One of the Motor Trend magazines in my collection has an article that features five concept cars from American manufacturers, including the one that directly influenced the fifth-gen Monte Carlo.

The other four were:
• the Lincoln Marque X, a convertible that previewed the 1993 Lincoln Mark VIII (which never had a convertible version)
• the Buick Sceptre, which influenced the style of the 1997 Buick Regal/Century
• the Pontiac Salsa, a neat little open-air car that didn't influence anything
and
• the ASC/Chevrolet Lumina Z34 El Camino, definitely the most interesting version of the Lumina, if it ever would've been produced.

Again, this is from the August 1992 issue. Here's the intro page, which shows a pic of the concept Monte's taillight panel and its sizable amber turnsignal sections:


Now for the concept Monte: you can definitely see key elements of the fifth-gen design in it, like the plain but sleek bar-of-soap body shape, the side windows, the wheel wells, the lower front "mouth", and maybe a few more. But how about that huge back window?


So now that I have a MC of my own, I thought it'd be neat to share this interesting bit of history here at MCF.

Now for a bonus! Here's a page that shows a really cool El-Camino version that they made out of a 1992 Lumina Z34:

I don't know about you, but I really like it. Probably because I always liked El Caminos anyway, even if this one would've been FWD. After all, the last real El Caminos had a lot in common with the 4th-gen Monte Carlos.
Still, I'm not so sure a fifth-gen El Camino version of the Monte Carlo/Lumina would've looked all right. Oh, well; but again, it's all another interesting bit of Chevy history, circa 1992.

 

I think the z34 el camino looks awesome but I love all the el camino's,theyre just unique and nothing else is like them

 

Interesting articles. THe only vehicle in them I think looks worth while is the Lumina El Camino.

Have you checked out a Holden Ute? If only GM would have imported that from their Australian subsidiary (like they did the GTO), I bet the Ute would sell very well. I believe it's now discontinued.

 

TG they didn't produce that Monte. What an insult to the traditional design.

 

I remember I was working at an auto parts factory when the lumina first came out and we made some of the interior plastic pieces, we got to see the pics of the concepts first as they posted them on our community board in the factory, they did that for all the new cars we were contracted to build interior parts for

 

The El camino would have been pretty cool but the rest were weird.