There’s a lot going on here and it really caught my attention, twice! In spite of their fairly strong production numbers, the one year only, 1970 LS6 Chevelle is still an attention-getting find. Even more so when that find is actually the El Camino version of the Chevelle. Our seller claims this 1970 Chevrolet SS454 El Camino is one of those rare LS6 versions but admits that he doesn’t have the build sheet – a defining factor. We have to take a close look at this super half car/half truck! It is located in Bolivar, Missouri, and is available here on eBay for a current bid of $18,600, reserve not yet met.

The story is oft-told, Regular Production Option (RPO) LS6 was a 450 gross HP, 454 CI engine equipped Chevelle SS offered in the pinnacle year of 1970. Production numbers vary but the two figures that float up most often are 4,475 or 4,439 copies assembled, both volumes within spitting distance of each other. The lesser-known statistic is how many El Camino versions, with the top-dog Chevelle engine, were offered as such. Hard to say, Chevrolet VIN numbers from the era won’t tell the story, you need the raw data that created the build sheets. And some detailed ciphering has been permanently recorded from Chevrolet’s historic records but those records supposedly no longer exist. So if the desired facts and figures weren’t known before the data disappeared, they’re going to be very hard to reconstruct. And that leads to the question, so how many 1970 LS6 El Caminos were built? Most “in the know” sources peg the number at about 585.

This example has all of the tell-tale signs. The seller states that the engine ID on the number pad reads, “T0226CRV”. That stands for T=Tonawanda, NY (Chevrolet’s primary big block engine foundry); 0226=February 26; CRV=454 CI, 450 HP, manual transmission-equipped engine. He further adds, “but it looks like someone went back in at a later date and stamped the partial vin.”  Well, that would be correct, it should read something along the lines of 10K 176942. It would, in fact, be a different font as that information was added at the Kansas City assembly plant. It decodes as 1=Chevrolet; 0=1970; K=Kansas City; and 176942 which is the six-digit car sequence number from the VIN. Where am I going with this? It would have been really nice to have photographic evidence of this information; this is a uber collectible vehicle and all of the small details are important in documenting authenticity. The seller adds that he does have the LS6 intake manifold which would be a Winters Foundry aluminum piece and so identified with Winters’ snowflake logo. It’s not specific to the LS6 engine as it was used on other “high-perf.” Chevrolet big-block engines but there could be linkage via a specific part number. Additionally, the seller states, “The original distributor and carb are gone, I hate to admit this but I removed them for another LS6 project a year ago”. That’s unusual. Anyway, he claims “The car is a running driving car that runs great and sounds like a real LS6 engine should sound.” Surprisingly, the A.I.R. pump is still in place, they frequently got 86’d as part of a “day two” upgrade. The transmission is an odd duck too, it is an Auto Gear branded case that is housing the original M22 internals; apparently the original M22 case cracked. A quick cruise of Auto Gear’s website does list the proper case for a Muncie four-speed so I guess this is a legitimate way to preserve some originality. The M22 was the only four-speed manual that Chevrolet put behind the LS6 motor, so that’s correct at least.

The exterior of this El Camino looks pretty sound. The seller is not much on the finish as he states that it is an amateur paint job performed over twenty years ago. I’m not certain what the purpose of the black painted lower body and rocker panels is for, just a styling choice I imagine. The seller also adds that the body has “an amazingly rust-free body, bed and floor pans”. This Camino does, in fact, look very sound; rust is the bane of this vintage. The exterior, beyond the paint application, appears mostly genuine in terms of trim, badges, and wheels except for the fender badges on the passenger side, their placement is off. The grille is the wrong color too, it should be black. Beyond that, and nothing to do with LS6 legitimacy is the shade of the passenger fender, it doesn’t match the rest of the car very well. Perhaps it is the result of a repair which explains the misaligned badges.

The interior, overall, presents itself quite well. The black nylon loop carpet is typically faded but the vinyl seat fabric looks great. There are aftermarket gauges in place which are either in addition to the optional factory-installed gauges (measure other functions) or are replacements for non-functioning original units. The lack of A/C is correct, it was not allowed with LS6 equipped cars.

Inside another tell-tale is revealed, the 6,500 RPM redline tachometer. It was only employed only with the LS6 engine or the 375 HP, 396 CI, L78 motor, a rare bird in ’70 passenger cars, and none reported in ’70 El Caminos. Lesser engined Chevelles/El Caminos would have made do with a 5,000 or 5,500 RPM redline tach, depending on the engine choice.

One last place to look is underneath. While SS454 passenger Chevelles came equipped with boxed differential lower trailing arms and an anti-sway bar, the El Camino SS did not. And that’s the case here, there is a twelve-bolt axle in place, as expected, but there is no anti-sway bar or boxed and drilled lower arms.

So real, or an excellently prepared clone? It’s hard to say without a very close visual inspection. The listing is non-commital, it’s more like hinting than stating, emphatically, what this Camino’s provenance really is. And the bidding is in weak territory for a real deal LS6 El Camino so that is a bit of a red flag. Legitimate LS6 examples, in very nice condition, trade in the high five, low six-figure range; and of course, we don’t know the reserve in this case. That said, a well-done copy is good in my book, as long as you know that going in and you are paying a copy/clone price. How about you, what’s your thought, too good to be true or are you OK with what this El Camino claims to be?