Does anyone know what the word El Camino really means?? I think it means "the path" in Spanish, but why would Chevrolet name their car after "the path". Anyone know the history behind the El Camino name????

The "El Camino Re-al" (spelling), is a highway in California meaning "The King's Highway"
Someone from back home help me out on the spelling here.

72Elky,
El Camino is Spanish for "The Way" or "The Road". It has two different meanings. I do not know why they named it that. All I know is that 58/59 Elkys were designed after Corvettes, so maybe it was "The Way to the Future". Just a thought.

Why did they name the Chevelle a Chevelle? It's not even a word in any language. Also take the Camaro, it means "pal" or "buddy" in French. The only thing good I learned in that class besides that I like the teacher's husband's 1970 Pro Street Hemi 'Cuda 2 doors down in the auto shop http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif

I believe the word Chevelle came from the French.I think it was a battleship or something to that nature.I am not sure so please correct me if I am wrong.

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Dean Ciampi
Autumn Gold 1970 LS6 Chevelle
Team Chevelle Gold #52 Aces #3094

Sounds weird. It would be interesting to find out where the name Chevelle came from too. Anybody out there take etymology classes??

seems like you may be digging a bit mor ethan ya need to ya know? like chevrolet, chevelle, chevette..corvette.. ect.. maby just dirivatives of Chevrolet.. ya know? designer just made them up =)

Well, the Impala is one big deer like animal, and it was Chevy's 'full-sized' performer. I think when they came out with Chevelle they said hey use another animal, what's a smaller graceful deer like animal? A Gazelle. Gazelle+Chevrolet=Chevelle!
My Thoughts!

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Steve
64SS-327-4spd-sold to Original owner!
In process of finding a 65
Team Chevelle Member #71

I bleieve that it is an invented word. One account I read had a news writer asked what did "Chevelle" mean? The reply from Chevrolet's sales guy was that it didn't mean anything yet, but they would make it mean something (in terms of sales $$)

One book says is means approximately "road" or "highway" in Spanish.

A historic road leading through California is named the "El Camino Real". The "Re-al" was not used in the vehicle's name because it pronunciation would only cause confusion.

The El Camino had a split personality, some state's would allow you register it as a auto or truck. When registered as a auto it could operate as a truck in residential areas where trucks were prohibited, when registered as a truck you could park in loading zones + you could have high performance SS396, SS454 etc and enjoy lower insurance rates. I remember there was a company (in Texas I think) that would make a El Camino clone out of a Cadillac. I remember seeing an ad for them in the 70's.

If anyone is interested the book is; "Chevrolet El Camino 1959-1982" by Donald F. Wood. Model by Model photo history of the Classic Chevrolet El Camino, GMC Sprint and Caballero

[This message has been edited by elcamino (edited 07-23-99).]

From what I have gleamed from people who speak french is that it is a bastadization of chaveiller or caverly horse... sorta like:

Big Mean Draft Hourse With A Temper

just what I've heard

and as far as El Camino I've heard that it's a dimunitive of camion EG little truck

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Francis Taracido Gold# 201 http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif
Sniper0666@aol.com
History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man.
Oh No! You Know She's Got To Go!
Go Go Quadzilla!
members.aol.com/sniper0666/page/index.html (http://members.aol.com/sniper0666/page/index.html)




[This message has been edited by Quadzilla (edited 07-24-99).]

Female horse in french is "cheval", but there is nothing about a male horse. Maybe it is a horse. That would mean that Chevy had a purebreed of it's own to "compete" with the Mustang. as if it would have to compete. HA!

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Jay W.
In-the-works 67 Malibu
genxrodsandcustoms.8m.com (http://genxrodsandcustoms.8m.com)
surferwagons.8m.com (http://surferwagons.8m.com)

El Camino means "the road", there is no "ahead" or "connection w/ Corvette"!
El Camino Real is commonly used in Spanish speaking countries & means The King's Road.

Camaro has NO meaning.

Corvette is named after a British warship.

So 454 is definitely closest.

Steve D 64 SS, Wish You Were Right, but if the marketing people were as good as you they would have used your idea!


[This message has been edited by SirVette (edited 12-22-1999).]

SirVette-was the Corvette actually a 'class' of warship or just the name of a single ship?

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Dave
TC Member #281 (Gold)

I dont 't know where the name came from but I do know where the disign started. Back in the late 49s 50s some of the funeral homes had custom built cars to transport flowers .The ones I remember were 49 and 50 Fords I guess this was the birth of the Ranchero.Took GM 10yrs to catch on...FRED

Yeah, GM eventually saw the public's need for an automobile that had the versatility of a truck yet the comfort of a car. GM definitly did a better version of this car/truck hybird. And thats a fact because Ford only sold about 500,000 Rancheros, while Chevy sold about like a couple million!!

Cortez-Silver,

Class of warship.

El Camino is The Highway or road, spanish
Camaro is friend,pal, buddy, french.
Chevell unknown as yet still researching.
Corvette is a class of warship but has an earlyer root that I have not found as yet, almost certainly french tho.
Harley

[This message has been edited by Harley (edited 07-29-99).]

I remember reading that story about Camaro a long time ago in a car magazine, but was taking French at the time.
Copain is French for pal, buddy, chum.

Chevy is supposed to have done a search in many languages so that Camaro was unique & therefore applied only to their new car.
This is also supposed to be true of Chevelle.

So I am in agreement w/ 454 & JWagner.

Also Chevy is British for hunt.


[This message has been edited by SirVette (edited 12-22-1999).]

Alright, so now I understand that El Camino means the "kings highway" or something like that, but anyone really know why Chevy would name a car a highway??

probably because some marketing boss liked it. Why is one of the Japanese SUV's called "Hombre" which means "man" is Spanish? Will the next be "Mujer" (woman)?? Mysteries abound.....

Yeah who knows. And I don't know what it is, but people always associate the El Camino with a car that the hispanic community would drive?? So my question now is, why did Chevy give a similar spanish name to their car/truck hybrid as Ford did with the Ranchero??

Let me see if I get this right, Chevy is british (english) for hunt and Not short for Chevrolet the last name of the man that started the company? And by the way used as a partial representation for so many of It's products i.e. "chev"elle, "chev"ette, they really ment Britist hunt with no reguard for the name of the of the founder?
Also while english has several words for friend,i.e.pal, buddy, chum the french only have one copain ? Intresting, I would think that a language that has been developing many hundreds of years longer than english would have more representations for such an important meaning.
Harley

Harley,
I've been taking French for 8 years and there are three different ways to say friend in French:
copain=male friend
copine=female friend
camaro=pal, chum(slang french, not formal)
Also, I learned a couple months back that Louis Chevrolet got the bowtie symbol off of a French hotel. He ripped it off and gave it to the company and copywrote it. Interesting. I guess we owe a lot to the French. Also on the El Camino meaning there are a lot of churches in Mexico called El Camino & El Camino Real for "The King's (Jesus) Highway" or "The Way to Jesus". Maybe they saw the El Camino as the perfect all around vehicle. But I have no clue about why they would also pick a Spanish name after the Ranchero. Maybe Chevy had an El Camino designed and Ford released it earlier kind of like the whole Dodge/Ford thing where Dodge stole Ford's plans for their own use on the Rams. Au Revoir mon copains, Fumee les pneus!

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Jay W.
In-the-works 67 Malibu
genxrodsandcustoms.8m.com (http://genxrodsandcustoms.8m.com)
surferwagons.8m.com (http://surferwagons.8m.com)

The history of the half car/half truck can be traced back to Australia in 1947. If anyone has a back issue of Super Chevy, there is an Aussie Chevy manufactured by Holden Ltd., that resembles a 1947 Chevrolet Fleetliner coupe, but with a truck bed out back.

In Australia, the "utes", which is the half car/truck hybrid, became a hit, and is still in production by all of the Aussie manufacturers.

The meaning of the El Camino is "(1) the road or (2) a Chevrolet vehicle that is half a car and a pickup truck." The use of Spanish names on production vehicles isn't new. Cadillac has used the Eldorado marque for many years since 1958, and the same holds true for the Seville.

Some of the GMC Caballero sport packages had Spanish overtones, like the Diablo trim package, and the Durango (this nameplate is now used by DaimlerChrysler since 1998). The use of Spanish nameplates was no stranger to GMC; the full size pickup (Sierra) is translated as mountains in English.

In other parts of the world, Spanish words often show up on some Rice burners, like the Isuzu Rodeo/Amigo, or the Mazda Familia (the Asian market 323/GLC station wagon marketed only in Asia/Australia).

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Weyoun X (the tenth clone)
descendant of a former Chevelle owner

http://www.angelfire.com/tx/lonestarclassics/acar.html

1969 Chevelle Memories Page
http://members.tripod.com/~seributra_d/time_and_memories.htm

Chevelles (and A-cars) On Screen
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/5196/a_car.html

Disco-Era Classics
http://homepages.go.com/~55498/hooptie.htm

Here's something I found out over the years;

CHEVROLET


meaning:

Will out-sell you

Will out-perform you

Will out-option you

Will out-produce you

Will out-last you

Will out-run you

Will out-do you on followers

"you" being: Ford, Chrysler, Honda, Saturn, Oldsmobile, Buick, Caddilac, Pontiac, GMC, Hyundai, Lincoln, Kia, Dodge, Mercedes, BMW, Acura, VW, Audi, etc. etc. etc.

http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif

To harley
I will NOT reply to your sarcastic response. Suggest you borrow a dict.! Next read Chevy Chase! Next read history of GM!


[This message has been edited by SirVette (edited 07-30-99).]

Well to add to the history of Chevrolet,the bow tie was ripped off of a wall in france not by Chevrolet but Durrant, the founder of General Motors.The Chevrolet brothers were french,and built the Frontaic cyl head for Model T Fords for racing,seems Henry did'nt like to loose,Mr.Durrant approached the Brothers to buid him a car which the did that car was built in 1911. Durrant never paid the Chevrolet bros. for the use of there name just for designing the cars.for the rest of the story read the Chevrolet story. Contact Chevrolet and see if it still in print..
Happy Reading....The Kings Road.....Gene....

Hey guys, that Chevrolet bow tie was ripped off the wall in a hotel, and it was actually a wallpaper pattern!! I'd like to get my hands on that...

Thanks for clearing that up Gene. I knew it was someone associated with Chevrolet. Got it now. You learn something new everyday!

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Jay W.
In-the-works 67 Malibu
genxrodsandcustoms.8m.com (http://genxrodsandcustoms.8m.com)
surferwagons.8m.com (http://surferwagons.8m.com)


[This message has been edited by SoCalRat (edited 07-30-99).]