Recently, the book Unsafe At Any Speed, Ralph Nader’s ode to automotive safety, pedestrian safety, environmental damage and his seemingly bona-fide hatred of the Chevrolet Corvair, reached the 50th anniversary milestone. By pointing out perceived flaws in the swing-axle suspension setup of the first-generation Corvairs, Nader made a name for himself as the man who would fight to keep the average American safe from themselves. Do with that what you will, but something tells us that in the 54 years that it has existed on the planet, that good ol’ Ralph has never, ever set eyes on the 1961 “Corphibian” one-off, because if he had, chances are good that we’d be talking about him in past-tense instead of present.

The Corphibian is a Chevrolet Engineering concept vehicle, a fully functional one-off that was completed with the assistance of Hulten-Holm & Co. Using a Corvair 95 Loadside as the base vehicle, the body was extended, a fiberglass hull was attached to the lower body, and twin propellors and a wooden rudder created one of the strangest amphibious vehicles ever. Unlike other semi-aquatics like the Amphicar, however, the Corphibian looks not only less…um, boat like…but also looks like an absolutely natural conversion.