Big Block Powered: 1970 Chevrolet El Camino SS
Judging by the positive prose of both myself and the other writers here at Barn Finds along with the enthusiastic comments of our beloved readers, Chevrolet El Caminos are among the most popular types of vehicles featured in these hallowed pages. What is not to like? Rear wheel drive, V-8 engines (almost always), a proper pickup bed, attractive styling, and a certain sense of exclusivity, all wrapped up in a very useable size. How could you improve upon so much perfection? Easy. Park a Big Block V-8 under the hood and unleash all of that horsepower and torque through a light rear end. That is exactly what Chevrolet did when it produced the snazzy 1970 El Camino SS you see above and below. Do you think a 454 cubic inch V-8 is too much excess for the El Camino, or is it just the right platform for mountains of torque and rivers of horsepower?
When Chevrolet debuted the third-generation El Camino in 1968, the horsepower wars were raging. Nearly every vehicle produced in America at that time had an option sheet that offered an engine that was far more powerful than the bias-ply tires and crude braking systems were capable of safely dealing with. The best part about it was that almost nobody cared except for the safety lobbyists. The 1970 Chevrolet El Camino SS you see here is a great example of this wholesome outrageousness. While the very nature of an El Camino’s design meant that there was precious little traction due to the light weight of an unloaded pickup bed over the rear tires, Chevrolet still offered a 454 cubic inch V-8 for that year.
Yet, this was not the garden variety 454 that usually found itself at home under the hood of work trucks of the era. This version put out 450 horsepower and 500 lb. ft. of torque. Even with precious little traction, this engine was capable of shoving a fishtailing El Camino down the quarter mile in the 13-second range at speeds over 100 MPH. Those are amazing numbers even today for a truck. Remember that this was in the days when traction control wasn’t available and the tires were, as a rule, fairly narrow. Running an El Camino equipped in this way down a full-length quarter-mile dragstrip in anger must have been one of those activities that rode that fine line between ridiculously awesome fun and wide-eyed terror.
Yet it is these big-block terrors that collectors want most today. This one was purchased at the 2023 Barrett Jackson auction in Las Vegas, Nevada. The seller tells us that this was an Arizona car that originally rumbled out of a Canadian factory. Among its desirable options are an automatic transmission, bucket seats, a center console with a floor shifter, power steering, power brakes, and the SS package. While the seller tells us that the odometer reads a scant 18,000 miles, there is no mention of if and/or when this El Camino was restored. Regardless, it presents beautifully and is surely a hoot to drive.
While this is one of the nicest El Caminos we have ever profiled, the sad part of the story is that the only thing this El Camino will likely ever haul again is a certain three-letter word that we cannot repeat here. That may not be a bad thing if you have the means to pick it up. Sometimes it is nice to bask in wretched excess and throw out logic and reason. A big block-powered El Camino is a wondrously ridiculous relic from an era of wonderful, abundant horsepower. Hopefully, we will one day be able to not take ourselves so seriously and be able to enjoy such niceties once again.
Are El Caminos with a ridiculous amount of horsepower appealing to you? If so, this 1970 Chevrolet El Camino SS for sale on Craigslist in Pelham, Massachusetts is worthy of your attention. This big block-powered Chevy hauler has been completely gone through and presents perfectly with an asking price of $46,000. Thanks go to Mitchell G. for this awesome find!
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Comments
The add is gone and reads expired. Would have liked to have seen that one. At that price it probably was not an LS6 from the factory.
Air cleaner sticker says 427
Wealthy famers bratty kid I knew got a new one every 3 years till @ ’73, 3 in total I think.
Thou shalt not covet…..
Well you would think the original owner thought they had enough power to run a A/C compressor?
The LS6 did not have a/c available as an option. I did have a ’71 with the LS5, a/c, and a 4 spd. Fun car/truck.
Am I the only one seeing “427” on the air cleaner lid? No matter. This would be an awesome ride to rat around in. Power windows and vent glass with a light interior would be mostly pleasant even on a warm day. Sometimes too much is just enough.
Yes, I noticed that too, Nelson. Odd choice to represent what is a desirable engine in 1970 with one that was not even available in that model year.
Jeff, your comment “the El Camino’s design meant that there was precious little traction due to the light weight of an unloaded pickup bed” sounds reasonable, but in this case it isn’t true. The 68-72 El Camino’s actually have a very slight advantage of weight distribution over a similarly equipped Chevelle coupe. The front/rear weight bias is less than a 1% advantage over the coupe, but it counters that the comments about weight in the rear. The 64-67’s are slightly lighter in the rear than a similar coupe, but again, “slightly” is the word. People counter that you don’t see El Camino race cars, there are a few, but the El Camino production was a fraction of the hardtop cars, that’s why you see so few of them. Most were beat and used to death, very few survive.
Up until the last 10 years or so you’d see a lot of 68-72 El Camino’s running the street bracket. They’d load up a spare set of tires, jack, small tool box, EZ-UP, a couple of chairs and a cooler. You couldn’t do that with a street car and didn’t need a trailer. The 68-72 El Camino’s are a good platform for a moderately powered car, the rear overhang moves a lot of weight behind to the back, lowering the tailgate even more. The only reason they aren’t as popular now is now is trailers are more readily available and a lot of newer street cars are fairly quick and consistent out of the box with their OE tires.
I’m also in California where El Camino’s were and still are a common sight.
Steve R
Yep, Cali still has awesome cars on the road. I grew up in Chicago, then lived on the east coast, now in the south. Not too many survived, which is exactly why I like mine so much. Chevelles are everywhere, not that that is a bad thing, but Elco’s are relatively few and far between.
Pretty El Camino.
Steve R
If it was truly born with that 454, it is most likely the LS5 version at 365 HP. As someone else stated, LS6 wasn’t available with A/C, and though this unit has no A/C, it would be EXTREMELY RARE to have the LS6 at 450 HP, that engine just didn’t happen often in an El Camino. We will never know without seeing the codes in the engine, as well as the build sheet. I didn’t look closely enough at the pictures to see the 427 decal that someone else noted.
I’m curious as to whether anyone actually saw the listing on CL. I attempted to find it with the Wayback Machine (historical internet archive website) and it couldn’t find it. Additionally, the air cleaner clearly identifies the engine as the 427 (which isn’t a bad thing). I sure would like to find out more about this El Camino.
After further contemplation, it appears this is truly a SCAM listing. First, you can’t find the CL listing with any available historical tools and second, the 427 was never put in ANY El Camino. The largest displacement up until 1970 was the 396 and 1970 was the first year for the 454 with the LS6 available in only that year.
Yep….survivor rate was low….these got trash as well after a few years…..
I stopped and looked at a 68 El Camino for sale with an “enhanced” 396 about 30 years ago. The guy had two pieces of inner tubes tied off on the ends filled with sand that wrapped around the fender wells nicely. Didn’t help the looks of an otherwise nice El Camino, but he said it sure helped the traction.
I use to own one of these in the days of my misspent youth.
I always thought the window cranks for the cigarette windows was a classy touch.