Shortly after Honda first set up shop in America in 1959, it needed a truck to deliver its motorcycles to dealerships across Southern California. Because the Ridgeline was still a distant speck in Soichiro’s eye, the company bought a fleet of 1961 Chevrolet Apache 10 pickup trucks to ferry around its two-wheeled merchandise.
To celebrate the American Honda Motor Company’s 60th year in business, the automaker restored and recreated one of those trucks and will be bringing it to SEMA in Las Vegas this November. Featuring hand-painted Honda corporate livery, this Apache pickup comes with a pair of period-correct Honda motorcycles in the back, namely a Honda 50 and CB 160.
Back in the day, the trucks were driven by Honda salesmen who traveled around to dealers, delivering motorcycles sold on consignment. It quite literally drove Honda to its position as the top motorcycle brand in the U.S., obtaining a market share of nearly 72 percent by 1965.
Faithfully recreated thanks to company archives and input from retired Honda employees, this half-ton Chevy features a 160-horsepower, 283-cubic-inch V8 paired to a three-speed manual transmission and an eight-foot bed.
Before it arrives at SEMA, the Honda-restored Chevy (not a combination of words we ever expected to publish, by the way) will make appearances at various events including classic car meets and shows in and around SoCal. Once it’s done being paraded around, it’ll live the rest of its life on display at the American Honda Collection Hall in Torrance in front of a replica of American Honda’s O.G. headquarters in Los Angeles.
