1964 Corvair

edited by David Barth, 22 February 2009.
Courtesy The Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Photos were taken in January 2009.

The concept of the Corvair originated in the early 1950s when a group of engineers, headed by Ed Cole, then the manager of Cleveland's Cadillac Tank Plant, met at the Lakeshore Hotel in suburban Lakewood. There they designed an air-cooled, rear engine car, in effect, an American Volkswagen. Their ideas led to the final design of the Corvair and the Corvair station wagon. The station wagon was called the "Lakewood."

In November 1965, Ralph Nader published the book, "Unsafe at Any Speed," an indictment of the safety standards of American cars. While Nader criticized all U.S. cars, he focused on the 1960-1963 Corvairs, saying that the rear wheels "tucked under" on turns, causing the car to roll. The rear axle had been resesigned for the 1964 models, but Nader still claimed that the Corvair was the ". . . leading candidate for the unsafest car title."

In liability suits, the courts found, overwhelmingly, that the Corvair was no more unsafe than any other car. However, General Motors' (GM's) handling of the matter was a public relations disaster. Instead of defending the car, GM hired a detective to dig into Nader's past for scandalous information. Nader emerged squeaky-clean, GM looked guilty, and the Corvair was doomed. 1965 sales of 220,000 dropped to 14,800 in 1968. Production ended in May 1969.

This model is the Monza convertible, the sportiest of the four original Corvair models. Acquired from its original owner in mint condition, it has 1926 original miles on the odometer and was taken directly from the former owner's garage and placed on the museum floor.

Model: Corvair Monza
Body Style: Convertible
Original Factory Price: $2,492
Brake Horsepower: 110
Displacement: 164 cubic inches
Bore: 3 7/16 inches
Stroke: 2.94 inches
Cylinders: 6, in pairs, horizontally opposed
Wheelbase: 108 inches
Manufacturer: Chevrolet Division, General Motors Corporation
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA

Donor: Friends of the Crawford Museum