Bodacious Beaters and Roadgoing Derelicts – Abu Dhabi Edition – 1975 El Camino

by W Christian Mental Ward

Published: August 6th, 2013

bodacious beaters and roadgoing derelicts abu dhabi edition 1975 el camino

There is another redneck in Abu Dhabi. I have been unsuccessful unable in meeting him, but how else would you explain the presence of this “My Name is Earl” 1975 El Camino beauty?

There is a collector car club in Abu Dhabi, but old classics are rare in this part of the world; the only others cars I have sited have been a 1966 Buick Rivera near the Burj Kalifa in Dubai;

And this 1974 Ferrari Daytona Spyder;

This is in part due to regulations; only actual residents of the UAE are allowed to import cars more than 5 years old. The vast majority of the actual residents prefer Nissan Patrols and Land Cruisers. The big Mercs and Bimmers are for weekend.

It is also in part to the mentality of the younger generation. Everything here is new and shiny. One of the oldest buildings here is the Inter-Continental Hotel and it was built in the 1970’s. New is to be expected in a nation only 41 years old. Classics haven’t caught on here yet, but in the meantime, I no longer notice the Maseratis, 458 Italias and Lambos, as they are so plentiful.

A malaise era Elky is a horse of another color. It stands out here. The fellow that owns this needs a proper hybrid of a truck and a car. He needs “الطريق.” The primered bed with the diamond plate tells me he ain’t afraid to use the mullet end of this otherwise well preserved example, but the interior wrapped in plastic (very common here) tells me he still loves the old gal.

That hood triangle? Yeah, I got nothing.

#AbuDhabiDisptaches #BODACIOUSBEATERS #ElCamino

W Christian Mental Ward

School teacher, amateur racer, occasional story teller.

More by W Christian Mental Ward

Comments

Join the conversation

2 of 11 comments

Lon888 on Aug 06, 2013

...And those gaudy wheels on the Daytona. It has to be either Cromodora Daytonas or Borrani wires - nothing else will do!

Like Reply
Corey Lewis on Aug 14, 2013

What sort of parking job is this, besides awful?

Like Reply

Recent Comments

Redapple2 Love the wheels
Redapple2 Good luck to them. They used to make great cars. 510. 240Z, Sentra SE-R. Maxima. Frontier.
Joe65688619 Under Ghosn they went through the same short-term bottom-line thinking that GM did in the 80s/90s, and they have not recovered say, to their heyday in the 50s and 60s in terms of market share and innovation. Poor design decisions (a CVT in their front-wheel drive "4-Door Sports Car", model overlap in a poorly performing segment (they never needed the Altima AND the Maxima...what they needed was one vehicle with different drivetrain, including hybrid, to compete with the Accord/Camry, and decontenting their vehicles: My 2012 QX56 (I know, not a Nissan, but the same holds for the Armada) had power rear windows in the cargo area that could vent, a glass hatch on the back door that could be opened separate from the whole liftgate (in such a tall vehicle, kinda essential if you have it in a garage and want to load the trunk without having to open the garage door to make room for the lift gate), a nice driver's side folding armrest, and a few other quality-of-life details absent from my 2018 QX80. In a competitive market this attention to detai is can be the differentiator that sell cars. Now they are caught in the middle of the market, competing more with Hyundai and Kia and selling discounted vehicles near the same price points, but losing money on them. They invested also invested a lot in niche platforms. The Leaf was one of the first full EVs, but never really evolved. They misjudged the market - luxury EVs are selling, small budget models not so much. Variable compression engines offering little in terms of real-world power or tech, let a lot of complexity that is leading to higher failure rates. Aside from the Z and GT-R (low volume models), not much forced induction (whether your a fan or not, look at what Honda did with the CR-V and Acura RDX - same chassis, slap a turbo on it, make it nicer inside, and now you can sell it as a semi-premium brand with higher markup). That said, I do believe they retain the technical and engineering capability to do far better. About time management realized they need to make smarter investments and understand their markets better.
Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Off-road fluff on vehicles that should not be off road needs to die.
Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Saw this posted on social media; “Just bought a 2023 Tundra with the 14" screen. Let my son borrow it for the afternoon, he connected his phone to listen to his iTunes.The next day my insurance company raised my rates and added my son to my policy. The email said that a private company showed that my son drove the vehicle. He already had his own vehicle that he was insuring.My insurance company demanded he give all his insurance info and some private info for proof. He declined for privacy reasons and my insurance cancelled my policy.These new vehicles with their tech are on condition that we give up our privacy to enter their world. It's not worth it people.”