Photo: El Camino Central

Every year on Thanksgiving, the Daytona Beach Street Rods and the Daytona Beach Racing & Recreational Facilities District host the Turkey Run, a rod meet that is held on the property of the famous Daytona International Speedway. In 1989, when the Turkey Run was moved to the Speedway, the Daytona Beach Racing and Recreational District took over the meet’s car corral, swap meet and food vendors, while Daytona Beach Street Rods continued to be responsible for the car show portion of the venue.

In ’90, the Daytona Racing/Recreational District started their own car show, held on the third weekend of March of each year. While the Daytona District’s car show went under several names, it never really caught on, mostly because it wasn’t run by true, seasoned hot rodders. This changed, however, after the Daytona Beach Street Rods started their own spring show, now known as the “Spring Turkey Run.”

Photo: El Camino Central

Last November, spectator Lenny Carey caught a glimpse of one of the Turkey Run’s most unusual finds, entree Joe LeLeux’s ’83 El Camino, now dubbed “El Camaro.” The reason is because LeLeux, a wood and metal worker out of Jacksonville, Florida, has custom-molded a 2010 Camaro front-end on to his black, early-’80s Elk. The result is a late-model El Camino that looks either like a well-done kit or else a flat-out, radical hodgepodge, but don’t be fooled into thinking that LeLeux’s Elk/Camaro hybrid is a kit car; LeLeux built his notorious “El Camaro” by himself, including the motorized system that electrically lifts and lowers the hood.

Photo: El Camino Central

LeLeux’s 5th-gen Camaro/El Camino transformation is really the hallmark of this radical conversion, though LeLeux’s “El Camaro” is much more than an already-pretty face with a lift. Actually, LeLeux’s “El Camaro” is a generously-stocked street cruiser, as LeLeux himself has totally decked-out the Elk’s interior, and the ’83 Chev is powered by an LS1 mill with a T56 trans. While the LS under the hood isn’t a fire-breather, the fact that LeLeux has been successful in molding a new design into a pre-existing one is substantial enough in itself, and not many people can fuse the old with the new like he has!