Thanks! As a matter of fact, the car was just picked up by the carrier early this morning (6 a.m. local time), Easter Sunday morning, in Owensboro, Kentucky. It is scheduled to arrive here Tuesday (April 6). Here's a couple of low-resolution cell-phone photos of the car awaiting the carrier and then being loaded on. I like where the car is on the carrier. Low and in the rear gives it the most protection from rocks and whatever thrown up from the road.
Let’s hope it doesn’t tip the carrier over backwards. She’s a hefty girl. Looks great on there. I’d sure rather be happy about that coming down my street than the Altima. Just saying. Lol. Good luck with it Jaunty.
Yes, those cars are heavy. The second-generation Toronados ('71 through '78) routinely weighed in at about 4800 lbs, almost 2.5 tons. They outweighed same-year 88s and 98s. The only Oldsmobiles to outweigh them were the clamshell wagons of that era ('71 to '76), which typically tipped the scales at around 5200 lbs. Remember, these cars, like some women I used to know, were built for comfort, not speed.
Were the XS’s anymore weight with the back window configuration than their straight vinyl top counter parts? I would think that back window weighed a bunch.
Here's the curb weights from "Setting the Pace" for the '77 and '78 Toros. '77 Brougham: 4747 lbs '77 XS Coupe: 4805 '78 Brougham: 4883 '78 XS Coupe: 4767 So, for '77, the XS weighed MORE than the base model while, for '78, it weighed less. I have no explanation for this. What's also interesting is the production for each. Total Toronado production fell considerably, about 27% for 1978 over 1977. '77 Brougham: 31,371 '77 XS Coupe: 2,713 (8% of total Toronado production) '78 Brougham: 22,362 '78 XS Coupe: 2,453 (10% of total Toronado production) For both years, the XS was barely 10% of production, but I think you see that, today, a greater percentage of the surviving '77 and '78 Toros are the XS. I would guess that, like convertibles, people tended to keep and maintain the XS's at a greater rate than the base Broughams.
I don't think it was up to a 1700 mile drive right out of the box. I didn't want to drive a pretty much unknown vehicle that far after a 10-minute test drive. I want to go through it thoroughly before attempting any lengthy drive. If it was 50 or 100 miles away, maybe, but, otherwise, no.
That’s interesting Jaunty. Eldorado production for ‘77 vs ‘78 was less then a thousand lower for ‘78. It’s interesting too that the weight of the XSC didn’t drop as much as the Brougham went up. Was there and engine difference that might account for the weight, or did the Brougham pick up more adornments that bloated the car. Again interesting stats. I wonder too since the Tornado buyer didn’t run to Eldorado, could they have purchased more of the down sized Caddy’s and ‘98’s? Inquiring minds want to know. I wouldn’t think they would have purchased the orphan Riviera for ‘77.
As an aside Riviera sales from ‘77-‘78 were worse than Toro sales off some 30% from 26,000 units to 20,000 units for ‘78 so I would bet if they stayed in the GM fold they opted for down sized luxury cars. Down the street Dearborn was tearing it up with the restyled Mark V. From 1977-‘79 Lincoln sold over 220,000 of the Marks. ‘77 sold over 80,000 toping Toro and Eldo sales combined. And by ‘78 they were only roughly 10,000 units behind Cadillac, Olds, and Buick combined. I think a lot of those luxury buyers defected to Lincoln.
Which is an interesting point, considering the Marks were, for all intents and purposes, an intermediate platform. The BIG conti and Town Car were the more logical runner against the Eldo and Toro, let alone the Devilles, Electras and 98s.
watch this video - there's a Toro XS in Russia, of all places. It's seen a couple of times in the vid. A white one just like Jaunty's, but I'm not quite sure of which year. Just goes to prove there's car guys everywhere....
Very cool! That is a '78 XS. You can tell by the location of the rear side-marker lights. On the '78s, they were at the far rear end of the side trim piece. On the '77s, they're actually in the chrome piece on the side of the bumper. I've annotated a screenshot from that video. Here's closeups of the rear quarters of a '77 and a '78. For '77, side light in the bumper/taillight chrome piece. For '78, side light at the rear edge of the rear fender.
The car arrived tonight about 8:30 p.m. local time, which was well after dark, so I couldn't get any photos of the car coming off the truck. But here it is in my garage, all ready for me to start tearing into.
Actually Mark Vs almost a foot and an inch longer than the big GM counter parts. They were a couple of inches shorter in wheelbase and with in an inch and half on width and height. The Mark being a little more narrow and on height 53 vs 54 & change for the Olds and Caddy. You are correct that for the absolute barge then the Town Coupe beats the wheel base by 3 inches they are both around 233 inches long, and their weights are 4800#s about the the same as the ‘78 Toro Brougham. I really think a group of GM buyers were attracted to the Marks of ‘77 - ‘79 whatever it was the Marks outsold their GM contemporaries.