GMC Short-bed Pickup

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GMC’s roots can be traced back to 1901 when the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company started to make the world’s first viable internal combustion-powered commercial vehicle.

General Motors, under the stewardship of William Durrant, purchased Rapid in 1908, renaming it the General Motors Truck Company, or GMC for short. Focusing on building trucks and buses, it wasn’t until the post-war period that any cross-over with products from other GM divisions came about.

The growth in popularity of the all-purpose pickup saw Chevrolet introduce their own light truck alongside a similar, if more rugged offering from GMC. The blurring of lines between the two pickup ranges has continued, as has the enduring relationship with the pickup truck across America – in 2007 GMC was General Motor's second best-selling brand behind Chevrolet – that’s a lot of trucks. The Whitehouse still uses pickup sales as a key economic barometer.

For 1960 GMC/Chevrolet introduced the C/K range. Using a ‘drop centre chassis’ to get the load-bed as low as possible, they had independent front suspension and were available in a variety of lengths, payloads and rear deck shape. The GMC could be ordered with a traditional ‘stepside’ rear which was marketed as the ‘Fenderside’, or with the smooth flanked rear body known as the ‘Wideside’, as offered here. GMCs are easily distinguished from their Chevrolet cousins by their distinctive quad headlights. The vast majority were sold with practical V6, or straight-six engines, although a big V8 was always available as an option.

This 1963 ‘Wideside’ short-bed has recently been imported from the dry state of Texas. The import paperwork is complete, duties paid and the vendor is now waiting for its new registration number to arrive from the DVLA which he expects to have by the time of the sale.

In generally sound and straight condition, it has seen a lot of attention in recent years. Prior to arriving on these shores, it was fitted with a 1990s Chevrolet 4.2-litre V6 mated to a new automatic gearbox. The drive is selected by a Lokar floor-shift and it has power steering, power brakes and air conditioning. The great sounding exhaust has been specially made to suit and the truck sits on new rear springs and shocks. The dashboard from the donor vehicle used to supply the engine has been carefully incorporated and a new windscreen and rubber have also recently been added.

Reported by the vendor to do around 25mpg, it has a towbar, has recently passed its MOT in order to be registered in the UK and at 16’ long and 6’6” wide takes up less space on the road than an Audi Q7 - as well as looking too cool for school!

Not a machine for the shrinking violet, we think it looks an absolute hoot and would be just the thing to pull one of the two Airstreams that we have in the sale!