I just saw the Nomad pictures. Wow that's a hideous looking thing. It'll fit right in with all the other cars that are exactly like that.

 

The Nomad concept was at the Cleveland Auto Show a few years back.

It wasn't put up on a turntable or anything... just sat there on the floor with a rope around it... people walked by, gave it a glace, and kept on going.

The most notible thing about the Nomad concept to me were the hand-carved tire treads with the Chevy Bowtie pattern.

 

The Nomad & Belair were pretty certain to head for production for quite a few months now (Lutz evidently kicked them upstairs before the Detroit show in January), but I didn't realize they could be on the SSR chassis...I was assuming it'd be on the VE.

But it would be far cheaper to make on the Trailblazer chassis, and if both Nomad and Belair shared styling (ie fenders, front end, doors... etc), it would be an extremely cheap vehicle to make, and even if it had a short product run, it would still be somewhat profitable while creating a pretty good rush on Chevy showrooms.

BTW, did has anyone realized how many car Chevy will be bringing over just a 2-3 year period (2005-2007)!!

 

GM in general! Pontiac will look new in 2005-06, Cadillac will have the new STS, Buick is getting **** done, right? Chevy will have like 10 new cars. New company to debut in 2005 I guess.

 

Ya, it's the proverbial Calm Before The Storm...

We are starting to get through the buffer period that was there for the Lutz Era products to start coming out.

 

Between 2004-2008 chevy will have a RWD Monte, Impala, C6 Corvette, SSR and now maybe Nomad, Camaro and Bel Air. This just seems all to good to be true.

 

Either the Impala will be RWD, or it will be redesigned and Chevy will also have a RWD sedan as well.

But also not mentioned: The new Malibu sedan an wagon..er..Maxx, the Cavalier replacement (1st the sedan, then later a coupe), and most likely the Camaro.

All this begining this summer and just going to the summer or fall of 2006! That's Chevrolet's entire car line plus additions to the line-up completely done in about 36 months!!

Remember how just a few months ago we were b*tching about how Pontiac, Cadillac & GM's trucks were getting all the attention??

Guess what time it is??

 

What strikes me as kind of neat with these cars is how they might have the potential to be really cheap RWD choices.

Their truck based architecture is under no pressure to outhandle a 350Z or RX8. And they won't have to match the Cobra's horsepower either.

What a great "blank" canvas to get entry level enthusiasts interested in Chevy again!

How much could an Atlas I5, base Nomad cost?

 

It's a neat idea but realistically,

1) What kind of a market is there in this day and age for a decent performing entry level RWD car that handles like a dump truck and

2) Based on a truck chassis these theoretical cars will be extremely heavy, meaning it better have a lot of horsepower to get them to perform decently. Remember that it seems V8 horsepower doesn't come cheap these days either.

 

Well, does it really need to handle like a dump truck?

It's suspension sophistication would be comparable to the last (or even any, for that matter), Camaro. Add tuning tweaks similar to the Colorado's ZQ8 and a 5.3 and there you go.

 

With a set of springs and shocks, my 96 Impala SS is sure no dump truck.....and its chassis dates back to about 1976. It surprises the heck out of some of the ricers.

 

So right

I hope to see a Camaro Soon... because if they have $ to put on the Bel air.... they should have $ to spend on a car that gave them 35 years...

 

Maybe this is a stupid point to bring up, but since the Bel-Air concept was obviously made to look like the '57 Chevy, shouldnt the Nomad and the Bel-Air concept look alot more alike, cuz when I think of Nomad I think of the Tri-5 Chevy Nomads from back then, not a '69 Camaro Nomad?

 

I hope that they spend some cash on Camaro too. But I don't fully buy the argument that if GM didn't spend so much money on BelAir/Nomad/SSR/GTO/Solstice/Bengal/Sky/Trucks/Daewoo/Cadillac/Fiat/Pontiac/Saturn/etc.......that all this money would be earmarked for Camaro.

 

Completely agree with you on this 100%.

While it's true that even Bob Lutz has held up Camaro money in favor of other, more pressing projects, I think everyone is forgetting that Camaro simply isn't a big or earth shattering project compared with vehicles like Belair, SSR, or Nomad, which will gather boatloads of press for Chevrolet, and Camaro won't sell the volume to be a important car from a sales stand point.

These vehicles are designed to gather big news and a big bang for Chevrolet, and these vehicles will likely peter out just as quickly (Viper & PT are currently the only exceptions to this flash then die-out rule). Does anyone REALLY want Camaro in that role??

Even here on this site, there's no consensus as to what the next Camaro should be. You have one faction that want's cheap RWD performance, yet flames the Solstice chassis which would make that possible, another faction that wants the fastest, up to date, Z28 possible, yet bemoan the $32,000 GTO as too expensive while ignoring that the same price was charged for Camaro SSs and WS6s.

Should the next Camaro be retro based on a 1969, or should it be a continuation of it's evolution began in 1971 and continued till the final F4s. Should it have a trunk or a hatchback? should it be downsized to the G35 or even Eclipse dimensions, or should it continue in it's full size dimensions?

Once you get over the contradictions over what Camaro enthusiasts want, you still can't use the Camaro name for a certain period of time unless you are willing to pay the CAW an extrordinary amount of money, so why rush developing a new Camaro before the clock runs out??

This whole situation was created years ago, and it will take time for this to straighten out. Though it isn't written in stone, the common view in and out of Chevrolet is there'll be a Camaro for it's 40th anniversary.

There's plent of things slowing down Camaro without having to reach for scapegoats.