A redesigned A-body platform translated into a longer wheelbase for Chevrolet’s 1968 El Camino. Sales went up by 20 percent to 41,791 – a new high for the car. That record then soared to more than 57,000 in 1972, the last year for the Coke-bottle-shaped Chevelle body that had debuted four years before.

Popularity of V-8 engines was on the rise, and by 1969, 94 percent of that year’s El Camino run was ordered with either a small-block or big-block. The latter group consisted of the SS 396 rendition, introduced the year before. Like its Malibu-based counterpart, the SS 396 El Camino came standard with a blacked-out grille, bulging hood and a 325-horsepower 396-cid Mk IV V-8. Again like its passenger-car cousin, the Super Sport El Camino appeared in two forms in 1970: an SS 396 and SS 454. Most prized in the latter ranks were the super-rare LS6 version and their 450 wild horses.