1980 | Chevrolet El Camino

Nowadays an integral part of American popular culture, the pick-up truck has come to be thought of as the modern-day equivalent of the cowboy's horse. Once viewed as strictly utilitarian commercial vehicles, they were seized on as ideal candidates for customising and hot-rodding in the post-war era, and today, like so many fashions that start in the USA, enjoy a cult following worldwide. General Motors rationalised its truck production in 1911, introducing the 'GMC' brand name, to which Chevrolet was added during WWI. Chevrolet's El Camino pick-up (or coupé utility vehicle) was first introduced in 1959 in response to the success of the Ford Ranchero, which, unusually for a pick-up, featured an integral body/chassis rather than the traditional separate frame.

This excellent Chevrolet El Camino resto-mod was created by Richard Rawlings Gas Monkey Garage in Texas for the Discovery Channel television reality show Fast ‘n’ Loud. This was one of the last cars created by the legendary Aaron Kaufman the chief mechanic just before he left the Gas Monkey Garage. The rebuild featured in series four, episodes nine and ten where they took a one-owner from new, rust-free car from a US dry state and then completely stripped it to the bare shell before rebuilding it fitting a 6.7 litre Chevrolet LS3 from Mast Motorsport with a ‘Holly Sniper’ ram air fuel injection system. Boasting over 600bhp, it feeds its prodigious power to the custom built ‘Currie 9’ nine-inch rear axle via a ‘Tremec’ T56 six-speed manual gearbox. Of course, the brakes and suspension have been fully upgraded, the brakes have been replaced with full ‘Wilwood’ disc brakes and it has a complete ‘Ride-Tech’ suspension set-up. The end result is a car that goes, handles and stops far, far better than anything that ever left the factory.

Aaron Kaufman carried out some subtle alterations to the bodywork including re-forming the bumpers, a subtle change but one that totally transforms the look of the car. Once the car was repainted by Mike at the Gas Monkey Garage, they gave it a bespoke honeycomb front grille with a 416 logo to reflect the engine size and fitting custom-made ‘Budnic’ wheels with large 275/35R19 tyres on the rear and slightly more modest front tyres at 235/40R18. The car has ‘Painless’ wiring set-up with the controller hidden in the glove box and for passenger comfort a ‘Vintage Air’ air conditioning system added. The car is fully UK registered with all duties and taxes having been paid. An El Camino is a legend in its own right but to own one that has been completely rebuilt by one of the top custom car builders in America, it is a unique opportunity.
Consigned by: John Tomlin