A question for our readers with kids: how would you like it if your child’s love interest picked him or her up for a date in this? Okay, okay, I’d be all, “Cool car. Seems like a great dude–have a blast!” But if it were 1981, my response would be something more along the lines of, “Wear your seatbelt, be home by ten, your body is a temple, and uh… DON’T TOUCH!” This El Camino looks much more sinister than its Colonnade relatives; could it be the best-ever example of a ute conversion?
If so, this sleek, black example makes a very strong case for itself. The clean forward-slanting tailgate and side glass are design highlights and more than make up for the double-stacked quad headlamps. This particular trucklet was found in Germany by r0b0tr10t and shows what’s making our ’70s classics so popular with enthusiasts in fashionable Europe as it outshines the cars parked around it (I’ll make an exception for the 1-series hatch in the top photo, but otherwise it’s a snoozefest). With the great fuel available in Europe, this one deserves a high-compression 400 (not available for ’77), but even without that engine, it has enough of a menacing presence to get more than few a lustful stares.
The front of these just kills it for me.
Agreed. One of the worst ever. I gave it DS status on the old site. Looks like it was designed in a High School shop class using left-over wire-mesh fencing material.
I have a hard time thinking of an East Bloc car with a more pathetic and dismal front end.
Now I’m trying to picture what a Trabant with stacked-quad square headlights would’ve looked like.
Backgrading to the ’73 Laguna S-3 front end would do WONDERS for this caruck’s looks.
It appears that this one has had the inner reverse lights deleted.
With the blacked out grille and the rest of the package, I can ignore the front end. I don’t hate it as much as you two (and likely many others) do, but it doesn’t match the car well.
FWIW, Bill Clinton supposedly had one of these, but his was a 1970.
What a great shape. I too have trouble with the stacklights, but on this model its forgivable. Super clean.
Always liked the way this Elky cab sweeps into the bed something the Auswegian utes lacked.
This is a nice example but I prefer the final generation El Caminos with the little quarter windows behind the door. The extra window made it feel more finished and better proportioned than the blank sheet metal.
I also like the deeply curved rear window of the ’78 to ’87 generation, as opposed to these more gently curved pieces. But these do have a certain brawniness to them that the later, smaller ones do not.
Always good to see a ute on the site
The black paint and blacked out chrome really helps the dismal aircraft carrier hood and front mug. I still have a hard time accepting colonnades as mid sizers. I would go for the Malibu based next generation.
Paul, the Volare/ Aspen always looked eastern block to me since I was a kid.
The props guys nailed it when they chose these guys ride.
+1 on the blackout treatment making this go down easier. Ive never liked stacked square headlights, but this pulls it off MUCH better than the contemporary Ranchero and Cordoba did….vestiges of the standup grille poorly smoothed over looks like ass in a bag with those square lites. Just my opinion.
The mesh does look like gutter screen hammered into the grille opening on this. Lazy, yes…but not as ‘ugly’ as some setups. Pauls example with the faded red and the peeling chrome really makes it look its worst.
These Elkys aren’t my fave…a 4 eyed ’69 or the ’79-’87 in ‘fake’ SS trim would be my top picks. But if I had a Colonnade-based Elk, Id want to do a nose job with either a Chevelle Laguna or ’76 Cutlass front clip. That would cure the styling mistakes of this bodystyle for me.
I had a ’75 with the single headlights. It didn’t look as contrived as this one. It was a pretty good all around vehicle. It even did yeomans duty pulling a camper. If I was going to get a truck again I think I would try for one of these or a Ranchero, which I also once had.
I prefer the looks of the ’68-’72 myself, like my own ’71 Sprint 🙂 .
Yes, these are also quite sexy.
yes, these are great looking cars. and the owner had enough taste not to add, well, anything but a very cool black paint job. we will just overlook the little fact that with no weight in the back, a hot engine will mostly lead to needing new rear tires quite often. 🙂 but I’d drive it, no question.
Give me a 59 with the tear drop taillights any day!!
I think a date showing up in a conversion van of this era would be an even bigger red flag to a parent.
This is one evil looking pick-up, especially with that front end. I have visions of it prowling round the German Strasse and Autobahns, ‘Duel’ style, picking off unwitting Audi A4, A5 and A6 drivers (hopefully!!!)
My money though would go on a Holden Maloo. Right-hand drive and a supercharged LSA, good for around 170 mph.
Once drove a buddies 68 Camino 4 speed 327 back from Sequoia to L.A. when his clutch was gone and would not disengage. I learned from a ex truck driver (Dad) how to bring up the RPM’s in between gears so it would slide right in. Timed most of the lights so I only had to use the starter once or twice to get going. He followed me in my VW. He was amazed I didn’t destroy his transmission as I drove it in to his favorite repair shop. Most of the trip was 4th gear down I-5. The 68-72’s are the one’s I like best, followed by the 79-87. This beast does look pretty good from the back, but never really cared for these versions.
These are not my favorites, but I like the monochrome treatment. Nothing says sinister like an all-black vehicle.
if there’s one thing I’m happy about, it’s that the fad of stacked rectangular headlamps was a short-lived one. I don’t think any car or truck looks good with them. But the LTD II was the worst.
These kinds of cars always turn heads in Germany. I wonder what the headlights would look like if the chrome framing was black as well.
I think I prefer it this way. To my eye, *mostly* black with hints of chrome here and there (like this Elky) is usually a better look than *all* black. Some visual relief and contrast is nice.
A co-worker had a 76 or 77 El Camino. His was a 2 tone chocolate brown with pale yellow/creme (?). Between the 2 tone paint job, stacked headlights and whitewall tires this trucklet had every deluxe feature Chevy could slather on a vehicle. To me it was the automotive equivalent of a 12 year old wearing all of Mom’s best costume jewelry she could pile on.
Although the subject car comes from my (and seemingly everybody else’s) least-favorite El Camino era, this one is the best of a bad bunch. Blacking out the chicken-coop grille is definitely the way to go with these, providing effective damage control on OEM stacked-quad ugliness.
I have posted on here once before here a pic of this last-gen SS “Choo Choo Special” which I shot earlier this summer. (Sorry for lousy composition; sun prevented me from seeing my phone’s screen so I literally couldn’t see what I was shooting.) This one looks pretty sinister too — although with its wheezy 305 and column-mount slushbox, it really isn’t. More of a sheep in wolf’s clothing. As with my own ’89 Camaro RS — which is of course something of a sister-vehicle under the skin — to make this Elky’s performance match its appearance would require the owner to spend many thousands of dollars doing all the things GM should have done back when they were being made.