Chevrolet Corvair | Unsafe At Any Speed?

A friend asked me recently if I had ever considered painting a Chevy Corvair.  Ah, the Chevy Corvair, introduced in 1960 to compete in the growing compact market.  Corvair’s flat horizontally opposed rear mounted 6 cylinder engine opened up room for a variety of packages which made the car widely popular. As a kid, my dream car was a candy-apple red Corvair Monza with a black interior.  I wound up with a green ’56 VW…

The Corvairs were a blast to drive.  A friend had a maroon ’69 Monza Spyder that was an absolute beast. With a 150 hp turbocharged engine, this little monster would eat up the roadway like spaghetti. The Corvair also looked cool too, sporting lithe and sleek lines with which the Ford Falcon, Dodge Dart and of course, the VW, simply could not compare.

Then along came Nader.  Chevy execs knew the Corvair was a handful, but refused to spend the few dollars per car to make the swing-axle suspension more manageable.  It was a decision they would come to regret… 

Ralph Nader, a consumer activist who probably drove a Nash Rambler and got beat up a lot as a kid, published a book called “Unsafe at Any Speed” in 1965.  The book outlined safety issues with a number of American cars, and called the Corvair a “one-car accident”.  Citing the car’s propensities for spins and rollovers, it was the death knell for the Corvair, which ceased production in 1969.

Which brings me to my point… isn’t any car unsafe at any speed at any point in time?  Depending on how we are driving at a certain point, isn’t any vehicle a rolling death trap?  If we are flying down the road well over the speed limit and go into a curve way too fast, isn’t that vehicle going to have a propensity to spin or roll?  Unsafe at any speed?  Try driving a ’69 VW 70 mph on an expressway.  Talk about unsafe… you’ll get run over.

So, yes, I will paint a Corvair portrait.  A nod to a great little American car that was ahead of its time and wound up getting the shaft.  Gee thanks, Ralph.  Oh, and Ralph, I see Corvairs at car shows quite often.  They’re Still Cruisin’!  – J.