Photo: Mecum
Once upon a time the auto world had something called coupe utility vehicles. You might know them as utes, and if you live in Australia, chances are they’re still around, in much newer forms than this here Chevrolet El Camino.
Cars made for this segment, designed to take people to church on Sunday and allow them to carry bulky stuff around for the rest of the week, started being made in the 1930s by Ford in Australia. The country loved them, so the Blue Oval felt confident enough to launch one on the American market, the Ranchero.
Its arrival didn’t go unnoticed over at GM, and the Chevrolet make was tasked with making a rival for that. This is the El Camino, a considerably better-looking proposition than the Ranchero, but equally as incompetent in keeping customers interested and itself on the market to the present day.
Discontinued in 1987, El Camino is still making the rounds in the car collector world. Because November is Chevrolet Month here at autoevolution, it is also a constant presence of our special coverage.
Today we bring you this El Camino, scheduled to go under the hammer this weekend in Kansas City. It is special because it was left in pretty much the same condition as it was when it left the factory lines in 1965, one of the rare cases when we find a virtually unmodified one from that year.
The car was in possession of just two owners during its lifetime, and that was a good thing for it. What’s more, the first owner performed some restoration work on it, so the blue over black coupe utility looks interestingly fresh.
No modifications have been made to the car’s powertrain, and it still packs the original 283ci (4.6-liter) V8 linked to a 3-speed manual transmission, the mid-range proposition for the second generation El Camino back in its day.
There is no estimate as to how much the car is expected to fetch, but we are being told it would go to the one offering the most, regardless of how much that is.
Its arrival didn’t go unnoticed over at GM, and the Chevrolet make was tasked with making a rival for that. This is the El Camino, a considerably better-looking proposition than the Ranchero, but equally as incompetent in keeping customers interested and itself on the market to the present day.
Discontinued in 1987, El Camino is still making the rounds in the car collector world. Because November is Chevrolet Month here at autoevolution, it is also a constant presence of our special coverage.
Today we bring you this El Camino, scheduled to go under the hammer this weekend in Kansas City. It is special because it was left in pretty much the same condition as it was when it left the factory lines in 1965, one of the rare cases when we find a virtually unmodified one from that year.
The car was in possession of just two owners during its lifetime, and that was a good thing for it. What’s more, the first owner performed some restoration work on it, so the blue over black coupe utility looks interestingly fresh.
No modifications have been made to the car’s powertrain, and it still packs the original 283ci (4.6-liter) V8 linked to a 3-speed manual transmission, the mid-range proposition for the second generation El Camino back in its day.
There is no estimate as to how much the car is expected to fetch, but we are being told it would go to the one offering the most, regardless of how much that is.
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