Armadillo

1983

GMC

Caballero

Briar Brown Metallic

Amarillo

I’ve owned this Amarillo edition Caballero since 2000. It had 60,000 original miles on it and I believe that I am the third owner of the car. The stock body was rusty from being a New England daily driver. The original engine had been previously replaced by an oil consuming 350 and someone had installed a very leaky Turbo 350 transmission.

The engine is a new Goodwrench 350 with a Summit 1104 cam, Edelbrock Tarantula manifold with a Carter Competition 625cfm carburetor, and Hedman Headers. The exhaust exits ahead of the rear wheels after traveling through a pair of Summit turbo mufflers.

The interior is the stock Amarillo cloth and vinyl. Instumentation is also stock. Add ons include an Autometer tach, GTech accelerometer, Bell radar detector, and a Pioneer sound system with a custom speaker box behind the seat.
Shifting is done through a B&M Starshifter with a custom mounting bracket that allows full use of the stock split bench seat. The stock shift linkage was retained to allow the steering wheel and shift locks to work when the keys are removed.

It originally was two tone brown when I did the body over in 2003 I refinished the car in the original Briar Brown metallic color that it is now.
Other modifications include front and rear roll pans from Lauren Engineering, a concealed Class III trailer hitch behind a fold down license plate and modification to the tailgate relocating the license plate to the rear roll pan. It is topped off with a color matched hard tonneau cover from Gaylord.

The transmission is a Turbo 350 rebuilt with a B&M Racing master overhaul kit and a deep sump aluminum pan. Power is transferred to a 3.73 Richmond geared positraction rear end. The driveshaft is stock.
Plans are to install a T5 manual trans, steel bellhousing, and a performance clutch.

The body and the front end sit and pivot on Energy Suspension polyurethane bushings. AC Delco gas shocks are in the front and AC air shocks are in the back. Front springs are stock, rear springs are heavy duty.
Plans are to box and rebush the rear trailing arms and install a rear sway bar. Future plans will include a roll cage.

It rolls on early Chevy 15x7 Rally wheels and Goodyear radials.