I’m not in love with the first-generation of Corvairs…they look upright and plain, like the typical Aunt Bessie car. The second-gen cars, though…they are sexy. And when they are tuned to do some damage, you have to wonder just where the line would have gone if it hadn’t been for swing-arm suspensions and one irritating little public safety crusader who was hell-bent on making this car disappear from the face of the earth. The Corvair’s number was up over a number of factors…Nader, the Camaro’s arrival, the success of the Chevy II, and so on and so forth. Chevrolet let the car wither on the vine and die off unceremoniously in 1969, right when the car was really good. In hot trim, the flat-six had a Porsche-like scream to it that is primal and raw, the handling was something to behold, and the body looked good without looking like everything else out on the road at the time.
If the clay models are to be believed, however, the Corvair was going to undergo a Brougham treatment for it’s third generation, looking somewhat like a 1973 Pontiac offering, so maybe it was for the best that it got killed off. Still, watch this old footage of the yellow howler and tell me that between this car and the Fiero, that General Motors couldn’t have kept this kind of momentum up if it hadn’t been for a ton of bad press. Yenko knew how to make one handle, and any transverse-mounted engine, air cooled or not, could be shoved in the back. If only…
Probably the only GM product I’ve ever liked.
Agreed, although I kinda liked the 55 Bel Air, too.
It looks good all hunkered down like that!
If they didn’t leak oil when they aged …etc ..
and the Fiero….WTF ! – add a proper wishbone front suspension and
the 4.3 Turbo it would have been unreal !!
The turbo didn’t happen because it would have been faster the a vette
Buddy had a stock one that would corner so hard it would put the oil pressure light on !
The manufacturing process was a whole new coo lthing they threw away
My \’66 Corsa ragtop is awesome. I can\’t really believe GM. They had the engine at the correct end of the car twice. I wonder why Nader didn\’t put the Volkswagan on his \’dangerous\’ list. Oh, I know. It was made overseas. We have to be content with 2 or 3 ton plowing monsters over here. An up grade to 14\” radial tires with better pressures does wonders for handling. Oh yes, changing the pushrod tube seals to Viton instead of whatever GM used stops the oil leakage.
Volkswagen was also on Nader\’s hit list. A book was release in 72 specifically about flaws in the VW Beetle.
Some corrections for the author here. By 1965 the Corvair had gone to full IRS. Swing axles were gone completely from the 65-69 years. In stock form second generation Corvairs were doing .9g on the skidpads out handling everything. That is what sparked Yenko\’s interest. All he did in the handling dept was cut some coils for lowering and put some Koni shocks on. Quick steer arms or fast ratio steering boxes were common and optional from the factory.