When I took a look at the 98 in the grave yard, I seen this car. I never seen one before, anyone know anything about these? looks cool

 

Chevrolet Corvair

 

It's a Chevy Corvair, it was wrongly deemed the most unsafe car in America by Ralph Nader. By the time GM fought back it was too late to save it and it went away. They are pretty cool cars, some were turbo charged.

 

Google 'Unsafe at any speed" by Ralph Nader for a pleasant read...

 

It's a Corvair. Unsafe at any speed according to Ralph Nader.


Wiki says this


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvair


The Chevrolet Corvair is a compact automobile which was produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors for the 1960–1969 model years. It was the only American designed, mass-produced passenger car to feature a rear-mounted air-cooled engine.
The Corvair range included a two-door coupe, convertible, four-door sedan, and four-door station wagon body styles, as well as in passenger van, commercial van, and pickup truck derivatives. The range competed with imported cars such as the original Volkswagen Beetle, as well as the Ford Falcon, Plymouth Valiant, and Studebaker Lark, that were new entries in the compact car market segment that was established in the U.S. by the 1950 Nash Rambler, which was reintroduced in 1958 as the Rambler American.
The Corvair's legacy was affected by controversy surrounding its handling, which led to its inclusion in Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed. Subsequently, in 1972, Texas A&M University conducted a safety commission report on the Corvair for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; it found that the 1960–1963 Corvairs possessed no greater potential for loss of control than its contemporaries in extreme situations.[1]

 

Double Tap Other...

Glad this isn't 1880 and we were in a gunfight...both be dead...

Brett

 

My grandfather had one in the 70's and I recall two things -

1) They were good in the snow

2) You had to drive with the window open and still got a headache from the heater fumes

 

Cool, little bit of a history lesson. Thanks guys

 

They used a gasoline heater up front, I never trusted them but never heard of one causing a fire.

 

My dad was a big Corvair guy. He & his brother (my uncle) had almost matching '62's they bought new back in the day. Dad's was a 'mist blue' color & his bro's was a mist green. Uncle gave up on them, but my dad had several. In fact, as an infant, I was transported from northern North Dakota to Indy in the back seat of one...in a banana box (true story) !

The only one I remember was a later dark red wagon. Stunk like motor fumes (I figured) due to the engine basically being in the cabin with you. My mom called it the Cherry Bomb and used to complain about having to clean the insides of the windows all the time....and my dad used to buy STP by the case....

 

Ha, awesome stories about this type of csr

 

I have a 66 Corvair, I was planning to build a mid engine car with it. But its been on the back burner for a while. I did convert it to 4 wheel disc brakes then stopped, decided to build an Oldsmobile instead. The Corvair had a rear engine, air cooled, alot like a Volkswagon. There are quite alot of V8 Corvairs mid engine built, and one version is using
YES!!!! a Toronado! Some have 455 Olds Toronado engines and front wheel drive adapted to the rear of the car. Most probably use the Chevy small block and some the Chevy big block. I wanted more leg room so i build a 4.3 V6, had it internally balanced, has Ross forged pistons, aluminum H beam rods, Big Comp roller cam, Brodix Bush Grand National 18 degree heads with T&D shaft mounted rockers. Electromotive crank fire ignition. The intake is a GM motorsports that required alot of work. The intake valves are 215's, the runners are huge. I bought for it but never installed it yet a Vortec carb inclosure blower system. I was hopping to get at least 550 HP from the little V6 maybe more. Also bought a 2001 4l60e Corvette transmission and rear end which is basically all one unit. Never fired the engine yet, it just sits covered.
Anyway if I ever get it built it should be a cool little Corvair. Google V8 Vair, theres lots. That perticular car body style in the pics above was made from 1965 to 1969. 69 was the last year for the Vair, there was also Corvair trucks, very cool.

 

But do you dispute there were problems with the car's handling?

What you're not mention is that GM had detectives try to tail Nader and find dirt on him. They found none, but Nader sued and won for invasion of privacy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nader_v...al_Motors_Corp.

I cannot imagine what GM was afraid of from a teetotaling lawyer.

 

Should I go take a better look at this car?

 

Thats totally up to you, theres not a real big demand for them i think, but their cool cars.
There are 2 vendors that i know of to get parts, Clarks Corvairs,and Corvair Underground. Some people take the air cooled engines and build them for experimental aircraft. As said above some were turbo charged. I think someone makes a fuel injection for them now. Maybe someday ill get around go finishing mine, Id love to hear that v6 run.

 

You can thank Nader for the creation of EPA and leading the way for the clean air overreaction act, which in part lead to this wonderful **** that we now pour into our fuel tanks.

 

looks like either a 68 or 69 by the side marker lights on it.
Early Corvairs (60 thru 64) were the ones that got the bad rap for handling . They had "swing axles" in the rear . Similar to a VW. The later cars 65 thru 69 had a rear suspension similar to a Corvette and handled much better. But by that time Nader's book was out and it killed the Corvair's reputation. The introduction of the Camaro in 1967 didn't help either.
My dad bought one of the first ones made in the fall of 1959, and it was a LEMON. Nobody could get the carbs to work right . The gasoline heater was really the deal that killed it. One below zero day in 1962 he almost froze, and took it to the dealer and traded it for a 61 Buick Special.

 

The second generation Corvairs with independent rear suspension handle very well and made a great road racecar.

The "Stingers" are Legendary.



http://www.hemmings.com/hmn/stories/..._feature6.html

 

Blame goes to GM, not Nader.

By the way, the EPA was proposed by Nixon WAY after Nader's book came out.

 

1st gen Corvairs were no worse handling cars than their contemporary VWs and Porsches, which also used swing arm rear suspension. Difference was the 'Vair was a larger, heavier and marginally faster car and the squirrelly handling was more pronounced as a result. GM knew early on that most of the handling problems could have been solved with a cheap sway bar but they elected to choose profit and pride.

The gasoline heater was probably a better deal than the exhaust manifold heat exchangers that came standard (and that VW/Porsche also had). When they got older and burned out, that's when the exhaust fume issues started. The gasoline heaters also destroyed any economy car reputation the Corvair may have had, because it used up a lot of fuel.

I still like them, along with the BOP-ettes, because as far as I'm concerned, they were GM's last really adventurous, think-outside-the-box creations. Everything else since has been, let's say, "conventional" or forced on them by government or insurance company fiat.

 

GM fixed the early problems and in the later years, they were a very good car. As far as unsafe, lots of cars, and especially SUVs will roll over in the right circumstance of hard or sudden turning. I knew many people who had them and loved them. For normal driving, they handled great, were very roomy for a small car and got great gas mileage. And living 10 miles from Canonsburg, PA...there were the Yenko Stingers roaming the streets when I was in high school.

 

I wouldn't blame GM they copied Vw looking for that market share, Nader killed the Corvair.The feds did the rest.

 

Everybody hates a whistleblower.
What's to like about someone pointing out unpleasant truths?.
Maybe if GM had addressed some of their problems instead of trying to stifle adverse publicity it wouldn't be the mess it is now.
If the Corvair had acceptable handling in the first place perhaps nobody would have heard of Ralph Nader.

Roger.

 

Thats not true Roger, the Corvair did have acceptable handling compared to its similarly priced peers. This was a witch hunt based on 1 mans opinion in a search for his own 5 minutes of fame. Read up on Nader...

Quote - "The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had conducted a series of comparative tests in 1971 studying the handling of the 1963 Corvair and four contemporary cars, a Ford Falcon, Plymouth Valiant, Volkswagen Beetle, Renault Dauphine—along with a second generation Corvair with revised suspension design. The subsequent 143-page report (PB 211-015, available from NTIS) reviewed a series of actual handling tests designed to evaluate the handling and stability under extreme conditions; a review of national accident data compiled by insurance companies and traffic authorities for the cars in the test—and a review of related General Motors/Chevrolet internal letters, memos, tests, reports, etc. regarding the Corvair's handling.[9] NHTSA went on to contract a three person advisory panel of independent professional engineers to review the scope and competency of their tests. This review panel then issued its own 24-page report (PB 211-014, available from NTIS), which concluded that "the 1960-63 Corvair compares favorably with contemporary vehicles used in the tests...the handling and stability performance of the 1960-63 Corvair does not result in an abnormal potential for loss of control or rollover, and it is at least as good as the performance of some contemporary vehicles both foreign and domestic."

 

EXACTLY! Ralph Nader built himself a very profitable enterprise based on junk science, as later proven by the NHTSA, but by then, it was too late for the Corvair. And Ralph Nader helped derail American small economy car development, which contributed to opening the door for the imports.

 

Yeah, I don't have anything against Nader in general - he's a politician of a sort, and you never find a politician who's all good.
I believe that he's done a few good things over his career, and increasing auto safety (especially back in the days of "Safety doesn't sell") has actually saved a lot of lives over the years, however, his hatchet job on the Corvair was just that, Roger.

The car was a bit rear-heavy, just like the wildly popular VW beetle (and all of its siblings of the era), but actually handled pretty well, and any quirkiness was eliminated with the rear-axle change in '63 or '64. In spite of this, Nader pushed his book and his theme, and ruined sales of the Corvair, even after it had been fixed. I cry no tears for GM, which was not exactly headed to the poorhouse at the time, but I think that his attacks did plant the seeds of some real fear of change within the managers and engineers, who did not try to change anything about the basic layout of their "regular" cars (I'll exclude the low-production ElDo and Toro here) until the FWD cars of the eighties, and even then, they were just copying years of successful foreign cars by that time.

Coming out with a flat opposed aircooled rear-engined six in 1959 was innovative as hell, when you think about the fact that the Falcon and the Valiant were seen at the time as being fairly revolutionary just because they weren't HUGE, and I think that once they got burned on that one, they were very nervous about ever going off the path again.

And, yes, nanarsk, they did copy from VW (and a few other European brands that had been experimenting with similar cars over the previous 25 or so years) - the VW was not selling enough in the late fifties to make any kind of a dent in GM, but is was still selling amazingly well for such a "weird" car, and GM wanted some of that action, and so designed a similar, but more American, car, with two more cylinders, a more traditional look, and a smoother feel. It had a real chance to take off, and VW's history may have been different, if it hadn't been for Nader.

- Eric

 

I had a friend who had one in the 70s. It was a four carburetor 140 HP stock, and he put a cam & headers on it.

2014-08-13120615.jpg



It ran well. He lowered it and even with the 70 series tires of the day it handled fantastic.

I think GM design did a great job with this car. It is very clever how you do not notice at first that the car does not have a grill in front.

The I/P cluster with the tach and gauges was superbly done as well.



.

 

My friend had a junker one he was given. We got it to run, once. Sounded like an angry lawnmower.

 

Nader did not kill the Corvair. A well known internal GM memo stated that the Corvair was to end after 66 and there was to be no more development in that product line. When all the Nader stuff took off GM decided to build the car three more years so as not to look like they were bowing to him. The last year, 69, of which the car pictured is, wasn't even a full year of production.


It's actually widely believed that the Corvair killed itself. When Chevy started with the very successful sporty Monza, Ford said, we can build a car like that, and came out with the Mustang. It was wildly successful and lots of sporty car buyers went to Ford. The Camaro was going to be the Corvair replacement in 67. Instead we got both cars for a time.

 

Back in the 60's in Ferndale MI, we had a nanny/babysitter who was horribly maimed in an early model Corvair roll-over accident. Her accident was exactly as Nader described them. She crossed a set of slightly elevated railroad tracks. This sent the car to into a "resonance". When the car went sideways, the rear axle half shaft buckled under, and the car went into a violent multiple roll-over. Her face was badly mutilated. Yes, she sued and won against GM. As the flaming Pintos proved, it was not the first time an auto company chose to face lawsuits over proper recalls.