Ford's Toronado
1964 Ford Thunderbird FWD prototype

Pictured is a Thunderbird proposal for the 1967 model year and photographed in September 1964 outside the Ford
Corporate Special Projects Studio (FCSPS).

Ford patented FWD in 1959, (U.S. Patent #3052313) after spending 30 months and $3 million dollars (that's $25 million today) developing the FWD 1961 Thunderbird only to have the ideal axed at the eleventh hour and pushed back to the new 1967 model. Around 15 FWD Thunderbird mules were built.

In 1960, Ford built the first, POST-WAR, FWD, American designed car called the Ford Cardinal. Since the Ford Falcon was a huge sales success, Ford didn't want that type of vehicle cutting into the sales, so they sold it in Europe instead. A 1960 Ford Cardinal front wheel drive prototype was sent to Germany where a new factory was built and the car went into production in 1963, called the Ford 12M P4 Taunus (not to be confused with the Taurus). Over its four-year production more than 150,000 were built per year.

During 1961-63 Ford continued development on the FWD unibody Thunderbird and coincidentally in 1964 completed this full size clay model. Late in the year Ford decided to go with an alternative RWD design based on a full frame chassis that would be shared with the Lincoln.

Oldsmobile designer Don Logerquist suddenly came up with the Tornado design as an alternative to the B-platform, which had already been carved into clay. He drew sketches and carved it onto to other half of the clay B-body model, minus the body beltline that sticks out. Oldsmobile design chief liked it and said it could be used in the near future on a special Oldsmobile project now known as the E-Body. Shortly afterward David North painted the, now famous, giant-red sketch of the Toronado. Ironically Oldsmobiles front wheel drive layout was covered under Ford's patent.

Your guess is as good as ours as to why Ford has a clay model of a Thunderbird that looks like a production Toronado years before the Oldsmobile Toronado introduction