G-body El Caminos are cool. Right now in many parts of the country they can be bought for pretty short money as they do not have the nostalgic appeal that older ones do. That is good if you are a collector or are looking for one to score cheap and then hot rod. In the case of this 1984 El Camino Conquista, the hard work has already been done by the previous owner with the addition of a turbocharger to the program. The car also had what was likely a 305 replaced with the much preferred 350ci Chevrolet small block. If the paint and body on this thing are original, it has lead one hell of a charmed life. As we all know, GM’s paint quality at this time in its history was not great and to see one in this type of shape with the decals and all is pretty nutty.

The real story of course is under the hood. The engine is a 350ci small block and as you can clearly see fuel rails, it has EFI. The turbo seems to be an older Turbonetics kit as there is no intercooler and the hat it is feeding into is lots different the the modern elbow that most cars have atop the throttle body or carb. We’re trying to tell what is beneath the hat and just by looking at the linkage we were thinking that it could be an old carb that is just there to meter the air coming in. The fuel is being delivered to the ports via the fuel rails so whatever sits on top should be a “dry” piece. It could likely be some sort of a throttle body that has been modified for use as well. Any ideas?

There’s an MSD 6400 box controlling the ignition and that is about all we know. The engine is listed as a 350 in some parts of the ad and a 305 in others. Either way with that little turbo the thing will not be a rockstar on the drag strip or the street but is should have far more zoot than it had stock.

While there are more questions than answers with this one, we think it is pretty awesome to see an older turbo install still out there cruising and making horsepower. Turbos are commonplace on hot rods now but when this work was done we’re guessing that the guy who owned this rig had the only one on his block (meaning a turbocharged V8). What do you think? Nostalgically cool or tragically hip?

Scroll down to see the photos and then hit the eBay link for all the info on this baby –

eBay link: This 1983 Chevy El Camino Conquista Is Sleeper Perfection