El Camino History

The Chevrolet El Camino, is it a truck or a car or what is it anyway?! For most its not even a thought anymore, but it was a Truck
manufactured by General Motors, Chevrolet Division. The Name El Camino means "The Trail or The Road" and for some of us its a piece of
American history. It was an awkward looking car with a bed in the back. It wasn't a Station Wagon, it wasn't exactly a pickup truck either.

These days, when half of the light vehicles sold are "trucks" and when the vehicle of choice in the suburbs is a sport utility, it is difficult to
comprehend that 50 years ago there was a stigma to driving a truck. Trucks were strictly commercial vehicles, so anyone who employed one
for "personal use" was typing himself as a tradesman or a farmer. The vast middle class simply didn't drive trucks; they drove passenger cars.

Pickups and panel trucks based on car platforms were relatively common in the 1920s and 1930s. Since virtually every vehicle on the road in
those days used separate body-on-frame construction, it was a fairly simple task to build truck-like bodies and plop them on car chassis. Willys,
Hudson, and Studebaker were among the American manufacturers who offered car-based pickup trucks direct from the factory during those
years, and pickup and panel truck conversions of passenger cars done by aftermarket body-builders were widely available as well.

In the 1950s the stigma began to change, though, the change came very slowly. As usual in the time, Chevrolet and Ford had a fierce rivalry for
the #1 spot in the American Automotive Marketplace.

In late 1954, Chevrolet launched its landmark 1955 model-year line that included the not only the classic sedan, hardtop, and coupe, but also a flashy new pickup dubbed
the Cameo Carrier. Compared to the Chevrolet passenger cars of that year, the Cameo was a mere footnote, but it pointed the way toward a new type of highly styled,
well-equipped pickup that would be acceptable as a personal car.

The Cameo was no Plain-jane with rubber mats and painted bumpers. It offered plenty of chrome trim, a two-tone paint job and a wealth of car-like options including
power steering, power brakes and an automatic transmission. Of course, the Cameo could also be equipped with Chevy's all-new, high-compression small-block V-8
engine, which turned the truck into a bit of a hot rod.

As Chevrolet hit the market with its Cameo Carrier, the men at Ford were following a nearly parallel path to develop
their own personal-use pickup truck, but they approached the exercise from a different angle. Instead of trying to
add car-like features to a truck chassis, they decided to take a car chassis (in this case the full-size Ford Ranch
Wagon) and fit it with a pickup truck bed directly behind the front bench seat. They christened the resulting vehicle
the Ranchero. When the Ranchero debuted in the 1957, it quickly began to outsell the Cameo Carrier by a wide
margin. It not only rode better, as you would expect from a car-based vehicle, it was also significantly cheaper than
the Chevrolet.

One thing about General Motors (and the entire American auto industry of the era, for that matter), in those days it could
turn on a dime. When it realized that Ford, indeed, had a better idea with its car-based Ranchero, it didn't think twice about
quickly phasing out the Cameo and moving on. In this case, basically, they copied Ford's concept. The Chevrolet El Camino
of 1959 was based on the '59 Chevrolet passenger-car chassis with a truncated but very attractive cabin followed by a big
pickup truck bed. Perhaps overly sensitive about price, Chevrolet product planners trimmed the new El Camino out in
Biscayne trim, which, was bottom of the line but the results were still exceptionally attractive. There was nothing simple
about the '59 Chevy front end, adorned with a full-width grille, quad headlights and chrome-surrounded nostrils, it stood
out. The gull-winged rear end was gaudy as well but with the flat roof of its cab held up by narrow pillars, the El Camino
offered a lovely profile that conjures up images of vintage powerboats.

There was nothing remarkable about the El Camino's chassis. The X-type frame featured a lengthy 119-inch wheelbase, and
the long rear overhang of its pickup body gave it a 210-inch overall length, which is three inches longer than the current
Cadillac DeVille. But the vehicle still looked sleek.

Happily, when equipped with the right engine and transmission, the El Camino drove as good as it looked. Chevy didn't stint
when it came to choices for the El Camino buyer. In addition to the venerable Chevy in-line six-cylinder engine, buyers also
had the option of two V-8s, the 283 cubic inch version of the small block and the 348 cubic inch big block. Further, each
engine could be had in a number of configurations that got as wild as the 335-horsepower solid-lifter 348. Perhaps a better
choice for all-around driving was the 230-horsepower hydraulic-lifter 283 backed by a close-ratio four-speed manual
transmission. Or, if boulevard cruising was your aim, both Powerglide and Turboglide automatics were offered.

If there was one Achilles' heel to the '59 El Camino it was its rather small pickup truck bed. After all, this was a vehicle that was more than 17 feet long, yet its bed
measured just 70 inches long at the top, compromised as it was by the '59 Chevy's radical styling. And though the tailgate might be classed as the most beautiful ever to
adorn a pickup of any type, it, too, had its utility compromised by style. But the El Camino's biggest problem was undoubtedly the fact that the average American had not
gotten used to the idea of buying a pickup truck for his or her daily driver.

Because of this, '59 El Camino sales were below Chevrolet's expectations. Some 20,000 went out showroom doors, which seems at first glance like a respectable
number. To put it in perspective, though, those 20,000 El Camino sales came in a year that Chevrolet sold nearly 1.5 million cars. When El Camino sales took a 30 percent
drop the following year, Chevrolet execs decided to discontinue the El Camino after its brief two-season run. Now days a rarer 1960 El Camino (only 14,163 built) in very
good condition runs around $12,000-$14,000.

That might have been the end of it except that Ford, in an attempt to rejuvenate its Ranchero sales, began building a
new Ranchero on the compact Falcon platform, the same platform that would eventually spawn the Mustang. With a
new mid-size Chevrolet called the Chevelle waiting in the wings, GM decided that a revised El Camino based on the
more compact chassis would be worth a try. And they turned out to be right. In 1964 the Chevrolet Motor Company
produced its new Chevelle/Malibu-based El Camino. The concept of a highly styled, civilized pickup truck was
certainly not new when the El Camino was introduced to the public in 1959, and it turned out that the '59 Camino was
more an artistic success than a commercial triumph, but that does not diminish the importance of the vehicle. After
getting its second chance in 1964, it spawned a line that would span 25 years through four major body changes.

The El Camino would later be offered with the same options as its sister the Chevelle. The El Camino was such a
success that General Motors decided to introduce the El Camino under the more Generic GMC brand name. In 1971
the first GMC Sprint was offered to the public. for a history lesson on those trucks see Dan Carr's page located here
For lots of Americans now days the El Camino is a Collector's item and for others its a vehicle associated with Poorer
Uneducated Hillbillies or Rednecks with beer guts but that is far from true. The El Camino is a moderate investment in
the past when American built automobiles were the defacto standard and rear wheel drive, large cubic inch high
powered V8s ruled the streets.

In 1978 Chevrolet rolled back the El Camino's looks. Deciding to re-kindle the sales and with newer automation in the
assembly line the new "A" bodied El Camino was styled after the earlier 1964 Model El Camino. Chevrolet had down
sized all their cars and consolidated the manufacturing of the El Camino and the Chevrolet Cars, now the new El
Camino was reminiscent of the past. With the EPA imposing tough pollution standards, the Safety people screaming
about safer automobiles and the constraints of the economy at the time, the El Camino was to see what would be the
last cycle of its long lifetime.

But the El Caminos fate seemed sealed anyway. Offshore companies had moved in and the Front wheel drive invasion of low cost imports had been established. Chevrolet
would carry the El Camino line all the way to 1987. GM had decided to discontinue their line of rear wheel drive cars, and 1988 there were no longer any El Caminos
offered. A era had passed in the automotive annals of time. The last of the El Camino Trucks had been manufactured in Arlington Tx, in the last manufacturing cycle of
1987. Although rumors of its comeback still live on today, the El Camino is only a place in some peoples heart and memories. For collectors like me they are a snapshot of
time a way of life a treasure of art and mechanical working that spark our imaginations and fill our soles with the feeling of freedom. "The Road"