First year of the second generation. Gorgeous car. Only one photo, but he makes up for it by posting a link to a 6-minute youtube video. Not bad. He does finally get around to starting it up, and I think I hear some kind of clicking sound. Somebody listen to it and tell me what I'm hearing. He has it posted on several craigslists. This link is for Cincinnati, but the car is actually in Huntsville, Alabama. https://cincinnati.craigslist.org/cto/d/normal-1971-oldsmobile-toronado-with/7127832022.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru8FWKeGpRE
The only clicking I've heard was the sound of keys tumbling on their chain, upon start-up. Otherwise, it seemed to run perfectly normal. Microphones have a tendency to be overly sensitive to mechanical noise
That's a beautiful car. The 1971-1972 Toronado has always had a powerful place in my car memories. My grandfather had one in dark grey with a black top and black cloth interior. It was a rather reserved color combination for the early '70s but the proportions of the car still captured attention. The funny thing was, as the same time he bought a Honda 600 sedan (2 cyl, 36 hp) for my grandmother to drive. (The owner of the local Oldsmobile dealer was friends with my grandfather and had just picked up a Honda franchise.) These two cars together in the driveway was absolutely absurd. A sort of automotive "Mutt and Jeff". In 1974 my grandfather traded that Honda for a Toyota Corona Deluxe wagon. (Her's was white with the wood paneling. Curiously this 1976 photo was one of the only good ones I could find online.) Despite Toyota's longstanding reputation for durability and economy. That car was trouble prone and got terrible gas mileage.
If he had parked backwards, so that Grandma would pull up in her go-kart towards his Toro's front bumper, that must have been his way of psychologically keeping her in line, just like during the Cold War with Detente´, where both superpowers would keep the peace with nukes pointing at each other. However, this time around, this detente´ worked only one way
It doesn't sound like anything out of the ordinary, it does sound like it's got a very small idle "miss" but that's probably just because of the metering on a carb for modern gas down at low RPM sounds different than a modern car with computer controls. It could also be the camera\phone picking up each exhaust pipe slightly out of phase with each other and giving a funny effect that you wouldn't hear in person. I wouldn't assume anything is wrong as this car sounds beautiful. It also started right up: obviously not a cold start, but then it started right away so hot starts aren't an issue.
