This is ain't no Chevrolet El Camino. Well, it is in every way but in what they called it. It's GMC's version of Chevrolet's car/truck/wagon (whatever the hell it was) that they called "Sprint". You can tell GM's marketing honchos labored for hours over that moniker. Our subject is a 1971 Sprint haling from the bucolic Cleveland Ohio area and is for sale for a not unreasonable asking price of $16,500. The nice owner is even willing to take a best offer or trade.
What exactly was a GMC Sprint aside from the obvious? GMC, which stands for "General Motors Coach", certainly made no bones about it being nothing more and certainly nothing less than a badge-engineered El Camino; so give them some credit for that. The head scratcher is, though, why'd they even bother with this when Chevrolet was selling virtually the same thing already?
Well, long story short, GMC sold the Sprint because General Motors wanted to expand GMC's customer base. It would have made no sense to sell a rebadged Impala or Bonneville under a nameplate best known for trucks so the best thing to do was rebadge the car-truck El Camino as a GMC.
Created in 1912 as a builder of commercial grade trucks, GMC backed into the light truck business in the late 1950's and early 1960's cashing in on the GMC nameplate as a way to stay solvent. John Deere, known for their heavy, commercial grade farm equipment sells lawn mowers and garden tractors to consumers for the same reason.
Our super clean subject here has a rebuilt Chevrolet 454 and comes with an automatic transmission, bucket seats, power steering, and brakes.
Well, long story short, GMC sold the Sprint because General Motors wanted to expand GMC's customer base. It would have made no sense to sell a rebadged Impala or Bonneville under a nameplate best known for trucks so the best thing to do was rebadge the car-truck El Camino as a GMC.
Created in 1912 as a builder of commercial grade trucks, GMC backed into the light truck business in the late 1950's and early 1960's cashing in on the GMC nameplate as a way to stay solvent. John Deere, known for their heavy, commercial grade farm equipment sells lawn mowers and garden tractors to consumers for the same reason.
Our super clean subject here has a rebuilt Chevrolet 454 and comes with an automatic transmission, bucket seats, power steering, and brakes.
The column shifter makes me think the engine is not original - for 1971, these came equipped with the usual gamut of the Chevrolet 250 cubic inch inline six, 307 and 350 cubic inch small block V-8's, as well as the big block 402 and 454 V-8's, so who knows what it was originally built with. With an asking price as reasonable as it is, there are going to be some compromises and a compromise that comes with professionally rebuilt 454, numbers matching or not, is not a bad thing.
If you're into these things, here's the listing. Would seem you could do a lot worse. Have fun!
GMC built the Sprint from 1971-1977 replacing it with the "Caballero" in 1978-1987.
If you're into these things, here's the listing. Would seem you could do a lot worse. Have fun!
GMC built the Sprint from 1971-1977 replacing it with the "Caballero" in 1978-1987.
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