The Nomad is an enduring concept at Chevrolet, stretching back more than 60 years and taking countless forms. Here are a few Nomad prototypes that never made it to the production line. 

First shown to the world by General Motors at the Motorama in 1954, the Chevrolet Nomad became a volume production car in 1955, only to be discontinued in 1957. But the Nomad badge has lived on for decades, applied to a number of conventional station wagon body styles and even some passenger vans. All the while, the original concept of a sporty, high-style station wagon has been continually revisited by the GM design studios in a series of Nomad concepts and show cars. None were produced, unfortunately, but they were interesting all the same. Here are a few examples.

At the North American Auto Show in January of 1999, GM product czar Bob Lutz unveiled an intriguing Nomad proposal based on the fourth-generation Camaro/Firebird F-Body platform and sporting LS1 V8 power. Touted as an all-purpose vehicle, this Nomad featured a retracting roof panel and articulated, minivan-style sliding side rear doors.

This Nomad-badged proposal for 1959 is essentially a top-of-the-line Kingswood four-door wagon, but with an interesting twist: a four-door hardtop greenhouse with no center B pillar. Buick, Olds, Chrysler Corporation, and even American Motors offered four-door hardtop wagons in the ’50s, but somehow Chevrolet resisted the trend.

This prototype from 1979 had tremendous production potential, it would seem. Called the Nomad II, it was built on the GM X-Body FWD platform (Chevrolet Citation et al) and effectively predicted the minivan movement. Consumer focus group studies were extremely positive, reportedly, but for whatever reason the vehicle was never approved for production. Chrysler Corporation, led by Lee Iacocca and crew, pioneered the minivan category in 1983.

Reportedly done in 1965, rather late in the Camaro development process, this clay model for a two-door wagon borrowed heavily from the original production Nomad in its roofline and C pillar. Chevrolet explored the possibilities for a Camaro-based sport wagon more than once, with and without the Nomad emblems, but the efforts never came to anything.

The 2004 Nomad concept was based on GM’s Kappa platform, normally found under the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky two-seat sports cars. Conceived in GM’s Great Britain design center and constructed by Pininfarina in Italy, the ’04 Nomad featured a fiberglass body and a turbocharged 2.0-liter Ecotec four. There was some talk of marketing the vehicle as a Saab, but both the Kappa platform and the Saab division were thrown overboard when General Motors reorganized in 2009.

Of course, below is the 1954 show car that started it all, the Chevrolet Nomad concept that debuted at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. The package combined Chevrolet practicality with Corvette styling elements, creating a timeless design theme that stylists can’t resist. We look forward to the next one.