Unlike the Brookwoods wagon and a sedan delivery variant, the El Camino was available with any full-sized Chevrolet drivetrain. Highly stylized, it initially sold 50% more briskly than the more conservative Ranchero, some 22,000 to 14,000. Like the Ranchero, it was based on an existing and modified platform, the new-for-1959 Brookwood two-door station wagon, itself based on the redesigned full-sized Chevrolet of that year. According to Chevrolet stylist Chuck Jordan, GM Harley Earl had suggested a coupé pickup in 1952. The El Camino was introduced for the 1959 model year two years after the Ford Ranchero. The original El Camino and Ranchero would compete directly only in the 1959 model year. In 1959, Chevrolet responded with the El Camino to compete with Ford's full-sized Ranchero. market of an automobile platform based coupé utility. However, Ford also introduced the 1957 Ranchero, and established a new market segment in the U.S. Other pickup truck producers, including Dodge, Ford, Studebaker, and International, began to offer flush-side cargo boxes on some of their 1957 models, such as the Dodge C Series, and the 1960 Studebaker Champ. In 1957, a special version was made for GMC to be shown at national car shows called the Palomino, which had a Pontiac 347 cu in (5.7 L) V8 installed, borrowed from the 1957 Star Chief. As always, there was a GMC version offered during the same time, called the GMC Suburban, with the same features offered on the Chevrolet. Although it was a model variant of Chevrolet's Task Force light-duty pickup, the Cameo offered an array of car-like features that included passenger-car styling, fiberglass rear fenders, two-tone paint, a relatively luxurious interior, as well as an optional V8 engine, automatic transmission, and power assists. The mid-1955 introduction of Chevrolet's Cameo Carrier pickup truck helped pave the way for the El Camino. The body style did not reappear on the American market until the release of the 1957 Ford Ranchero.īoth the coupé utility and the similar open-topped roadster utility continued in production, but the improving economy of the mid- to late-1930s and the desire for improved comfort saw coupé utility sales climb at the expense of the roadster utility until, by 1939, the latter was all but a fading memory.
General Motors’ Australian subsidiary Holden also produced a Chevrolet coupé utility in 1935, and Studebaker produced the Coupé Express from 1937 to 1939.
1972 el camino series#
Bandt went on to manage Ford's Advanced Design Department, being responsible for the body engineering of the XP, XT, XW, and XA series Ford Falcon utilities. Ford designer Lew Bandt developed a suitable solution, and the first coupé utility model was released in 1934. įord Australia was the first company to produce a coupé utility as a result of a 1932 letter from the wife of a farmer in Victoria, Australia, asking for "a vehicle to go to church in on a Sunday and which can carry our pigs to market on Mondays". The concept of a two-door vehicle based on a passenger car chassis with a tray at the rear began in the United States in the 1920s with the roadster utility (also called "roadster pickup" or "light delivery") models. Renamed Caballero in 1978, it was also produced through the 1987 model year. GMC's badge engineered El Camino variant, the Sprint, was introduced for the 1971 model year.
Production resumed for the 1964–1977 model years based on the Chevelle platform, and continued for the 1978–1987 model years based on the GM G-body platform.Īlthough based on corresponding General Motors car lines, the vehicle is classified in the United States as a pickup. Introduced in the 1959 model year in response to the success of the Ford Ranchero coupé utility, its first run, based on the Biscayne's B-body, lasted only two years. Unlike a standard pickup truck, the El Camino was adapted from the standard two-door Chevrolet station wagon platform and integrated the cab and cargo bed into the body. The Chevrolet El Camino is a coupé utility vehicle that was produced by Chevrolet between 1959––1987.
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