Great as the car was, General Motors styling boss Bill Mitchell thought the Olds Toronado would be even better if it were Camaro-sized. So he built one. This is the short tale of the Toronado two-seater.

When the Oldsmobile Toronado was introduced to the public in October of 1965, it was a triumph for General Motors, both for its front-drive engineering and for its fresh, dramatic styling. But as impressive as the new vehicle was, there were a few people at GM, reportedly, who were a tiny bit disappointed with the result.

As the story goes, Toronado designer David North and GM design vice president Bill Mitchell, to name two, would have preferred to see the car’s stunning exterior design applied to a sporty Camaro-size package, rather than to the bulky E-body platform shared by the Toronado and the Buick Riviera. And as the all-powerful head of the GM styling studios, Mitchell had the muscle to make that happen, on a single prototype vehicle at least.

Starting with renderings by Don Longberer of the GM X Studio, work then proceeded to full-size studio proposals as shown above. Note the photo’s date: March 20, 1967. The two-seater, which carried the internal GM studio designation XP-866, began as a ’66-’67 model, but eventually became a ’69 model, as shown below, featuring the ’68-’69 Toronado’s heavy chrome bumper/grille surround.

A fully functional road vehicle, it is said, the two-seater was essentially a production Toronado with approximately a foot of real estate removed from the middle of the body and chassis. However, there are two elements that give the prototype a look of its own: a duckbill spoiler added to the dramatically squared-off tail, and an upswept rear quarter window. Both features help to stretch out the otherwise stubby proportions. It seems there was scant hope for production for the shortened Toronado, since GM already had the pony car market covered with the Camaro and Firebird. Still, it’s always fun to consider the what-ifs.