Chevy’s Next Gen NASCAR Version Of The Blazer EV Looks Like The Car They Should Make For Real

Yesterday, I was at a Chevy event, where they showed me their new Blazer SS EV; maybe it’s EV SS? Some combination of those letters. I’ll write about that soon, but first I just want to show you something, something that exists and yet doesn’t exist, at least not in the way I wish it did. It’s also quite removed from my usual sort of content, but maybe that’s healthy every now and then?

Part of what Chevy showed us yesterday were two things we were not allowed to take pictures of: one was a life-size mannequin of Ralph Nader with thick, rubberized skin that was used by the company between 1966 and 1979 as a way to vent frustrations, with employees encouraged to kick, punch, and stab, and bite it. It’s in really rough shape now, and I’m not sure why they bring it along to these events, especially since you can’t kick it anymore? It’s very unsettling.

Then, there was this:

What are we looking at here? Well, the other thing we were shown that we were not allowed to photograph was GM’s Charlotte Technical Center, which is an R&D facility for motorsports products, and is a wildly advanced and shockingly immaculate facility full of fabrication and testing equipment and advanced simulators, all with the goal of shaving fractions of seconds of lap times of various racing events. It’s pretty remarkable.

But, I’m not allowed to show you any pictures. Except in the lobby, which is where I saw that car up above.

There were two of them there. By “them” I mean two Next Gen NASCAR cars, but with bodies modified to resemble the Chevy Blazer EV – currently, there are body variants designed to resemble the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, the Ford Mustang, and the Toyota TRD Camry. So this is what GM is planning for their Blazerized version, which will replace the Camaro. For reference, here’s a production Blazer EV:

I think what they’ve actually done, by applying some of the SUV Blazer’s aesthetics to the proportions of the NASCAR car, is made the shooting brake that I wish they actually sold.

Yes, a shooting brake! Like one of these:

I mean, look how fantastic this thing looks!

That looks like a proper modern-yet-old-school shooting brake! What if GM actually sold a car like this? A true, two-door, sporty wagon, not too big, not SUV or crossover height, but low, like a car. They even have a good name ready to go from their past: Nomad, the sorta-shooting brake they used to make back in the ’50s:

This general shape – lower than an SUV, two doors, a bit of sporty athleticism – this would be exciting. Enough with the crossovers and SUVs, already! The work is already, done, GM! Just give us this neo-Nomad in combustion or EV form or, hell, both, maybe a hybrid, too, and I think they’d have a winner on their hands!

They could even offer a huge, ridiculous wing as an option, like the one there. Why not? Life is for the living! And, it’d be a nice counterweight for the rear hatch!

Yes, this could be a winner. Well, a winner for the vanishingly tiny niche of people like us who read the Autopian and give a shit about “shooting brakes” and you can say “Clownshoe” to and not have them imagine clown footwear. But hey, a win is a win, right?