Chevrolet Corvair

The Chevrolet Corvair is an American car with a rear engine, which was built by the General Motors subsidiary Chevrolet 1959-1969.

Year by year

Corvair / Corvair Deluxe / Corvair Monza / Corvair Monza Spyder series 500, 600, 700 and 900 ( 1960-1964 )

Chevrolet Corvair (1960-1964)

The Corvair had to expand as the appeared simultaneously competing models Ford Falcon and Plymouth Valiant, the task of the program the largest American car producers down and to offer an alternative to the end of the 1950s increasingly successful import cars, primarily for the VW Beetle.

The here offered technical solution made ​​the Corvair unique. While for decades all American cars followed a standard construction ( water-cooled, longitudinally mounted front engine, rear-wheel drive ), the Corvair was oriented - the only American production car - the VW Beetle. So he got a swing axle with an air-cooled rear engine.

A six-cylinder boxer engine with 2300 cc capacity initially, and later also in 2400 and 2700 cc cc: As a concession to American tastes this was significantly greater than that of the Volkswagen Beetle.

In addition to the four-door sedan, it was still a five-door station wagon called Lakewood, a two-door coupe and two-door convertible. Even a minibus (similar to the VW bus) was sold under the name Greenbrier Sportwagon. The body shape of the first series ( 1960-1964 ) with the peripheral, strongly emphasized waistline was the model for the NSU Prinz 4, Fiat 1300 and the ZAZ 968

Were offered from October 1959 a two-door coupe and a four-door sedan available in standard and deluxe version, this came in May 1960 as a sporty version of the Corvair Monza Coupe; all models were of a 2.3 -liter six- cylinder boxer engine with 80 hp or hp/81, with dual carburetors, 95 hp/96 hp. Was shifted via a manual three-speed transmission or Powerglide automatic transmission with two gears, in 1961 a four-speed manual transmission was in addition to the choice.

For model year 1961, the program was expanded to include a five-door station wagon and a Monza sedan ( also published a Sports Wagon called minibus or Transporter), at the same time enlarged the work of the engine to 2.4 liters, the power rating remained unchanged.

From 1962 there was the base model only as a coupe and Monza series was increased by a convertible and a station wagon. It ranked the new series Monza Spyder, whose 2.4 - liter boxer engine turbocharger came thanks to 150 hp/152 PS. From autumn 1963, the engines were enlarged to 2.7 liters and made in naturally aspirated 95 hp hp/96, with turbo in Monza Spyder continues to 152 hp. The turbo version has been increased again and finally offered additionally with 2.9 liter engine and 180 hp. There was also for the Year 1964, which made ​​in Biel / Bienne in the GM -Assembling factory four-door sedan with 2.7 liter engine and 112 hp ( 700 series, body type from 1959 to 1964 )

Corvair Monza 500/Corvair / Corvair Corsa Series 101, 105 and 107 ( 1965-1969 )

Chevrolet Corvair Convertible (1965-1969)

In September 1964 Chevrolet presented at an unchanged wheelbase of 2743 mm the Corvair the second generation with a bit more body. Were originally provided the basic model Corvair 500 as a hardtop coupe and sedan, the better equipped Corvair Monza coupe, sedan and convertible and a new sporty top model of the Corvair Corsa only as a coupe and convertible. The Corsa was driven by a high-performance version of the 2.7 - liter (140 hp/142 PS) - the turbo version was an extra charge and also to 140 hp/142 PS throttled or as a top version with 180 hp/183 PS still on offer -, the other models of the previous, 95 hp/96 hp version of this engine ( extra charge there was also a version with 110 hp/112 PS). 1967 accounted for the Corsa replacement, with it, the 180 hp version of the turbo engine. For model year 1968, the four-door sedan was taken out of the program; Thus, the basic model remained as a coupe and Monza coupe and convertible offer. Here it remained until the end of production on 14 May 1969.

Security issues and model refinement

The rear suspension of the Corvair existed until the 1964 model of a swing axle, similar to the Volkswagen Beetle. The vehicles had a driveability, which is typical for this design: neutral and sporty to drive up to the limit velocity is changing at high speeds in curves of the overthrow of the wheels in the direction of positive ( bent the wheel (especially in bumps ) inside a ). Sequence is abrupt oversteer, so spinning the vehicle rear end. Some engineers at Chevrolet had concerns already during the vehicle testing; the relatively simple and inexpensive to produce chassis but was only mitigated by the disclosure of certain tire pressures - back much higher than the front. This information in the manual are unfortunately often misinterpreted as a misprint and not followed.

After there had been numerous accidents with some deaths, the rear suspension has been revised for model year 1964: An additional mounting spring was installed to minimize the strong movements of the rear wheels when unloaded. The optional harder suspension was no longer available; all vehicles now feature a stronger front anti-roll bar. The drum brakes have been revised.

For the model year 1965, the rear swing axle was replaced by the adopted from the Chevrolet Corvette rear suspension. Thus, the handling of the Corvair was still typical of a car with a rear engine; but the onset of the limit oversteer was now at least well controlled.

The campaign against the Corvair

In the first years of production, the Corvair was quite successful, reaching production numbers 200000-300000 pieces annually (exact numbers see above). As of 1965, the car was victim of the headlines in the press about accidents and the campaign of the Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader, the basis of some accidents accused the Corvair unsafe set in his book " Unsafe At Any Speed".

The fact was that the Corvair as all rear-engine car was tail-heavy and tended to sudden oversteer, while the American car of conventional design strong sub- controller, so were very winding and unwilling in curves pushed over the front wheels to the outside. In this respect, the Corvair had to be driven in curves very different than the motorists were accustomed to it. Its handling characteristics corresponded in principle to the contemporary European rear-engine car (Volkswagen, Škoda, NSU, Renault, Simca, Porsche). Only these vehicles were much weaker motorized (except Porsche).

As a result, the demand made ​​by the Corvair from 1966 after abruptly. The reputation of relatively small, well- motorized and therefore to sporty driving vehicle was ruined precisely at the time when the improvements were introduced in the series. Due to the declining sales of the series Corvair 1969 has been set, without that they got a successor.

Electric prototypes

With the Chevrolet Electrovair of 1964 and Electrovair of 1965, the General Motors Advanced Engineering Group developed two test vehicles with electric drive. The Corvair was (except the Corvette ) was chosen as the lightest car from Chevrolet, also the rear engine was beneficial for the conversion. Both were based on the four-door sedan. Wherein the first, the rear doors are closed by welding in order to give more rigidity to the vehicle. It received a set of batteries with a total of 532 V voltage, however, which filled the whole trunk and engine compartment. This made it necessary that in place of the rear seat had to be housed components. We used a electric motor of AC Delco with 115 kW. With a peak of 80 mph ( about 130 km / h) and an acceleration of 16 seconds to 60 miles (96 km ) the benefits were comparable to the production car. The silver -zinc batteries were difficult and increased the weight of 2500 lb ( 1134 kg ) to about 3000 lb (1684 kg). Above all, they only had enough for unacceptable 40 to 80 miles ( about 65-130 miles) per charge and could only ever be recharged about 100 times before they had to be replaced. This again was very expensive; the initial cost at that time with U.S. $ 160,000 multiples of a new car. Electrovair II is often referred to as the 1966 model. It is now part of the collection of the GM Heritage Center.