Class: Cars, Convertible — Model origin:
Vehicle used a lot by a main character or for a long time
Author | Message |
---|---|
◊ 2005-11-17 20:35 |
1966, probably |
◊ 2006-08-29 00:02 |
no - 68 toronado customized by george barris... |
◊ 2007-02-26 08:18 |
Hmm, I've never seen a Toronado cabrio before.. and that taillamp panel makes it look a bit like a '67-'71 T-bird. |
◊ 2007-02-26 10:41 |
Here they say it's 1966 http://www.jmannix.net/cars.htm |
◊ 2007-07-01 04:58 |
I agree with 1966-67.I see way too many parts unique to just those two years,from the obvious(rear bumper)to the subtle.(the "drum brake" wheels)....this car is thought to still exist,too! |
◊ 2007-07-01 13:17 |
It does, in museum: http://www.jmannix.net/roadster.htm The sister car (stunt double without the gadgets) does too: http://www3.telus.net/toronado/UTMannixStunt.jpg |
◊ 2009-02-27 03:45 |
Nice car. Note how Barris predicted the real spoiler and taillights for the mid-1970s Pomtiac Firebirds. |
◊ 2012-10-10 07:50 |
Barris did two cars, pimped one up in the mid-70s for a museum in Hollywood. The car was rarely used, Mike Connors didn't like it much, and it was trash compared to the cool car that came the next season... Google 'Mannix Dart GTS' |
◊ 2015-04-24 00:04 |
Was used by Joe Mannix during the whole 1st season (since episode 1.03) "The Mannix Roadster is a '68 Oldsmobile Toronado fastback, which was converted to an open-air, two passenger roadster by George Barris" -- Last edit: 2015-04-24 00:42:11 |
◊ 2015-04-24 00:08 |
Front and side view Back view The only scene with roof on -- Last edit: 2017-04-23 19:59:30 |
◊ 2015-04-24 03:09 |
They had to switch to round sealed beam headlights due it was not legal to drive with the European oblong headlights which it was fitted by Barris. |
◊ 2016-02-09 22:22 |
Dead link |
◊ 2016-02-09 22:25 |
Can you imagine how flexible this car must have been? The drive train alone weighs 3000 lbs, and Barris cut the top off of this one. |
◊ 2016-08-25 04:06 |
Sure looks like a 68 the way that trunk flips up at the end. Also the front bumper fins forecasting what became the 70 Toro. Rear bumper indeed looks 66/67. -- Last edit: 2016-08-25 04:09:51 |
◊ 2017-01-30 02:03 |
Link to "www.youtube.com" Note signed by George Barris on this clip showing actual car, owner says this is a '67 Toronado. Makes sense that it would be a '67 as the show premiered in the fall of that year. Barris would have needed some time to customize it. RIP Mike Connors. |
◊ 2017-08-26 01:59 |
For sale. |
◊ 2017-10-09 07:26 |
I just watched the opening episodes--Mannix appears to use a 1966 Mercury before he used that ugly toronado. |
◊ 2020-05-09 14:40 |
Magazine blog - as it was offered for sale again in August 2019. "The choice of a futuristic Toronado was probably linked to the high-tech feel of the series during its first season, when the character was not a freelance PI but part of an organisation that used computers to solve crimes. Also Barris had just produced a set of highly modified Toronados for the Esso display at the 1967 World’s Fair. His choice of the front-wheel-drive Oldsmobile would not prove unique among the custom crowd, either: the 1969 Panthermobile was Toronado-based, too. There is some conjecture in my mind about the year of the car the Mannix roadster was based on – the exposed brake-drum wheels suggest a 1966, but the steering wheel says ’67. Barris chopped the roof and, after removing the rear seats, covered the space with a giant glassfibre tonneau cover that hid a (rarely seen) hood and various spare crime-fighting implements. The giant doors, then the longest on any production vehicle, were the only steel panels that Barris left standard. Some 30 coats of semi-gloss Platinum Star metalflake paint were applied, with contrasting black reaching halfway up the doors and over the wheelarches. At the front, the pop-up lights were replaced by circular sealed-beams on either side of a bespoke grille, and the bonnet grew twin power bulges. With the slim bumperettes on the ends of the wings, this was perhaps the most effective part of a transformation that somewhat predicted the revised front-end look of the 1970 production Toronados. Less convincing was the Pontiac Firebird-like lip spoiler on the rear deck and full-width tail-light panel. Fake wheel spinners and faux side pipes hardly seemed ideal for a private eye who was, presumably, trying to keep a low profile. The Toronado reprised its role in season two, by then with contrasting dark red on its lower flanks and with the circular headlamps changed for European-style, lozenge-shaped units believed to have come from a Citroën Ami 6. Barris produced a second car for stunts, not that it featured in many of them because Mike Connors didn’t like driving this full-sized front-driver all that much, recalling in an interview that it “handled like a parade float”. ‘Our’ Mannix roadster is the close-up car, spotted last year nestling among the exotica in Worldwide’s Pacific Grove sale during Monterey Car Week in August. It looks marginally better in the metal than it does two-dimensionally, with a nose treatment that appears more Turin than Hollywood. With 25,000 miles recorded it appears totally original, even down to its tyres. Since leaving Mannix in 1968 the Toronado has spent most of its time as a static exhibit, which accounts for its originality. The first civilian owner was a New York property developer who used it as an attraction at his amusement park. When that closed in the late ’80s the car was auctioned to a Tennessee museum, but it came up for sale again in 2017 with a $100-125,000 estimate. Given that level of inactivity it runs quite well, and was completely tolerant of being hustled along the Monterey peninsula for pictures." |
◊ 2020-09-08 07:31 |
I’ve read that this was a customized 1967 Toronado, not a ‘68. This would make sense from when most of filming for the first season would’ve taken place. I think this car was awesome, and this was probably the only show to showcase a Toronado! I wish they’d of used it longer! -- Last edit: 2020-09-08 07:32:38 |