(tires screeching)
- The El Camino has been accused of being
the mullet of cars for too long.
Ha! Hilarious! Get it?
It's a sedan in the front, and a truck in the back,
it's like a mullet!
I bet you haven't heard that one before!
You know what, pal?
The El Camino is truly one of the most unique cars
to ever come out of Detroit.
From humble beginnings hauling hay
to later, hauling ass.
This is everything you need to know
to get up to speed on the Chevy El Camino.
(retro arcade music)
- Yeah, yeah yeah, I know,
the El Camino was not the first car truck thing
to go on sale in the States.
Ford did it first, with the Ranchero 1957.
Ford marketed the Ranchero as "more than a car,
more than a truck," and it was a hit,
and Chevrolet took notice.
- Well yeah, I noticed.
- The first El Camino was brought to market
two years after the Ranchero in 1959.
Chevy sold over 22,000 units in
the first year of production,
but it got worse in 1960 and sales dropped.
Baby boomer families were growing,
so they needed more than two seats,
and the cargo space wasn't that great
compared to a real truck.
Basically, Chevy missed out on both markets.
And the El Camino was discontinued the following year.
- Wait, what?
What did he mean by discontinued?
- Meanwhile, the Ford Ranchero was doing pretty good.
It was now based on the Ford Falcon,
just like the Mustang.
Chevy took note of Ford's experimentation and said
"Hey, we can do that!"
Chevy brought back the El Camino in 1964
and this time its sister car was the frickin Chevelle.
The Chevelle Super Sport was one of Chevy's
first entries into the slowly escalating
muscle car arms race.
So it would make sense to offer this performance
in the El Camino, right?
- Yeah.
Yeah blonders.
That's a good idea.
- Chevy didn't think so.
They did not offer the El Camino SS.
Yet.
Chevy was still determined to market the El Camino
as a truck with the comforts of a car,
as opposed to a car with the utility of a truck.
However, as the 1964 model year went by,
Chevy eventually offered a 327 cubic inch V8,
making a decent 300 horsepower.
- Pretty, pretty, pretty good.
- From 1964 to like 1980, the design changed
every
single
year.
Every single year.
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980.
But the philosophy stayed the same:
practicality and luxury, all in one, just like me.
- (wheezing laughter)
- The El Camino took the undeniably beautiful
looks of the Chevelle and mixed it with
the practicality of a truck.
Chevy continued to give the El Camino
more and more power and it got better and better looking.
Look at the 1968 and 1969 models.
Those are some good looking cars.
And if you say otherwise, you're a (bleep) liar, Mark!
I know you're watching, Scott told me.
Scott told me you watch all my shit.
You follow me on Instagram, Mark.
Chevy sold the most El Caminos in 1968
because it was offered with Chevy's 396 V8
and it made 375 horsepower.
The gloves were starting to come off.
In 1969, Chevy finally gave the people
the El Camino SS,
(cheering)
with a special blacked out grill,
disc brakes and powerlocks and windows
just like a racecar.
But Chevy wasn't done, because the 1970 El Camino SS
might be one of the most unique muscle cars of the era.
While you can still get the 396,
Chevy raised the stakes with the 454 V8.
This colossal big block made 450 horsepower,
and a whopping 500 foot pounds of torque.
That's enough power to pull your neighbor's house down.
Don't ask me how I know that.
(bell rings)
It also came with a four speed short ratio transmission.
Long story short, it hauled ass.
(engine revs)
Or, whatever else you wanted to haul,
because it had a truck bed in the back.
Like all good things, including every
single
one
of my beautiful hamsters, the El Camino SS
met a swift end.
In 1971, Chevy saw the writing on the wall
with the looming gas crisis and started
to detune their big block offerings
to be more fuel-efficient.
This is also the part where the El Camino
gets noticeably less attractive,
but can you blame it?
It was in an abusive relationship with Chevy.
How would you feel?
You'd probably get a little ugly too.
- This one, real (bleep) ugly.
- The gas crisis didn't kill the El Camino.
Quite the opposite, actually.
Despite being the largest and nearly the slowest
El Camino ever, the 1973 model
was by far Chevy's best-selling.
The next year the El Camino reached
the pinnacle of luxury with the
carpeted door panels and wood grain instrument panel trim.
- That's fancy. That's fancy.
- Real fancy.
- If Chevy couldn't make the El Camino more powerful,
well gosh darn it, they were gonna make it fancier.
The fifth gen El Camino arrived in 1978
with a few different trim levels
including the Black Knight, which I only mention
because that is literally the most kickass name
for a trim level ever.
Chevy had to change the name of the Black Knight
to the Royal Knight in 1979 because of copyright issues.
Wait, who owns the copyright to Black Knight?
- Martin Lawrence is the Black Knight.
- When the gas prices of the 70s came to an end,
Chevy ushered in the 80s with a new El Camino,
with zero changes to the body
and only minor tweaks to the engine.
Thus began the twilight of the El Camino,
and no, I'm not talking about vampires.
The Elkie lived out its final years with few highlights.
In 1985 Chevy started producing the El Camino
in Mexico to save on costs,
but it didn't last long, because the El Camino
finally left us in 1987.
Just like my dad.
The death of the El Camino was a somber one,
but the fact that it wasn't being sold in showrooms anymore
didn't stop people from loving it.
The El Camino is a folk hero in the car world,
a solid performer who wasn't afraid to get down and dirty.
If you have the chance to buy an El Camino, do it.
- Just do it!
- There have been a million rumors
for a million years now that Chevy's gonna bring back
the El Camino but I'm not holding my breath.
- (heavy breathing)
- Would this ruin some of the legend of this car?
That's always a possibility.
But the way Detroit is pouring out new muscle,
a brand new El Camino could actually be pretty tight.
That's everything you need to know to get up to speed
on the Chevy El Camino.
Would you rather have a classic one or a new one?
Let me know in the comments below.
Have you ever (bleep) in an El Camino?
You ever (bleep) in an El Camino?
Everyone send me a dollar so I can buy a Lamborghini.
And as always: like, subscribe, comment, share,
tag your friend who likes an El Camino,
tag your friend who has a mullet,
ask him what's wrong with him.
tag your friend who has a mullet,
ask him what's wrong with him.