The Retro Classy Combination

Table of contents:

The Retro Classy Combination
The Retro Classy Combination

Video: The Retro Classy Combination

Video: The Retro Classy Combination
Video: A mix of colonial style and modern design with Schane Anderson 2024, March
Anonim

Corvette station wagon? There is no such thing, many will think. That probably existed, it just never happened - the “Nomad” from 1954 remained a show car. Now an American company is resurrecting him.

By Sebastian Viehmann

What will become of the auto giant GM is uncertain. This makes it easy for car fans to remember the glorious past. 1953 went down in history as the year the Chevrolet Corvette was born. In 1954, the Americans went one better: at the “Motorama” show, in which GM roamed the country every year with its latest studies, the Chevrolet Corvette Nomad Concept Station Wagon spun on the presentation plate. The front was cut out of the face of the small sports car, and indeed many Corvette components were built into the study. The car shared the platform with a 53 Chevrolet sedan.

With tail fins

The rear of the station wagon had the same tiny tail fins as the Corvette, and the car was painted silver-blue and had a white roof. As with the sports car, the body was made of fiberglass, and under the bonnet was the same six-cylinder engine with 150 hp. A combination that almost meant the end of the sports car in the Corvette's early years, because it was considered hopelessly underpowered. Strong V8 engines and a larger body ultimately let the Corvette live on. Their Nomad estate version, however, never went into series production.

Now the legend is finally about to hit the streets: the well-known coachbuilder Superior Glass Works from the US state of Oregon is offering a replica of the show car for $ 125,000 and is calling it the “Superior 54 Sport Wagon”. The body is handcrafted and, like the original, is decorated with numerous chrome strips, a total of 60. The dashboard is in the style of the 53 Corvette, and all windows are specially made - including the bulbous windshield made of laminated safety glass and the rear sliding windows. The rear window can be lowered electrically. This was a popular extra for American station wagons in the 1950s.

Delivery without engine

Image
Image

"The Superior 54 is a very special car," says Brad Peterson, owner of Superior Glass Works. “The Motorama show cars have always been surrounded by a certain mystique. With the Superior 54 you now have the opportunity to drive a piece of history,”says Peterson. However, you have to take care of progress yourself, because the Superior 54 is delivered in one piece, but without an engine. The chassis was constructed from components from the fifth Corvette generation (1997 to 2004). If you want to buy one of the retro station wagons, you have to pay 50,000 US dollars and put yourself on a waiting list. A total of only 25 complete models are to be created. The Superior 54 is sold unpainted,so that its owners can complete it in the best American customizing tradition - for example as a lowered “Street Rod” with plenty of power under the hood or as a replica of the show car that is as true to the original as possible.

GM itself has also tried to revive the station wagon legend. In 2004 a study that Chevrolet presented in Detroit caused a sensation. The Nomad Concept shared the platform with the Pontiac Solstice and featured numerous reminiscences of the original Nomad, including the throat-like Corvette grill, the oval headlights and a two-part tailgate, the lower part of which could be pulled out like a drawer. A 2.2-liter four-cylinder engine with 250 hp worked under the hood of the show car. However, the retro nomad remained just a study, just like its predecessor from 1954.

Two-part tailgate

Image
Image

GM finally put a station wagon called Nomad on its wheels: in 1955, the three-door Chevrolet Nomad came out as the brand's first lifestyle station wagon, with a stylish hardtop roof and based on the mid-range 210 model. There wasn't much left of the Motorama study. The tailgate, which opened in two parts, was characteristic: the lower part folded down, the upper part swiveled up.

Today some SUV manufacturers are rediscovering this principle. The 55 Chevy Nomad should still be known to the German television audience, because DIY enthusiast Tim Taylor alias Tim Allen drove such a model in the sitcom “Listen who's hammering” - until he accidentally dropped a steel beam on it. However, the model from 1957 with its distinctive tail fins is still the most beautiful Nomad version. This gave Chevrolet's luxury middle-class Bel Air a station wagon version with chrome-plated loading rails and many amenities - one of the first lifestyle station wagons in history.

Recommended: