Chevrolet Corvairs for Sale

In the summer of 1959, Chevrolet introduced possibly it...

In the summer of 1959, Chevrolet introduced possibly its most notorious automobile, the Corvair. The car was conceived as a direct response to the Volkswagen Type 1 Beetle, employing the same rear-engine, rear-drive arrangement as the Bug along with a Volkswagen-like swing-axle rear suspension. The other new compact cars coming out of the Big Three at this time (i.e., the Mercury Comet, Plymouth Valiant, and Ford Falcon) supposedly took aim at the Beetle, too, but they used the then-standard front-engine, rear-drive layout with liquid-cooled engines and had more in common with the Rambler American and Studebaker Lark than the VW.

Unlike the Beetle, though, the Corvair offered an optional automatic transmission (the two-speed Powerglide) and a four-door body style. And Chevrolet made certain that the Corvair’s styling was as unique as its engineering. Because the car used a rear-mounted air-cooled engine, a grille wasn’t necessary. A prominent beltline and a flat-top sedan roof—the latter shared with other GM cars in 1959 and ’60—made the Corvair distinctive and inspired styling trends in Europe.

In addition to offering a coupe and sedan, Chevrolet also produced a Corvair station wagon for 1961 and ’62 and a convertible starting in 1962. There were commercial versions, too, riding on a 95-inch wheelbase. This so-called Corvair 95 series included a ramp-side pickup truck, a cargo van, and the Greenbrier passenger van—equivalent to the famed Volkswagen Type 2 and a forerunner to the minivans of the 1980s and ’90s. Corvair 95 production lasted from 1961 to ’65, and the 95s did not share in the 1965 redesign.

The Corvair didn’t catch on as an economical compact. The Ford Falcon dominated the segment in the first few years of the 1960s and inspired GM to act. Chevy reengineered the Corvair for 1961, employing changes with the intention of reducing cost and making the car more competitive in the low-price field, but the larger engine and newly available four-speed transmission further increased the appeal to the would-be sports-car owner. Moreover, GM decided to make a more conventional car called the Chevy II to compete with the Falcon and meet the demands of thrifty shoppers, which left room for Chevrolet to push the Corvair even further into performance territory.

The 1960 Corvair Monza show car—a sporty coupe with bucket seats and a floor shift—would be the way forward, with Chevy tapping into America’s burgeoning romance with performance. Thus, when the Chevy II debuted in 1962, Chevrolet advertising positioned the Corvair as a sports car, leaning heavily on its merits as a spirited driver instead of its practicality as a compact. A 150-hp turbocharged engine arrived for 1962 for Corvair Monza Spyders.

Chevrolet did not include a front anti-roll bar in the original Corvair suspension. This, combined with owners’ tendency to ignore the factory-recommended tire pressures, meant that many drivers were overwhelmed by the unfamiliar handling of a rear-engine car. Chevrolet introduced an anti-roll bar as an option for 1964 and partially redesigned the swing-axle rear suspension to improve safety, but consumer crusader Ralph Nader had already taken notice of the mismatch between Corvair advertising and Corvair safety and made it an issue in his book, Unsafe at Any Speed.

Unfortunately for the Corvair, Unsafe at Any Speed came out around the same time as the completely redesigned 1965 model. Under swoopy new sheetmetal (sculpted into two- or four-door hardtop form as well as a convertible), this Corvair featured a true independent rear suspension, similar to that found under the 1963-’82 Corvette. The late model also offered a Corsa trim with a further enlarged six-cylinder, now up to 164 cubic inches and producing either 140 or 180 horsepower, depending on whether the buyer selected the four-carb or turbocharged engine.

Post-1964 Corvairs are legendary performers. Famed Pennsylvania dealer Don Yenko, before he started building big-block Camaros using the COPO program, created a special performance-tuned version called the Stinger. In this, he joined John Fitch, who started producing Corvair-based Fitch Sprints earlier in the decade. Later, hot-rodders would turn Corvairs into mid-engine V-8 sports cars using conversion parts from Crown Manufacturing.
The bad publicity from the early model attached itself to the late, though, and scared off some buyers. Worse yet, Ford had reworked its Falcon into a sporty model called the Mustang, which could be had with V-8 power from the factory. The Mustang proved to be immensely popular with the buying public and its conventional engineering more attractive to both car buyers and production analysts. Chevrolet began designing a Mustang competitor right away. (It’s no coincidence that the 1967 Camaro looks a lot like the late-model Corvair.)
After the Camaro debuted, there was little demand for the air-cooled, rear-engine sporty compact, and GM discontinued the Corvair after the 1969 model year. (Later, a 1972 test by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration would conclude that the early-model Corvair was no more dangerous than any other car in the 1960-’64 period, though few outside the enthusiast community took note.) Today, the Corvair remains an easy-to-own collectable with strong aftermarket support and a devoted following.

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