With a small 980 cfm carburetor, the El Camino ripped off a 9.86 at 136 mph with just 93 octane in the tank. The goal for Alleman was to have a nice and healthy street car that could run in the low 10-second or maybe high nine-second range at the track. Alleman says the engine makes almost 820 horsepower and 760 ft-lbs of torque naturally-aspirated. For some extra kick, a Pro Flow fogger system has also been plumbed into the intake but hasn’t been used yet. A Merlin X intake works with the Dart Pro1 heads and a BRE 1250 Dominator carburetor to bring air in. Inside the engine is a Callies Dragon Slayer crank, Manley connecting rods, and Mahle pistons. Powering the El Camino is a nasty 582 cubic-inch Scott Shafiroff-built mill that uses a Dart Big M block as its base. In the rear, Alleman added to the Chris Alston Chassisworks four-link set up an AFCO coilover conversion kit to match the front, along with an S&W Race Cars diagonal link and torsional anti-roll bar kit. Because it already had a roll cage, Alleman installed a set of Global West control arms up front and matched them to an AFCO double-adjustable shock and coilover conversion kit. Since that time the car been a work in process, making it better and faster along the way,” Alleman says.Īlleman has been working to make the El Camino his own ever since he took delivery of the car. That engine wasn’t exactly as described by the previous owner, so I learned a lesson there. At the time, the car had a 468 cubic-inch big-block Chevy on nitrous in it. It already had been converted to a back half Pro Street car. “About four years ago I was just messing around on the internet looking at El Caminos for sale, and there it was. Little did he know how quickly he would get the chance to do so. Admittedly missing his El Camino, he made a promise to himself that that if the opportunity ever presented itself to own another one he’d pull the trigger without hesitation. After he grew tired of the Vega, he jumped into the import world and built a 1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse that ran a best of 11.45 at 125 mph … very respectable for a 3,500-pound import on 93 octane pump gas.īoth the Vega and Eclipse were great cars, but Alleman was yearning to get back into another muscle car. With the El Camino gone, Alleman picked up a Pro Street Vega that had a nicely built small-block Chevy under the hood for power. The ’72 was so clean and nice I couldn’t convince myself to cut it up, so I pulled the engine and sold the rolling chassis,” Alleman explains. The final avenue was to go lightweight, and a 4,100-pound El Camino wasn’t lightweight. Another option was to run nitrous, which was still in its infancy and didn’t interest me. “Back then if you wanted to go fast you had to have an engine too radical for the street. Soon, the desire to go faster was knocking at Alleman’s door and he wanted something that fell into the Pro Street category.īut that put Alleman in a difficult spot with his El Camino. The car ran in the 12.60s at the track and could still be driven around without any issues. At the time the car and engine were the perfect combination for him: it had both ‘show’ and ‘go’.

Once I felt that some real improvements were made by modifying them, I’d head to the drag strip to see what they would do,” Alleman says.Īlleman’s attraction to the El Camino is rooted in the first one he owned: a 1972 SS model that he stuffed a nasty 396 cubic-inch big-block Chevy into. I honestly can’t think of one performance-based vehicle I’ve ever owned that I didn’t do something on it at some level to make it better or faster - they’ve never stayed stock for long. “Once I knew what made them work, it was easy to figure out how to make them better or faster. Armed with an understanding of how a vehicle operated it became obvious to Alleman how to improve the performance of a car in every way possible. The mechanics of how vehicles worked struck a chord with him and he was obsessed with learning more about them and what made them function. The 1969 El Camino SS Alleman has created is a stunning example of what can be done with a pump gas street machine.Īlleman’s fascination with the automobile was cultivated in his early teenage years. Mike Alleman was hypnotized by the Chevrolet El Camino after owning one over 25 years ago, so when it came time for a new ride it was on the top of his list. Falling victim to the charismatic charm of a certain car happens the allure that vehicle possesses either in shape or sentimental value can be strong.

1972 el camino drag