Chevrolet sold the El Camino as a working truck, but buyers kept ordering it with engines meant for drag strips. By 1970 an El Camino SS could leave the factory with a 454 rated at 450 horsepower and a bed out back for the groceries.
These eight are our picks for the El Caminos that, in our view, packed more engine than any pickup had a right to. Nobody banned them. We simply think a few should have raised a few eyebrows at the state capitol.
Every rating, price and production figure below comes from auction catalogs, period reporting and specialist outlets. The verdicts are ours alone.
1. 1959 Chevrolet El Camino 348 Tri-Power
The first El Camino was Chevrolet’s answer to Ford’s Ranchero, which had arrived in 1957. At first, Chevy built it on the full-size Impala line and priced it at $2,352. Overall, 22,246 left the plants in its first year. Sales then fell to 14,163 in 1960, and the model went away until 1964.
Still, the options sheet held a surprise. Buyers could order the 348 V8 with three two-barrel carburetors, sold as the Super Turbo-Thrust. According to Sports Car Market’s report on a loaded Crown Sapphire car, that setup made 280 horsepower. That same truck sold for $56,100 at Mecum in November 2010. In our opinion, a farm truck with three carburetors was trouble from day one.
2. 1965 Chevrolet El Camino L79
For 1964 the El Camino came back on the lighter, intermediate Chevelle platform. A year later, Chevrolet offered the L79 version of the 327 small-block. That engine carried a 350-horsepower rating, which was a lot of power for a truck with a half-empty bed over its rear axle.
For example, Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale 2017 catalog describes a matching-numbers L79 with a Muncie four-speed. The car appears in the L79 registry. Its build date put it among the last L79s from the Fremont, California, plant in late June 1965. Our take: this is the El Camino that proved the formula worked.
3. 1966 Chevrolet El Camino 396
Next, the big-block arrived. As Barn Finds notes, the 396 became an El Camino option in 1966, two years before the SS package reached the truck. As a result, a buyer could order serious displacement under a plain-looking hood.
In fact, RM Sotheby’s offered one at its 2019 Auburn Fall sale. The lot listing gives its 396 a 360-horsepower rating, paired with a four-speed manual. It came with under 15,300 documented miles, its Protect-O-Plate and a copy of the build sheet. Then it sold for $30,800. We think a 360-horsepower truck that looked this ordinary deserved a warning label.
4. 1968 Chevrolet El Camino SS396
For 1968, Chevrolet finally brought the Super Sport trim and its performance package from the Chevelle to the El Camino. The top engine was the L78 396. According to V8TV’s Muscle Car of the Week feature, it made 375 horsepower at 5,600 rpm and 415 lb-ft of torque at 3,600 rpm.
Also, the L78 used an 11.5:1 compression ratio, so it wanted premium fuel and plenty of revs. Nobody knows exactly how many 1968 El Caminos got it. However, the same feature cites an estimate of 393. In our view, an El Camino SS with this engine was a race car that happened to have a tailgate.
5. 1969 Chevrolet El Camino SS 396 L78
The L78 stayed on the list for 1969. Before the 454 arrived, that 375-horsepower 396 was the strongest engine an El Camino could carry for two straight years. Buyers who wanted it usually wanted the hardware to match.
Take the truck sold at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale 2024. Its catalog lists the L78 big-block with a Muncie M21 close-ratio four-speed. It also lists a 12-bolt Positraction rear axle with 3.73:1 gears. In other words, that is a drag-race spec, not a delivery spec. Our view is simple: this combination asked for a ticket every time the light turned green.
6. 1970 Chevrolet El Camino SS 396
The 1970 El Camino got a squarer body and twin headlights set outside the grille. Its badges said 396, but the engine had grown. As Hagerty’s auction listing explains, the 396 actually displaced 402 cubic inches that year.
Specifically, the truck in that listing carried the L34 version, rated at 350 horsepower, with an M21 four-speed. Hagerty’s listing puts quarter-mile times in the upper 13-second range. The car sold on March 8, 2023, for $28,890. In our opinion, the hidden six extra cubic inches made this the sneakiest truck on the list.
7. 1970 Chevrolet El Camino SS 454 LS6
Through the 1960s, the El Camino never got the hottest engine its Chevelle siblings offered. That changed in 1970, when Chevrolet made the LS6 454 available. As Jalopnik’s look at the 1970 El Camino SS 454 reports, it carried a rating of 450 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque.
The same piece cites a 0-to-60 time of 6.6 seconds and a 13.4-second quarter mile. Those numbers came on skinny 7-inch tires with a four-speed manual. Meanwhile, the truck kept its bed and its tailgate. If any El Camino should have been outlawed, in our view, this is the one.
8. 1972 Chevrolet El Camino SS 454
The El Camino SS 454 lived on after the LS6 left. Chevrolet offered the 454 in the El Camino from 1970 through 1975. For 1972, the industry also switched from gross to net horsepower ratings. Because of that change, engines looked weaker on paper overnight.
According to CarBuzz’s history of the El Camino SS 454, a 1972 SS with the four-barrel 454 was rated at 270 horsepower. Even so, torque from 454 cubic inches does not disappear because the paperwork changed. Our take: the 1972 truck was the last third-generation El Camino SS 454, and it hit harder than its rating suggests.
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