The Corvair

[R K T]

This was at our "Cruise In" last Friday......Turbo Subie in the backseat.

[ossiblue]

Originally Posted by Nickshu

It's nice to see that 50 years later the truth about the Corvair is starting to become more widely known outside of those of us who own and love the cars.

Also Ralph Nader has owned several Corvairs actually. His 1962 was recently sold to a collector in Michigan.

Some misunderstanding in this thread.

The Corvairs that Nader "owned" were donated to his Museum of Tort Law, not to him personally and he never bought one/drove one himself.

If anyone has actually read "Unsafe at any speed," you will know the book is an indictment of the entire auto industry, not of the Corvair alone. The early Corvair accounts for only one of eight chapters in the book, but is the first chapter and that is the one the media pounced on when the book first came out. Everything he recounts about the Corvair is correct, especially about the budget minded decision not to equip the cars with front anti-sway bars, rear camber compensators, and to recommend low, out of spec front tire pressures (12-15 lbs.) which made the tires overloaded and unsafe if two or more passengers were in the car. Even John DeLorean, GM General Manager at the time, agreed that Nader's criticism was correct.

Nader did not kill the Corvair by himself, but timing is everything. The car had always been a niche vehicle and was costly to produce vs the other cars in the GM line. It had already been decided that little, if any new developments for the car would be made after the '66 model and the car would be phased out. Chevy did no advertising for the Corvair after '67. His book came out just when the car had been redesigned and some of the safety issues had been addressed. Further, Ford had come out with the Mustang, and Chevrolet was looking to capture the economy market with more traditional cars, the Chevy II, Chevelle, and a sporty car to compete with the Mustang--the Camaro. Put these factors together and sales drop by half, and the fate of the Corvair is sealed.

BTW, the first car I ever owned was a 1963 Corvair Monza, 4-speed. Loved it.

[nota]

I had 6 corvairs all 65 or 66
as at the time early 70's
they were the cheapest good handling cars
avg price paid was 100 , $200 max for 35k mile car
they were cheaper to replace then fix then

a buddy a chevy stealership wrench
built two v8 swaps one a track car that owned the track record at PBR/moroso race track
only beaten by a then new 3500cslr BWM factory racer

[KevinP73]

Originally Posted by ossiblue

Some misunderstanding in this thread.

Agreed. It was my understanding that GM originally had no intention of producing any model of the Corvair , van and step-side included after '64. Fearing ending production in the wake of Naders book would hurt sales of the upcoming Camaro, they called in some "B" level engineers to complete the second generation Corvair. They were instructed to use components already in production for other models. A lot of the suspension used on the 2nd generation Corvair have multi platform applications.
In short "Unsafe at any Speed" was the genesis of many industry wide safety improvements that are a part of every auto produced today.

[Nickshu]

Originally Posted by ossiblue

Some misunderstanding in this thread.

The Corvairs that Nader "owned" were donated to his Museum of Tort Law, not to him personally and he never bought one/drove one himself.

If anyone has actually read "Unsafe at any speed," you will know the book is an indictment of the entire auto industry, not of the Corvair alone. The early Corvair accounts for only one of eight chapters in the book, but is the first chapter and that is the one the media pounced on when the book first came out. Everything he recounts about the Corvair is correct, especially about the budget minded decision not to equip the cars with front anti-sway bars, rear camber compensators, and to recommend low, out of spec front tire pressures (12-15 lbs.) which made the tires overloaded and unsafe if two or more passengers were in the car. Even John DeLorean, GM General Manager at the time, agreed that Nader's criticism was correct.

Nader did not kill the Corvair by himself, but timing is everything. The car had always been a niche vehicle and was costly to produce vs the other cars in the GM line. It had already been decided that little, if any new developments for the car would be made after the '66 model and the car would be phased out. Chevy did no advertising for the Corvair after '67. His book came out just when the car had been redesigned and some of the safety issues had been addressed. Further, Ford had come out with the Mustang, and Chevrolet was looking to capture the economy market with more traditional cars, the Chevy II, Chevelle, and a sporty car to compete with the Mustang--the Camaro. Put these factors together and sales drop by half, and the fate of the Corvair is sealed.

BTW, the first car I ever owned was a 1963 Corvair Monza, 4-speed. Loved it.

^^^ This is accurate.

I have read the book. Also I have read the rebuttal book called "The Assasination of the Corvair". The demise of the Corvair was certainly multifactorial. In the end rear engine air cooled cars would be relegated to a niche market rather than the mainstream which to this day is basically owned by Porsche alone.

Originally Posted by KevinP73

Agreed. It was my understanding that GM originally had no intention of producing any model of the Corvair , van and step-side included after '64. Fearing ending production in the wake of Naders book would hurt sales of the upcoming Camaro, they called in some "B" level engineers to complete the second generation Corvair. They were instructed to use components already in production for other models. A lot of the suspension used on the 2nd generation Corvair have multi platform applications.
In short "Unsafe at any Speed" was the genesis of many industry wide safety improvements that are a part of every auto produced today.

I am not sure that is completely accurate. The LM (late model) Corvair was designed in the early '60's while the EM (early model) Corvair was selling and well before Nader's book came out. While it does share more small components from what I have seen it shares overall very few components with other GM cars especially in 1965-66. By 1967-69 there were some multiplatform parts that made their way to the Corvair.

As a matter of fact the Camaro was originally supposed to be the third generation Corvair. GM was developing the Astro 1 engine for it, would have been really neat:

[KevinP73]

Originally Posted by Nickshu

^^^ This is accurate.

Wow. Looks like it would have been a real game changer had that made it to production

[tevake]

That is a nice color combo Don.

A collection of corvairs is being sold from an estate here in Prescott .
This one just showed up on Craig's list.

https://prescott.craigslist.org/cto/6100342189.html

[Joe Bob]

The Corvair was mentioned in the top ten cars next to be big dollar classics. I wouldn't mind the Turbo version....even though low on HP by today's standards there are still tons of spare parts and go fast goodies at Chebby prices, no Porsche tax. They were a hoot to drive.

Ralph Nader can go screw a goat.....

[asphaltgambler]

Always dug the later '67 - up versions. Remember 1 in particular a '68 I think, riding in as a kid was pretty cool. Nice proportions / styling inside and out. It was a 2 door, 4 speed and I think had 4 carbs. Some of the styling cues again inside and out reminded me then of 1st gen Camaro's.