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Is Basic Better? This 1970 Chevrolet El Camino Is As Simple As It Got: Six-Cylinder, Three-On-The-Tree And Somehow Has Survived Just Fine!


Is Basic Better? This 1970 Chevrolet El Camino Is As Simple As It Got: Six-Cylinder, Three-On-The-Tree And Somehow Has Survived Just Fine!

For someone of my age, seeing a 1970 Chevrolet vehicle without Super Sport stripes and badges everywhere is almost refreshing, since more exist now than the total of what rolled off of the assembly lines back in the day. Yeah, the days of the muscle car were in their peak, but not everything sold was a muscle car. Aunt Ethyl did not rock an Olds 442, she probably had a four-year-old Delmont. Your grandfather didn’t have a Dodge Dude, but had a slant-six, column-shifted D-100…or, if he truly was a badass, a Power Wagon. And El Caminos weren’t some funky muscle car, they were pitched as a useable alternative to a pickup truck entirely. Trucks were work tools, not comfortable vehicles for families, and the El Camino, GMC Sprint, and Ford Ranchero were trying to bridge the gap between family sedan and pickup truck.

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That meant that some Elkys were optioned out to work, and that’s where this 1970 example, currently sitting on eBay, becomes something special. White paint, white steel wheels with dog dish hubcaps, and minimal badging is as far from a Super Sport El Camino as you could get. So is the 250 cubic inch inline-six and the three-speed column-shifted manual transmission. With no radio, no power steering, no power brakes and the standard gauge package, this ute is better representative of a fleet sales order than it is of a typical sales car. Yet, somehow over forty-six years, this El Camino hasn’t aged a bit. The odometer is only barely over 5,500 miles, the interior looks showroom fresh and if anything was placed in the bed at all, we want photographic proof. This El Camino has been hermetically sealed away…going so far as to having the license plate screws still in the envelopes they came in from the factory. It’s interesting to see what the cars were like when they were new, and this El Camino is probably going to be as close as anyone is going to get in modern days.

eBay Link: 1970 Chevrolet El Camino

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9 thoughts on “Is Basic Better? This 1970 Chevrolet El Camino Is As Simple As It Got: Six-Cylinder, Three-On-The-Tree And Somehow Has Survived Just Fine!

  1. elkyguy

    the only thing that mars this otherwise pristine example is the addition of the studs for a tonneau cover—it’s a outstanding example(and given it’s mileage,should be),but what can you do with it?—given it’s originality,it seems a shame to stuff a different drivetrain in there,but it can also be looked at as a perfect blank canvas—turbo the six maybe?

  2. ANGRYJOE

    I love all cars but when I see these at cruises/shows and on the net they are always my favorite….I still remember a AMC Rebel from a car show I went to when I was about 14. There were amazing cars all around but the little blue rambler with a column shifted trans and an I6 was by far my favorite. I chatted with the owner for an hour, he told me it was his dads and he kept it minty fresh, never drove it in the winter….They almost always come with a story and the story is almost always as cool as the car.

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