Photo: Mecum
There are many worthwhile new trucks out there, starting with the stars of the segment, the Ford F-150, and Chevrolet Silverado, and ending with the Toyota Tacoma. But have you noticed something peculiar about them? They all kind of look the same.
I guess that’s true for most of the cars now on the market: chasing volume, carmakers seem to have forgotten there was a time when vehicles were designed to stun, at least visually. Nowadays, it’s all about impressive performance figures and looks so plain it’s doubtful these machines will turn heads decades from now as much as the ones of yesteryear do today.
Just look at the Chevrolet Apache we have here. Part of the Task Force series that came and went long before most of us were born (1955-1961), the Apache is not simply a truck (although all the traits of such a machine are there), but also a work of art.
Sure, serious restoration work is what brought it to this particular shape, but that wouldn’t have amounted to much if the base machine wasn’t already something special.
The Apache is on the lot of cars that will go under the hammer at the hands of Mecum auction in Glendale, scheduled for March. No estimate of how much it is expected to fetch is made.
The truck, a Deluxe Cab Fleetside by trade, with a short bed and a big window at the rear of the cab, was painted in metallic gray but with enough touches of red to really make it stand out in a crowd of its siblings. Red is used (extensively, we might add) at the interior as well, with the color present on the bench, steering wheel, dashboard, and door panels.
Under the hood, the truck sports a 282ci (4.6-liter) engine, and there’s a 3-speed manual transmission. The powerplant only develops 160 hp and 270 lb-ft (365 Nm) of torque, which isn’t a lot by today’s standards. Still, given the trucks collector value, that probably matters little - we'll see if that's so when and if it sells.
Just look at the Chevrolet Apache we have here. Part of the Task Force series that came and went long before most of us were born (1955-1961), the Apache is not simply a truck (although all the traits of such a machine are there), but also a work of art.
Sure, serious restoration work is what brought it to this particular shape, but that wouldn’t have amounted to much if the base machine wasn’t already something special.
The Apache is on the lot of cars that will go under the hammer at the hands of Mecum auction in Glendale, scheduled for March. No estimate of how much it is expected to fetch is made.
The truck, a Deluxe Cab Fleetside by trade, with a short bed and a big window at the rear of the cab, was painted in metallic gray but with enough touches of red to really make it stand out in a crowd of its siblings. Red is used (extensively, we might add) at the interior as well, with the color present on the bench, steering wheel, dashboard, and door panels.
Under the hood, the truck sports a 282ci (4.6-liter) engine, and there’s a 3-speed manual transmission. The powerplant only develops 160 hp and 270 lb-ft (365 Nm) of torque, which isn’t a lot by today’s standards. Still, given the trucks collector value, that probably matters little - we'll see if that's so when and if it sells.
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