Chevy’s second take on the Corvair turned out to be one of the most stunning cars the ‘60s had to offer. Today’s Nice Price or No Dice Chevrolet Monza, adds some additional pizzazz. Will its price prove just as compelling?
The most commonly used letter in modern English is “E” with a frequency of 12.70 percent. The least commonly used letter is “Z” which comes in at a paltry 0.07 percent. Rare as it likely is, it seems fitting that the 2008 BMW 330i we looked at yesterday carried a performance and appearance package denoted by that rarest of all letters, Z, as in ZHP. With the application of those letters, the 330i gains extra horses, an additional gear in its Getrag, and some Alcantara on the interior. Our candidate ZHP had a litany of wear-induced replacement parts and looked to be in pretty nice shape. At $9,500, it was a bit too dear, though. At least that was the take from the 51 percent of you who awarded it a No Dice loss.
By the mid-1950s, General Motors had risen to become the largest company on the planet. Not just the largest car company, but the largest company of any kind. GM’s corporate executives intended for it to stay that way. That meant identifying and addressing any challenges that the company faced. By the mid-1950s, it became apparent that economic pressures were pushing consumers were trending toward smaller, less expensive cars. At the time, those sales were going to imports and smaller competitors like Nash.
GM set a course to face the threat head-on, creating a clean-sheet line of cars and trucks that took the primary elements of the import interlopers — low cost, simple design, and compact dimensions — and added to that a distinctly American style. In comparison to this whole-hog approach, the other two members of the automotive “Big Three” — Ford and Chrysler — addressed the issue by simply taking their full-sized cars and shrinking them down.
Chevy’s Corvair, however, was something else. In fact, nothing else at the time from any American manufacturer offered the Corvair’s level of innovation, space, and just plain-old weirdness. Cost-cutting hurt the Corvair, though. A prominent mention of the swing axle-equipped first generation’s handling in Ralph Nader’s book, Unsafe at Any Speed damaged the Corvair’s reputation. So too did frustrating mechanical issues brought about by the car’s unique and to be fairly honest, untested design.
By the time the second generation Corvair hit the market in 1965, most of the car’s teething and driving issues had been tamed. The Corvair line lost a number of members in the transition (goodbye Lakewood wagon, Rampside pickup and Greenbrier van), but making up for that, it gained what is arguably one of the best-looking body shapes to come out of the 1960s.
This 1965 Chevy Corvair Monza is named for the famous Italian racetrack and would look perfectly at home parked there or on the Italian Riviera. According to the ad, the car has been owned by the same individual for the past 23 years and has seen careful curation that included new paint, interior, and mechanical pieces. All that work hasn’t been enjoyed much on the open road, though, since the car carries a mere 89,000 miles on the clock.
The Marina Blue paint is an excellent color choice for the car and is paired with a fairly new white convertible top and blue vinyl interior. The body carries all its original chrome and wears factory full-wheel covers proudly displaying the Monza badge on their centers. The engine bay has been detailed and looks to be in tidy shape as a result. The spare seems to be missing, although a common practice on Corvairs was to move the spare from the engine bay to the front boot (froot) to better balance the weight.
One thing to note here is that while the air cleaner cover touts the 140-horsepower Turbo-Air 164 cubic inch (2683cc) engine, the two carbs betray it to be the 110-horse edition. Here that’s mated to a four-speed manual. As a fun bit of party trivia, the Corvair’s flat-six engine is one of the few in the world to spin counter-clockwise. Another is that Chevy’s air-cooled pancake six predates Porsche’s by four full years.
The only obvious flaw on this Monza is the plastic back window which is split and requires replacing. That’s separate from the top and, as the seller notes, can be switched out without doing the whole top. As a fun weekend cruiser, that might not even be an immediate concern for a new owner.
What might be an immediate concern, however, is the $16,500 price. At one point in time, people were literally giving Corvairs away, the model having reached such a nadir of desirability. Those days are long past and now we have to decide what this Corvair is rightfully worth.
What do you say? Is this well-cared-for Monza a deal at that $16,500 asking? Or, does that price put this classic Chevy out to pasture?
You decide!
Orange County, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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