El Camino

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El Camino

There was always a demand for trucks with the comfort of a passenger car, or a passenger car with the load capacity of a truck. In response to this demand Ford released the Ranchero in 1957. To compete with Ford’s Ranchero, Chevrolet created the El Camino whose first release occurred in 1959. Over the years, Chevy has made several modifications to the El Camino to improve performance and style. Since Chevy stopped producing the El Camino in 1987, it has become a collectible classic. This essay will focus on several of the engine and body modifications that were made between 1957 and 1987.
1959 was the first year El Caminos were produced. El Camino is a Spanish term for The Road, The Way, The Course, The Path, The Walk. The 59 Camino was based in the impala. It had “cat eye” tail lights and wings and was available in any full sized drivetrain and the “safety-girder” X Frame design with a full coil suspension. A full coil suspension is a mac Pearson strut with a large coil surrounding it. The El Camino was promoted the first Chevrolet pickup with a full steel bed instead of wood with A total of 22,246 El Caminos produced in 1959. That outdid the number of first-year Rancheros (21,706) made in 1957. The wooden bed made beautiful bed liner but did not take wear and tear like the steel bed later created. The similar, but less showy 1960 model of the El Camino was priced at $2366 for the six-cylinder model; another $107 got consumers a V8 with the two-barrel 283. A V8 two barrel carb is a 8 cylinder 2 port carburetor for higher performance. The 1960 El Camino had a Bel-Air look, with a bright-metal "jet" looks, and narrow trailing molding used to blend with the rear quarters. The rear quarters are the met...

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...elings” for the El Camino Chevy re-continued the El Camino with greater options and better body looks. The El Camino was a great idea on vehicle. It offed many options from a car/truck to high performance race car. I liked the vehicle so much I bought a 1970 SS El Camino of my own and I have been restoring it for 2 years now. My plan is to get it back onto the drag strip and race. I kept the G body and a lot of stock parts but the rear end and the heads and valve covers. The El Camino was a great invention by Chevrolet to help citizens have the luxury of a car and the load capacity of a truck.

Works Cited

http://www.elcaminocentral.com/articles/hist/hist.html

http://www.chevyhardcore.com/features/car-features/bowtie-breakthroughs-the-history-of-the-64-87-el-camino/

http://www.musclecarclub.com/musclecars/chevrolet-elcamino/chevrolet-elcamino-history.shtml

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