Back in the late 1970s, Marvel injected new life into its comic book universe with an interesting series of stories based on the premise:
What If?
The clever “What If?” comic book series featured familiar Marvel characters placed in hypothetical plot-twisting scenarios, like “What If the Fantastic Four Had Different Super-Powers?” and our personal favorite “What if the Punisher Had Killed Spiderman?”
So for this Lot Shots feature, we’re playing a bit of “What If?” by entering a timeline in which Chevy offered its fan-favorite El Camino with a 4×4 drivetrain—a feature that was never available in any El Camino generation.
When this El Camino thundered into the Summit Racing Ohio Retail Store a while back, we could immediately tell this was no ordinary Ute. So to get the full story, we tracked down its owner.
“I wanted a old classic I could drive in the Winter,” George smiles. “So I made this.”
He reveals that the El Camino body is resting on a 1989 Chevy Suburban frame.
Surprisingly, the requisite modifications to make the two play nice together were relatively minor, including some relocated shackles and a bit of trimming off the front frame horns.
“El Caminos are big cars,” George tells us. “I’ve done this before with Blazer frames, and you have to lengthen those.”
George specifically chose this particular (1973-91) Suburban generation frame too, because it still had a traditional straight axle—the trusty GM 10-bolt. Suburbans went to an independent front suspension in 1992.
“The IFS was too wide,” he explains. “The tires stick out.”
At the end of each axle shaft rests a set of Warn manual locking hubs.
Under the hood lurks a 454 big block Chevy that George plucked from a motor home, and it’s backed up by a GM 4L80E transmission. To accommodate the larger engine and new master cylinder, the brake pedal was relocated to what would’ve been the stock El Camino’s clutch pedal position.
We asked him how the combo does with fuel economy.
“It’s horrible,” he laughs. ” I get around 12 on the highway.”
But he also tells us that the El Camino is an excellent driver, smooth and predictable, and it has been nothing but reliable since he finished the project a few years ago.
Inside, you may notice that the shifters are familiar Ford products, and the supplemental instrumentation features aftermarket gauges from Summit Racing.
George explains that, even with the driveline modifications and larger tires, that the speedometer is still very accurate thanks to some careful calculations.
He also describes some other parts that he was able to re-use from the Suburban, notably the gas tank that retains the original El Camino’s filler position.
While Chevy never offered a four-wheel drive variant of the El Camino, this homebuilt one makes a strong case for a missed opportunity—perhaps there’s a Multiverse out there where GM offered these 4x4s right from the factory?
At any rate, we consider George a superhero for bringing this one to life.
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