El Camino SS had a visit Down Under
High-performance 450-hp Chevy has had 20 owners since 1970
The special-order, brutish 450-horsepower 1970 Chevrolet El Camino SS muscle car with the highest performance options available is one rare beast. Only six GM Canada-documented El Camino SS 454 LS6-optioned cars came into the country for 1970. This particular muscle-flexing El Camino was built in Baltimore, Md., and delivered to the Red Deer, Alta., dealership that sold it new. And that was just the beginning.
This car has had no fewer than 20 owners in its 45 years, taking it all over Western Canada and as far away as Australia before being repatriated. Here’s the story of this one-of-a-kind El Camino, with research and photo-documented history provided by the current owner.
In 1970, mining-property surveyor Paul Torgerson lived next door to car salesman Gordie Bonin, who would go on to become a drag-racing legend. He was known as “240 Gordie” because he was the first funny-car driver to hit 240 miles per hour over a quarter-mile from a standing start. Bonin helped his customer place the order at Red Deer Motors for what would be the ultimate muscle car produced by General Motors. The choice was the Chevrolet El Camino — a carbased utility vehicle with a pickup bed.
With Bonin’s help, Torgerson ticked all the boxes for the ultimate in high-performance options: The LS6 engine producing an advertised 450 hp(which was really more like 500 hp), coupled to an M22 heavy-duty four-speed manual transmission and a 3:31 posi-traction rear end.
The car cost $4,200 and would roll off the General Motors assembly line in Baltimore in early June 1970. The order called for Forest Green paint accented with white stripes with a black vinyl roof and interior. In addition, the El Camino was equipped with factory rally wheels and an aggressive special air-induction hood.
Torgerson was at work in Pine Point, N.W.T., when he was informed that his new car had arrived at the dealership. Bonin encouraged him to pick up his car as soon as possible because there was a lineup of people wanting to buy it and the car had to be hidden at the back of the lot.
In addition to its obvious performance attributes, there was another reason Torgerson ordered the car he had seen advertised in Hot Rod magazine early in 1970.
“I had a snowmobile, along with my work gear to haul,” the now 72-year-old said from his home near Tumbler Ridge, B.C.
In fact, he would also carry a 45gallon drum of fuel and a pail of two-cycle oil, along with his surveying equipment, back and forth on the 1,322-kilometre trip north.
Two years later, he sold the car to a co-worker and friend who eventually took the car to his home in Hinton, Alta., and then on to Port Alberni on Vancouver Island. There, the El Camino had numerous proud owners and became infamous in the late 1970s and early 1980s as the fastest car around, knocking off all comers on the street and drag strip.
The car was eventually sold to an enthusiast in Olds, Alta., who did a complete off-frame restoration, which was completed in 1986. From there, the car went to an enthusiast in Saskatchewan, who kept it until December 2001.
Then the real journey began. It was shipped to a new owner in Sydney, Australia, where it would remain for a full decade, stored in a garage. During that time, the original high-performance engine, four-speed transmission and positraction differential were removed and put in storage.
In 2011, the car was purchased and repatriated to Canada by Abbotsford, B.C., enthusiast and collector Brian Wear, who has owned three 1970 El Camino SS pickups. In fact, of the six 1970 El Camino SS 454 LS6 cars that came to Canada, Wear has owned two of them. He got his first 1970 El Camino in 1977, which was an SS 396 car.
He sold his Shadow Gray LS6 El Camino in 2001 to the same owner he bought his current Forest Green car from.
Before shipping the car back to Canada, Wear had a well-known engine and race-car builder in Sydney rebuild the engine, transmission and rear end to the original factory specifications.
“I believe this 1970 El Camino SS 454 LS6 to be the most highly documented car of this type,” he says. “This vehicle is one of one, as it was ordered with 32 options.”
He has extensive documentation, which includes a list of the 19 previous owners by year, a letter from the original owner, letters from Bonin, the original GM build sheet, the original dealer option order sheet, the General Motors Canada documented option sheet and certification from the LS6 Registry.
He also has photographs from its multiple-person ownership and extensive travels over the past 45 years.
In 2013, Bonin visited Wear and the rare El Camino, and he was followed by Torgerson last September, who saw, for the first time in 43 years, the legendary car he had purchased new.