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N0KFQ > TODAY 16.10.12 22:37l 50 Lines 2294 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 29726_KB0WSA
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Subj: Today in History - Oct 16
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<IK6ZDE<F1OYP<N9PMO<N6RME<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 121016/2113Z 29726@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.53
...
Oct 16, 1958:
Chevrolet introduces the El Camino
On October 16, 1958, Chevrolet begins to sell a car-truck hybrid
that it calls the El Camino. Inspired by the Ford Ranchero, which
had already been on the market for two years, the El Camino was a
combination sedan-pickup truck built on the Impala body, with the
same "cat's eye" taillights and dramatic rear fins. It was, ads
trilled, "the most beautiful thing that ever shouldered a load!"
"It rides and handles like a convertible," Chevy said, "yet hauls
and hustles like the workingest thing on wheels."
Ford's Ranchero was the first "car-truck" sold in the United
States, but it was not a new idea. Since the 1930s, Australian
farmers had been driving what they called "utes"_short for "coupé
utility"_all around the outback. Legend has it that a farmer's
wife from rural Victoria had written a letter to Ford Australia,
asking the company to build a car that could carry her to church
on Sundays and her husband's pigs to market on Mondays. In
response, Ford engineer Lewis Brandt designed a low-slung
sedan-based vehicle that was a ritzy passenger car in the front,
with wind-up windows and comfortable seats and a rough-and-tumble
pickup in back. The ute was a huge hit; eventually, virtually
every company that sold cars Down Under made its own version.
In the United States, however, ute-type vehicles were slower to
catch on. Though the Ranchero was a steady seller, the first
incarnation of the El Camino was not and Chevy discontinued it
after just two years. In 1964, the company introduced a new
version, this one built on the brawnier Chevelle platform. In
1968, the more powerful SS engine made the El Camino into one of
the iconic muscle cars of the late 1960s and 1970s.
In 1987, Chevrolet dropped the El Camino from its lineup for
good. Today, the car is a cult classic. In 2008, Pontiac
announced plans to introduce an El-Camino-inspired "sport truck"
and even considered naming it the El Camino, before settling on
the shorter G8 ST. In 2009, however, GM's financial difficulties
forced the carmaker to postpone production of its new models; it
also announced plans to eliminate the Pontiac brand altogether by
2010.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
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