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In 1968, an Oldsmobile engineer asked the Hurst team to help build something that should not have existed: a 442 with the Toronado’s front-wheel-drive powertrain packed into its nose. Exactly one was completed, and it survived in one owner’s hands for 42 years before Fred Mandrick acquired it in 2012. Read on to find out why Oldsmobile bothered building a front-drive muscle car nobody was ever supposed to buy.
Fred Mandrick’s 1968 Oldsmobile FWD 442 Toronado, nicknamed the Fouranado, is the only one of its kind, born from a Hurst/Olds engineering experiment in the program’s very first year. The previous owner kept it for 42 years before Fred took over in 2012, and it later stood as the featured car at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals. Watch to hear how a one-off prototype survived five decades intact.
Only one Oldsmobile 442 was ever built with front-wheel drive, a genuinely experimental 1968 car born out of the earliest days of the Hurst/Olds partnership. Owner Fred Mandrick discovered it by chance and later learned the previous owner had kept it hidden for 42 years before he ever got the call. Fully restored, the car was later selected as the featured vehicle at the 2013 Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals. Watch to hear the story behind a one-of-one that almost stayed lost.