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Greetings and Welcome to The 405 Coffee Break with O.K. Solberg
New episodes tend to air over the local KMMR radio station @ 5 minutes past 4PM each M-F. And have been doing so, nearly every week since Sept 2018.
I'm D.J. Rasmussen, O.K.s friend since junior high, possibly your neighbor & this websites maintainer, whom strives to get each episode's show notes written, the transcript proofed and the audio posted to the internet within a few hours of that days KMMR air time. NOTE: recently been publishing most new releases by 4:30PM.
Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the time we can spend together.
Want to again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Guys, new week get you a cup of coffee, glass, iced tea, bottle of water. Snow's gonna melt very shortly. Let's see what's happening.
OK Solberg:Spring wheat $5.91 a bushel. 550lb Steer Calf $5.05 Butcher hog in Iowa 61ยข a pound. They're not moving much. And a 100lb fat lamb in Billings, it's going up a bit $2.86 a pound. But, guys, there's more, much more.
OK Solberg:It's Monday. It's Monday. That can only mean one thing. It's Jay and Joe's Motor Monday, the day we look at horsepower one Monday at a time.
OK Solberg:Today, well, something interesting, of course. And it came to me from a listener who said, and I quote, did you know that GMC had a muscle car back in the 1970's? GMC, I thought they made pickups.
OK Solberg:I said, I did not know that. I will check it out. So today, that story. But 1st, the bible verse. It comes from Proverbs 25:2 and it says, it is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.
OK Solberg:So let's search out this matter. A listener who shall remain nameless but was awfully fond of the Archie's Sugar Sugar way back in 1969, and he said, did you know that GMC GMC, the truck dealer came out with a muscle car in the early 70's, in fact, in 1971. I said, no. I did not know that. I'll check it out.
OK Solberg:Now to set the stage, you'd have to be living under a rock if you didn't know about the Chevy El Camino. The Chevy El Camino came out in which year? Joe? Jay? anyone? Anyone? I'll give you a hint.
OK Solberg:It was the same year my dear wife Thea was born. The first production year for the Chevrolet El Camino was 1959. Introduced as a personal pickup coupe utility vehicle. Now remember that coupe utility name. And did you know they call that a UTE?
OK Solberg:U T E , and that was short for coupe utility vehicle. Historically, the term UTE has been used to describe a 2 door vehicle based on a passenger car chassis such as the Ford Ranchero, Chevrolet or Chevrolet El Camino, or the Subaru Brat as well as others. It's a pickup car. Right? It's a pickup car.
OK Solberg:Now when it comes to the El Camino and the vehicle I'm gonna highlight today all in the same category. So the muscle car I'm talking about today is a UTE, but I haven't mentioned its name yet. Any guesses? 1971 it came out. When my friend asked me about a muscle card made by GMC, he was referring to, drum roll, please, the GMC Sprint.
OK Solberg:Listen, as I quote. While the Chevrolet El Camino is a household name among classic car enthusiasts, its upscale mechanical twin, the GMC Sprint, often remains in the shadows. Produced from 1971 all the way through 1977, the Sprint was GMC's bold entry into the coupe utility market, a vehicle designed to blend the refined comfort of a passenger car with the raw utility of a pickup truck. The top tier special performance SP package served as GMC's direct answer to the Chevy's SS. The most impressive version featured the LS5 454 cubic inch big block V8 which delivered a massive 365 gross horsepower.
OK Solberg:That's what they said in the book, but actually it was more. Rarity is the Sprint's greatest calling card. In 1977, for example, GMC produced fewer than 6,000 units, while Chevrolet pumped out over 54,000 El Caminos. End of quote for now. In my research, here's what I found.
OK Solberg:When people went to their GMC dealer, guess what they were looking for? Of course, they were looking for a pickup. So when the Sprint showed up on the showroom floors, they were met with a little bit of a cockeyed look. Hey, man. I came to buy a true pickup, not this thing that looks like an El Camino.
OK Solberg:Kinda like if a roughneck showed up at the rigs driving a Honda Ridgeline. Well, they're a good pickup, I know. But there, they might be laughed off the tower. A pickup driver wanted a true pickup, not a Yte. With this being said, it made it that not a lot of GMC Sprints were sold.
OK Solberg:And with that being said, we know the old law supply and demand. Now 50 some years later, since not a lot of people owned them back then, well, even now, not a lot of people desire them. So I went online and I found two 1971 Sprints for sale, true story, both with a 454 and one is priced at $13,895, just about 14,000, and the other one priced at $16,004.54. Compare that to a 1971 El Camino with a 396 list price online $42,500 or another 1971 El Camino with a 454 and it was sticker priced at $54,999. So the GMC Sprint is the best price because so few people owned them back in the day like the statistic show in the 1st model year of the Sprint 1971.
OK Solberg:In that year, well, Chevy kicked out 41,606 El Caminos compared to the modest 5,536 of the GMC's Sprints being sold. Yet they're out there, and it is a good story. I like it. And if you want to know what I want for Christmas, two things. Alright?
OK Solberg:It's an Archie's '45 record titled Sugar Sugar and a 1971 GMC Sprint with a 454. Now we're talking, and we can buy them. Relatively cheap compared to a lot of other vehicles from that era. So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.