The ’55 Nomad, more clearly than any other model, signaled the collapse of Sloan’s ladder. And cars like the Nomad and Buick’s Special quickly blurred what had once been a clear structure into a free-for-all. The post WW2 environment was marked by a tremendous rise in living standards for the average American and an incremental top income tax rate of 91% for the high-earners. This all started to crumble with the Depression, as the wealthy lost much of what defined them during the go-go twenties. And each brand produced essentially one or two lines of cars, all passenger cars with very little differentiation. But that was a different era in so many ways, where each brand could be defined quite precisely by its price. On second thought, maybe the whitewalls can stay…īut what wasn’t staying anymore was the clearly-defined pecking order Alfred Sloan had imposed on the unruly collection of essentially-independent car makers that constituted GM in the 1910s and early 20s. Nothing else could improve it further…except blackwalls and dog dish hubcaps. I’ll have it with the 195 hp Power-Pak V8, three-speed manual and overdrive. I thought for sure I could find it, but can’t this is as close as it gets. Years ago, I saw a photo of a stark, all-white ’55 Nomad, devoid of all the additional chrome doo-dads that Nomad owners are so prone to ruining the clean lines of their Nomads with. Needless to say, I’ve spent too much time deciding what my dream ’55 Chevy would be. That was probably a status symbol in its own right: Nomad cellulite. The Nomad got its own distinct upholstery, one that would leave a nice pattern on bare thighs. Sloan! And one equipped with the excellent new V8, automatic, and a few other amenities quickly vaulted a Nomad’s price above $3,000, a threshold into the mid-upper regions. It started at $2608 that was more than a Buick Century Riviera hardtop coupe. But other than that, the production 1955 Nomad was a quite faithful execution of a concept that had been totally untried, anywhere in the world, for that matter. The 1954 Corvette Nomad Sport Wagon sat on the old 1954 Chevy frame, and of course had a Corvette-like front clip. Maybe that’s why the 1955’s were called “Motoramic”. It was one of those rare cases where a GM Motorama show car became available at your friendly local dealer. And the Nomad drove home that point perfectly.Īnd here’s the same slogan applied to the Nomad itself. Chevys were not going to be the dowdy little poor sisters anymore. It’s not for the Nomad exactly, but it makes its point, all too well. This 1955 ad is both prescient and ironic, since I shot this Nomad at a little local Concours. And in doing so, the Nomad helped collapse the whole Sloanian GM hierarchy, which had already been tottering ever since WW2. This was a sports wagon, the first, really, and a car with which to one-up the neighbors, even if they drove a Buick. Not nearly as practical as the regular wagon, but that’s not what it was about, by any stretch. If you know of a car or story that would be a good feature, please send information to Read this story and others like it at /Wheels.( originally posted ) As if Chevy wasn’t generous enough in gracing the autosphere with its superb new 1955s, it topped it with an unexpected boon, the Nomad. Wheels is always looking for cars to feature in Wheels of the Week. “I’m still sorting it out, finding things here and there, but I’ve been able to put 500 miles on it since it’s been done,” Dechnik said. The interior is ultra-leather, and the car has power steering, air conditioning and electronic gauges. I put Wilwood disc brakes all around with 18-inch rear wheels and 17s in the front. “I dropped in a 2010 Corvette LS3 engine mated to an electronic overdrive automatic transmission. All the rest of the mechanical work I did,” he said. “The body has lots of new panels and pieces in it, and I had a shop do that. “You know, you start, and then it’s like dominoes - one thing leads to another and I just finished the car last month. It’s one thing we plan our vacations around.”ĭechnik, who has 12 cars, (10 Chevys and 2 Fords), drove his Nomad for a few years and then decided to freshen it up. Now it’s like a family, and we come every year. I got my car in 2005 and came to the convention that year, and my wife and I were treated great. “I just love the style of the body, and these people are just great. “We have cars from 30 states here and about 300 members and I only see a few trailers in the lot.”įor Jim Dechnik of Kalamazoo, Mich., both the cars and the club are fun. “These cars aren’t trailer queens either, we drive them,” Long said.
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