![]() ![]() He and his wife, Debra, have three children. O'Leary, of Hope Valley, is service building manager at the Providence branch office of AAA Northeast. "I drive it to car shows, and to work from time to time," he said. O'Leary said he does not drive his El Camino much, only adding about 6,000 miles to the clock, which currently reads 123,000, in five years. Shaw, who owns a 1964 El Camino, said the vehicles were comparatively rare because production was limited and because they were essentially cars that were worked like trucks, notably in the Southwest and West, where they were more popular than in other regions. The space sits under the truck bed, which is flat. O'Leary revealed a storage area behind the seats that houses a spare wheel. The cabin has two bucket seats - some models had a bench seat for three. It is powered by a 305-cubic-inch, small block V8 motor with a four-barrel carburetor producing about 195 horsepower, he said. The vehicle has the Super Sport (SS) package, which includes special trim and suspension. He then restored the interior with maroon plastic trim and velour/vinyl seats, along with adding new bumpers and square bezels around the headlights. "I bought it from someone who had done a lot of work on it but had not finished it," he said. Previous owner Shaw said it had been extensively worked on and painted before he bought it in 2005. O'Leary said the car was in great shape when he bought it five years ago. "It's an old station wagon with the backseat cut off," he said, with the bed opened up. The upper body is a dark maroon with a bold orange-red pinstripe tracing the wheel wells and sides above the silver/beige siding that runs along the bottom of the body. A small badge on the door sills identifies the body as having been made by Fisher Brothers, the former General Motors coachbuilder. Indeed, when asked by the car's previous owner, AAA Northeast's president and CEO Mark Shaw, whether he would like to buy it, O'Leary was emphatic in his response: "I told him, 'Yes, hands down. "It's a truck that runs like a car," O'Leary said. The El Camino was produced intermittently until 1987, making O'Leary's one of the last produced.Īnd while the coupe utility pickup's fan base might not be wide, it is loyal. It was introduced in 1958 to compete with the Ford Ranchero, which had been introduced two years earlier, with the same combination of car in front and pickup in rear. Donn O'Leary's maroon and silver/beige 1987 Chevrolet El Camino is a coupe utility pickup - and the name alone reflects a dual personality that has never been comfortable with itself. ![]()
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