Nowadays coupe utility vehicles are no longer a thing. Native to Australia and known as ute down there, this type of car surfaced as a blend between a car that could take the family to church on Sundays and a pickup to carry pigs to the market for the rest of the week, and over the years it spawned a number of vehicles in other parts of the world as well.
Production of coupe utility vehicles in North America, where they were sold as well, stopped decades ago, but that doesn’t mean they disappeared altogether. An entire industry of custom builds and restorations has been created around utes and their kin, and the products that come to light are at times stunning.
Like this 1968 Chevrolet El Camino, currently on sale on the Hemmings website. Part of a generation of cars that started life way back in 1959 and lasted well until the end of the 1980s, the El Camino is one of the flag bearers of the coupe utility body style in places other than Australia.
This particular one, pictured in the gallery above, spent a good portion of its life (8 years) abandoned in a field somewhere before being rescued and restored, a process that was concluded in 2017.
Hiding a 350ci (5.7-liter) engine under its hood (not the original 327ci (5.3-liter) and governed by a three-speed automatic transmission, the El Camino is far from being the best example of a restored coupe utility. But perhaps this is why it is so charming, as it seems to require just the precise amount of work to make it perfect.
The bid on this car, which ends in a week’s time from the moment of this writing, now stands at just $7,500, making it not only a bargain, but the perfect base for a possible summer restoration project.
Like this 1968 Chevrolet El Camino, currently on sale on the Hemmings website. Part of a generation of cars that started life way back in 1959 and lasted well until the end of the 1980s, the El Camino is one of the flag bearers of the coupe utility body style in places other than Australia.
This particular one, pictured in the gallery above, spent a good portion of its life (8 years) abandoned in a field somewhere before being rescued and restored, a process that was concluded in 2017.
Hiding a 350ci (5.7-liter) engine under its hood (not the original 327ci (5.3-liter) and governed by a three-speed automatic transmission, the El Camino is far from being the best example of a restored coupe utility. But perhaps this is why it is so charming, as it seems to require just the precise amount of work to make it perfect.
The bid on this car, which ends in a week’s time from the moment of this writing, now stands at just $7,500, making it not only a bargain, but the perfect base for a possible summer restoration project.