Chevrolet El Camino

The El Camino is one of the most unique and iconic body styles ever offered by Chevrolet.

The Chevrolet El Camino continues to have a cult like following that love this body style that was offered off and on from 1959 to 1987. At Crown Concepts we have seen several different years and versions of the El Camino in for service or for us to sell. The El Camino is not the first “coupe utility” vehicle, but it was one of the more successful ones and continues to be sought after. General Motors (GM) introduced the El Camino model 2 years after the Ford Ranchero, once they saw the success and demand of such a car. Much like Ford, Chevrolet based their initial design concept on an existing vehicle platform, the Brookwood station wagon. Chevy’s version of the half-car, half-truck vehicle was more successful when brought to market than the existing competitors like the Ford Ranchero and previous Falcon utilities. Production of the first generation of El Camino only lasted two years, but the model was again reborn in 1964 when Chevrolet chose to base the design on the popular Chevelle platform. This second generation brought a lot of new performance geared options along with body style and size changes. It wouldn’t be until the third generation of the El Camino in 1968, based on the Chevelle station wagon, that we would see the highly popular Super Sport version of the coupe utility vehicle. This brought bigger more powerful engines and more transmission options. Then in 1973, Chevrolet released the fourth generation of the El Camino which used parts from the Chevelle Malibu, but for the first time in model history it was built on its own chassis platform. This was during a time in history that North American auto makers were concerned with efficiency and emissions due to new government regulations. This would make for smaller less powerful engines being offered in this generation as well as a less known diesel option. Today you will see many different iterations of this classic: restoration-mod, lowrider, muscle, drag racer, hot rod and show cars. You will also see the occasional daily driver and utility vehicle. Whatever style of El Camino you like, we have probably seen it.

In the last 4 years, Crown Concepts has serviced, built and sold many El Camino vehicles, but there are three that stand out to us. The first being this 1966 Chevrolet El Camino. The Second being this 1970 Chevrolet El Camino SS and the third being this 1971 Chevy El Camino. Take a look at these cars and let us know what you think in the comments.