|
Browse by Tags
All Tags » El Camino » Maximum El Camino Day ( RSS)
-
|
As most of you know by now, the Shorty Chopped Corvair was judged to be cooler/more hellish than the T-Bird-esque Auto Union 1000SP by the voters in Friday's Choose Your Eternity poll. With all the G8amino excitement today, we're going to turn away from two-strokers and groovy customs and get straight to some car-with-truck-bed goodness. The problem with an El Camino as a Project Car Hell entrant is that it's just too easy . Even the most decrepit example shares most of its components with made-by-the-millions cars that benefit from a vast reproduction parts industry and pool of junkyard parts, making the parts-obtainment process nowhere near hellish enough. But when you get into an El Camino that's been converted into a drag race car in someone's back yard... well, now we're talking! See, what you really want to take to the dragstrip is a vehicle with apocalyptic amounts of power combined with zero weight over the drive wheels, preferably with drum brakes on at...
|
-
|
With Maximum El Camino Day beginning to draw to a close, it makes sense to answer the uestion of where these beautiful beasts go to meet their final end. No matter how useful that car's truck bed might be, at some point an El Camino owner often decides that it's no longer worth fixing the ol' Chevy. Or perhaps- in fact, more likely- parking tickets pile up like Saskatchewan snowdrifts and even a plaintive note can't ward off the Tow Truck Man. Either way, many El Caminos end up as parts donors as they await their final journey to the cold steel jaws of The Crusher. In honor of Maximum El Camino Day, I stopped by an East Bay wrecking yard over the weekend and photographed these five examples: three 70s examples and two from the 80s (and, yes, I know the one with the shell is a GMC Sprint). Make the jump for many, many more photos. galleryPost('JunkedElCaminosTop', 9, 'El Caminos Down On The Junkyard Part 1'); galleryPost('JunkedElCaminosJump', 55,...
|
-
|
DAFamino. Ladamino. Continentalero. Cubepage. For years now, we've had a disturbing obsession healthy fascination for cars with truck beds, be they factory models or duct-tape-and-Pabst backyard jobs. So, in honor of the newly-revealed Pontiac G8 El Camino and today's El Camino craziness , we've gone and put together a poll with most of the truckcars we've seen here so far, in chronological order and preserving the original names as posted (even when they may conflict with our not-very-rigidly-enforced naming convention). We wanted to let you choose from every single one , but the hamsters that run our servers started behaving rather strangely once the poll got past 100 choices. Make the jump, vote away! Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.
|
-
|
You know what's wrong with the Chevy Suburban? Aside from the fact that it hasn't resembled a real Suburban for decades, that it? Yep, the lack of a pickup bed! Fortunately, someone has finally grafted a pickup bed on an '87 Suburban, dropped a Cummins diesel under the hood, and painted the whole thing in eyeball-charring purple... and you now have the opportunity to buy it! Is it just us, or does that driveshaft look awfully vulnerable? Thanks to Carless for the tip. [eBay Motors] galleryPost('ElSuburbamimo', 6, 'El Suburbamino');
|
-
|
newVideoPlayer("camino-bbq.flv", undefined, NaN,""); What is a Maximum El Camino Day without a scene from everyone's favorite car customization show? This episode from season five has the gang from Galpin Auto Sports converting an El Camino into a tailgating machine complete with a propane grill and condiment dispenser. Yes, propane. If things couldn't get worse, the owner of the El Camino is reportedly a Raiders fan. Putting a propane tank in the back is just asking for an El Caminocide to occur. R.I.P. you ugly Camino and damn the assholes that did this to you. [ MTV ; LA Times ]
|
-
|
Once again, Denver's own Kitt has found an interesting vehicle parked on the streets of her city, and had camera in hand to capture it for use. Now, this might actually be a "big-block" El Camino (with a 267 or 305 or even a six-banger) under the hood, but then you figure there's no point in doing an emblem upgrade on a total beater, right? For that matter, it might not even be a '67, despite the grille, what with the parts swapping that takes place with these cartrucks; note the Malibu emblem on the glovebox lid. No matter, because on Maximum El Camino Day we love all truckcars, not just the ones that can withstand the scrutiny of uptight car judges! Be sure to make the jump and catch the rest of the photos in Part 2. galleryPost('DOTSBEDenverElCoTop', 6, '1967 Chevy El Camino Down On The Denver Street Part 1'); galleryPost('DOTSBEDenverElCoJump', 17, '1967 Chevy El Camino Down On The Denver Street Part 2');
|
-
|
Considering everything under the skin of the new Pontiac G8 El Camino sport truck is basically a Holden Ute, it stands to reason all the modifications done to this truck-car could be done to our sport truck. How would you feel about a 926 HP El Camino? We would feel pretty good about it, all seven seconds we drove it before planting it into a wall somewhere. The mega-hoons at C.A.P.A. Performance who build this baby really understand the idea of Maximum El Camino Day - it's every day of their lives. galleryPost('capave', 6, 'Tire Liquifacation Machine'); We'll let them tell the story on this very serious business-in-the-front ute: We started building our new project car, a VE SS Ute 3 weeks before Summernats. There were many late nights spent building an Engine, Strengthening the Driveline and Developing the Supercharger kit to where it is now. The engine was stroked to 409 cubic inches, with a one off crank, rods and pistons installed to ensure the engine could...
|
-
|
newVideoPlayer("aminonissandrift.flv", 463, 387,""); Even the Japanese have camino envy. Some even want one so much they convert their old Nissans into car-trucks. This guy took an S13 180SX and made it into a "Driftomino." Sure the ride height is too low to go drive through a field, and the bed is only big enough to carry a mini scooter, but it makes up for it with those powerslide kudos. Though we kinda wish those Japanese guys had grown matching mullets. But what's that? You think it's not macho enough? Well then check out the Skyline Camino below. newVideoPlayer("aminoskyline.flv", 463, 387,""); [ You Tube ]
|
-
|
Technically, the pickup truck version of the Mercedes-Benz 180D, built during the 1956-58 period for the South African market, wasn't a factory Benzamino (or should that name be Mercedampage, given the later association with Chrysler?), but we figure it's close enough for our purposes. 400 Mercedes-Benz 180Ds with no body behind the B pillar were imported to South Africa to have the beds installed locally, and they were promptly dubbed "Bakkies" by the locals. You can read about a Bakkie restoration project here , or wish for a time machine in order buy this one that just sold on eBay . [MBZPonton.org] galleryPost('BakkieBenzamino', 9, 'Factory Benzaminos For South Africa');
|
-
|
God only knows what else may be going on in the world because we're busy here bringing you the latest in El Camino goodness for today's Maximum El Camino Day celebrating the new 2010 Pontiac G8 "El Camino" sport truck . However there may be some dissent in the ranks on the name -- so the question's probably pretty obvious. We're obviously pushing the "El Camino" name pretty hard and there's a reason for it. We spoke with the guys over at the National El Camino Owners Association (NECOA), we spoke with Mike Levine over at PickupTruck.com , the guys at GM and we spoke with each other. I feel like the right name was chosen, but now it's time to hear from you -- was the right name chosen for Jalopnik to push as the name for the new ute?
|
-
|
newVideoPlayer("G8STdrivinginstudio.flv", 484, 280,""); What's that? You're wondering if the production version of the newly-revealed Pontiac G8 El Camino is functional? Well here's the proof: exclusive, raw, uncut video of the G8 sport truck in action from our exclusive, raw, uncut photo shoot with the new ute. We suggested they do a nice smoky burnout for the photo shoot, but seeing as they'd literally just attached the hood to the production prototype for the first time mere hours ago, they were having none of that. Maybe they're saving the rubber for doing donuts on the New York Auto Show floor? Our guess is probably not, but it sure is nice seeing a prototype that isn't being pushed around by men in white gloves. Just listen to that 6.0-liter V8 purr.
|
-
|
Woo hooo! 11,000 lbs, supercharged, alcohol injected 383 cubic inch V8 good for 1250 horsepower, two and a half ton Rockwell transfer case, and 66" Goodyears. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Aces High . An all steel bodied 1972 El Camino SS which has been transformed in a wheel standing, car crushing, fire breathing (no really, it shoots fire) monster. It holds the record for the longest monster truck freestanding wheelie at 700 feet going 45 miles per hour. While an all fiberglass, higher performance version was recently completed and dubbed Shell Camino , the original version is way more in keeping with Maximum El Camino Day in our opinion. Oh, did we mention there's awesome 80's quality video of the beast in action set to the Iron Maiden riff of the same name after the jump? newVideoPlayer("aces-high.flv", 475, 376,""); [ Aces High Homepage ]
|
-
|
Even though Alameda is home to numerous street-parked Chevy El Caminos, I've been guilty of overlooking examples of GM's truckcars so far in this series, with just this '72 so far. That's probably because I consider the 1959-60 and 1964-67 models to be the only "true" El Caminos, for reasons that don't stand up under any serious scrutiny. So, with Maximum El Camino Day as inspiration, I'm going to make sure that we see more of the island's Elcos in the future, starting today! galleryPost('DOTS75ElCamino', 6, '1975 Chevy El Camino Down On The Street'); While non-pickup Chevelles of this era are a rare sight, you still see quite a few El Caminos. No doubt this is due to the usefulness of the truck bed motivating owners to keep the things running long after the non-bed-equipped A-bodies were crushed. This '75, a fine example of the Malaise Era GM A-body, lives on the same block as the Bonus Cab '71 Chevrolet pickup ; I think they...
|
-
|
If you happened to be under a rock all weekend, you may have missed our official unveil of the Pontiac G8 sport truck (soon to be the Pontiac G8 El Camino - remember to get over and Vote El Camino !) for all the world to see. If you're a site regular, you know this is kind of a big deal . Given that, we decided one measly midnight post on a Saturday wouldn't cut it for a site like Jalopnik , so we're going nuts and declaring it Maximum El Camino Day today. We had so much fun with Maximum Wagon Day that this seemed like the only logical way to celebrate the greatest thing to ever happen to our world of car-truck-crazy enthusiasts. Stay tuned for the rest of the day for all manner of -camino, -chero, -ampage, or other suffix-style truck-car delights. Just follow along at the Maximum El Camino Day tag for all the fun before we see the official in-person reveal of the new 'merican-Mex hybrid later this week at the New York Auto Show.
|
|
|
|