Chevrolet Corvair - The one for 61 -Vintage Jam Handy

Vintage Jam Handy filmstrip

[@EristiCat]

I had a 60 Corvair and my Sister had a 60 Falcon. My mom had a 61 Comet. As a solo driver without the need to carry much stuff the Corvair was by far the best car. Much quieter, better riding and handling, and with the rear engine unstoppable off road. But for doing what a lot of people do with their car the more conventional design of the Falcon/Comet was a major selling point over the unconventional Corvair. I replaced the 60 Corvair with a 65 Corvair with the 4-carb engine and AC. It was a great car as far as ride and handling and with the 140 hp engine it was really nice to drive. Sadly I was screwed by the dealer and the engine had been overheated and the oil control rings were collapsed. I couldn't afford to repair it so had to replace it. Replace it with a 62 Chey Nova that had AC. For a solo driver the 65 Corvair was the best overall car of the group. The Nova was really nice too, it was fully loaded and like driving a small version of an Impala. Of course, it didn't have the off-road chops of the Corvair nor was it as fast but it was a far better car than what Ford was making to compete with it.

[@amerigovespucci4076]

I'm sold!!!!!!!!

[@jasoncarpp7742]

It seems unforgiveable that Chevrolet would wish to discontinue the Corvair after only 1964. It may not have pleased everyone. I'm sure there were people who preferred cars like the Chevelle, the Buick Special, and the Pontiac GTO, but the Corvair should've been allowed to continue, and in fact, expanded to include a school bus. :)

[@pcno2832]

It was produced until partway through the 1969 model year. 1.7 million copies were sold altogether. They puts it not far from the Ford Pinto in popularity.

[@dalewalker4614]

@@pcno2832 (And the Corvair gas tank didn't explode on impact....)

[@TheOzthewiz]

GM was only interested in their "bottom line", the sales numbers fell "off a cliff" when "bad boy" Ralph Nader bad mouthed it!

[@tomservo56954]

@@TheOzthewiz Six months before UNSAFE was published, GM had decided to drop the Corvair when the Camaro was introduced in the fall of 1966. In anything, Nader saved the car--rememeber, the controversy wasn't over the car, but the fact GM hired private detectives to find dirt on Nader

[@scrambler69-xk3kv]

It sure had a BIG crumple zone in that no engine front.@@dalewalker4614

[@johneddy98033]

Although Chevy did not want to admit it here, but Corvair was being outsold by a wide margin by Falcon, Comet and Valiant/Lancer (the Dodge version would be renamed Dart later on - my mom and dad had a '60s Dodge Dart station wagon but that was a different class of car entirely), so it had to counter later with the Chevy II/Nova.

[@TheOzthewiz]

The Corvair didn't sell as well the other "compacts" because it was a RADICAL American car whose reputation was damaged by Ralph Nader. Overall though, it sold 1.7 million vehicles during it's run, not too shabby! I liked my '61 Monza, even though it had a 3-speed manual(didn't want to wait for the 4-speed), the 3-speed REALLY sucked in stop n' go traffic......NO SYNCHRO IN LOW GEAR!

[@ytcsgmike2]

@@TheOzthewiz than came the monza coupe in 1960 : inventer of the bucket seat sporty compac ideal with a 4sp was more fun than a 3 on the tree ,every one rushed to copy it, 1961-63 monza's out sold the 61.5 -63 falcon futrua , 61.5 -63 comet s/22 , 63 dart gt, 62lancer gt , 62-63 valent signet , out sold even gms larger compact s 63 nova ss ,61-62 cutlass, skylark, la mans than came the 64.5 mustang and stole the show , so the monza was the inventor of the sporty compact ford copied it with falcon futura chevy copied the futura with the nova ss ford copy , nova ss with the mustang and chevy copied it with the cameo so did the monza invent the pony car ? whats a pony a compact horse just saying

[@postal_the_clown]

I found it hard to believe but it's true that Ford was still using vacuum wipers in some models up to about '62. The last to drop them in passenger cars.

[@scrambler69-xk3kv]

Wrong American motors used them in the early 1970's.

[@FrenchValleyAirport]

This seems like the perfect car! haha

[@animalcorvair]

David G corvairs were way ahead of at the time ,,take my 62 700 over all of them

[@WhittyPics]

The Corvair was MILES better than what replaced it. The VEGA.

[@dalewalker4614]

@@WhittyPics Sorry Dennis W but you have spun a 180 degrees there. The Corvair was built from model years 1960 to 1969. The Chevrolet Vega began production in model year 1971 as the first car fully designed and tested on a computer model before the first test mules were built. On the assembly line the 3,900 welds to the unibody of the Vega were all done by robot. They were eventually able to push the assembly line to 100 cars/hour, twice the output of any other assembly line in the world. The model years for the Vega were 1971 through 1977, so it was obviously the Vega that replaced the Corvair. Earned Motor Trend's 1971 Car of the Year award and several other honors in its first production years, the Vega was actually an superbly designed car. However, the aluminum/silicon alloy engine block didn't last near as well as early testing suggested it would and the Vega went into a tailspin and died as the fuel crisis eased and the market shifted to mid-sized cars like the Chevelle. I custom ordered my first ever new car, a 1972 Vega GT for my commute to work at my first job out of college. The GT had a higher horsepower engine w/2-bbl carb, a solid 4-speed and the new Firestone A-70 Wide-Oval tires (which I later replaced with even better BF Goodrich T/A 60 profile radials), a set of gauges, a GT trim package and some other performance goodies. I added a front and rear spoiler and the car was glued to the ground at its top speed of 105 mph. It drove at its best around 75-80 mph in the days of the double-nickel speed limit. I loved how this new compact car handled and performed and drove it for several years until the aluminum/silicon cylinder walls scored and it started burning oil. After replacing the block twice with replacement blocks that had steel cylinder inserts installed, the rings would not seat so I sold the car and moved on. In all fairness, a number of base Vega owners that didn't watch their coolant level and had overheating problems resulting in warped cast-iron heads that had to be resurfaced or replaced, but the heavy-duty radiator on my GT package prevented that problem from happening to me. Like I say, the Vega was actually a great car for its day, but with a bad engine over time.

[@chasl3645]

Obviously the powers-that-be had to smash Corvair. The car and Van were way ahead of their time.

[@animalcorvair]

they are

[@5610winston]

Notice, they didn't show anyone actually getting into the back seats of the Corvair, Comet, or Valiant. What about the gasoline heater? Where was the body-on-frame Studebaker Lark?

[@TheOzthewiz]

What about the gasoline heater? I picked up my '61 Monza (standard heater) during a sub-zero January evening in Minneapolis, after about 5 minutes of running it got so warm and cozy inside, I could take my coat off! Btw, in the short time I owned it, I did not notice any engine fumes leaking into the cabin. The ONLY reason I got rid of it in 6 months was the arrival of the 190HP '61 Buick Skylark (NEED for SPEED)!

[@postal_the_clown]

Where's the Lark? My guess is for the same reason the Comet was used instead of the Falcon. Trying to place a little higher in the market. And a back-handed admission that Lark and Falcon buyers weren't the kind to step up. Though, they could have swapped one of the Chryslers for the Lark.

[@scrambler69-xk3kv]

Gasoline heater was only on the 1960. They decided to blow air across the cylinder heads to pick up warmth, but if you had any kind of exhaust leak it came into the passenger compartment. They eliminated the gasoline heater to improve fuel economy because the Corvair was not competitive in that dept.

[@scrambler69-xk3kv]

Can't understand why they are comparing it to the Rambler Classic when it competed with the Rambler American.

[@LN997-i8x]

I love my Corvair, but describing the stock steering as "sports car like" is pretty comical!

[@danr1920]

I love the Corvair's steering. Don't compare it to a modern sports cars, but the big old heavy boats of the '60's.

[@TheOzthewiz]

For it's day, it was "sporty".

[@ramblerclassicman221]

Unitized bodies came first with a British company then in mass production with AMC. Also the bodies of all the non corvair cars were unitized without fenders for replacement!:> was the gas tank safer in the front?

[@animalcorvair]

yes it was

[@danr1920]

@@animalcorvair Agreed, you crush the gas tank in the Corvair, you're done too.

[@animalcorvair]

@@danr1920 better protected than my 69 mach 1...most never burnt up ..from a front end wreck

[@TheOzthewiz]

The Chrysler Airflow and Citroen Avant of the mid-thirties were the first unibody cars. The gas tank was located BEHIND the front suspension, making it safer than most cars of that era!

[@scrambler69-xk3kv]

it was low and behind the front suspension.

[@DMBall]

Corvair was essentially Chevrolet's "Edsel" episode, only more protracted. Along with the quality and design problems, GM hired private eyes to tail Ralph Nader after he trashed the vehicle in his book "Unsafe at an Speed." That turned a lot of people in Washington against the auto industry as a whole.

[@A_Litre_of_Farva]

What “quality and design problems?” Ever owned one?

[@The333Wanderer]

Ideal weight distribution of rear 60% and front 40%: I don't think so.

[@scrambler69-xk3kv]

The thinking was when you applied the brakes that additional rear weight would shift to the front and give more even braking performance.

[@tombob671]

Sounds like Ward Cleaver

[@TheOzthewiz]

No! It wasn't Hugh Beaumont.

[@scrambler69-xk3kv]

Falcon was outselling the Corvair by a wide margin. People like the conventional mechanicals of the Falcon. Why do you think Chevrolet came out with the Chevy II? Besides Corvair was Cheap, Hardly, Efficient, Virtuously, Runs, On, Luck. Every, Time.

[@johnbecker5213]

greasy ford seats!!! yuk!!!