in the still popular GMC motorhomes built from 1973 to 1978. The GMC is a 12,000 pound vehicle. A Toronado is an excellent tow car with amazing traction in snow, and your skis will fit in the trunk.

There are sketches of two of my Toronado concepts at http://gallery.me.com/flipflapco#100100. I have other Toro design concepts like the silver 66 with modified front bodywork in the gallery pictures.

From 1974 to 1988 I slowly acquired about 25 to 30 Toronados for my planned specialty shop. I wasn’t too concerned about condition since my intent was to completely rebuild the cars.

I moved from Utah to NC 20 years ago and left my cars and property in the care of a close friend. I had intended to return to Utah within 5 years but life intervened and I am still in NC. Unfortunately, my friend has not been able to maintain the property and fences and it has fallen into serious disrepair. I am giving up on trying to keep the cars any longer at that location. I refused to sell parts off them until it recently became clear that I could not protect them from theft and vandalism.

There are about (6) ’66s (7) ’67s, a couple of ’68s, a 70 GT, a couple of Gen 2 Toros (71-78) and two ‘67 Eldorados. I also have a ‘60 Chrysler Imperial, a ‘62 Buick Special and a Dodge Power Wagon at the same location. The most currently valuable cars are the two Alfa Romeo Sprint Coupes. The yellow one is a Veloce with dual Weber sidedraft carbs. I have received numerous offers for the Alfas.

The cars were mostly intact and in decent restorable condition until about a year ago when thieves broke through the fence and tried to steal radiators from the Toronados just for the copper scrap value. They were captured by the cops but then, about 2 weeks ago, a group of about 6 vandals came in and broke out windows from most of the cars.

I decided there was no use trying to preserve the cars any longer and I began spreading the word that everything in Utah is for sale. At this point the main value in the Toronados are in the engines, drivetrains and body panels as there are probably few that have any glass or interiors intact. They will go downhill quickly outside with no windows so I see no alternative at present other than selling them. I will try to part them out if they don’t sell as complete cars. I will resist selling the Toronados as scrap but that may be their fate.

Here are links to web articles about my collections;

http://hooniverse.com/blog/2010/05/26/l ... more-18990

http://bringatrailer.com/2010/05/25/fro ... toronados/

[bill_freeman]

Sorry about the line formatting in my previous post.

I will try to fix it.

[toro68]

HI Bill,
i might be contacting you in the future.
The AAA towing company damaged two of my 1968 Toronados.
Any good tailights, front valvance panel?
Jerry