1966 Chevrolet Corvair Review

sixty years ago the very concept of the small car was a novelty in America and as the time came for each of the u.s. Big Three automakers to feel competitors of their own in this class none was as determined to tread so boldly into this new arena as General Motors their highly unusual and forward-thinking Chevrolet Corvair became over the course of the 1960s perhaps the single most controversial American car model of all time while virtually all American cars of the mid century were built on a traditional front-engine rear-drive architecture Chevrolet placed a big bet on the concept that the compact car of the future would feature an engine and transmission packaged together and mounted at the driven wheels eliminating the traditional driveshaft tunnel and yielding better interior space efficiency thereby mitigating one of the biggest challenges with smaller car designs a lack of roominess and they were partially right by about 1980 20 years after the introduction of the Corvair small car designs had coalesced around a format where the engine and driven axle were packaged together at the same end of the car the other end of the car during the nascent stages of the Corvairs development Chevrolet at least briefly considered building a front-engine front-wheel-drive model but a Chevrolet boss by the name of Edie Cole had a personal affinity for the air-cooled flat rear engine rear drive design after all this layout was shared with Porsches and was reminiscent of aircraft and it felt exotic aspirational with his big personality Cole seems to have had an outsized influence on the Ark of the Corvairs development this was a man who reveled in novelty and insisted on operating at a fast pace and the Corvair was not a car that could have been hatched out of bureaucracy and painstaking analysis there would have been too many points along the way where a geek in a cubicle with a spreadsheet would have thrown a flag and said jeez boss we're not sure this is a practical way to go but potential pitfalls be damned the Corvair made it all the way to production where it sold 1.7 million units over ten model years and will stand for eternity in a class all its own a mainstream and expensive American car with available seating for six and an air-cooled flat six-cylinder engine behind the rear axle here representing the second generation or a late-model Corvair is a 1966 Monza 110 hardtop coupe introduced for 1965 the late model was the ultimate form of the Corvair and by this point it's novel chassis was quite well sorted but it took a while to get here now the Corvair had independent suspension at all four wheels from the start in fact it was originally the only American car with such what it lacked upon its 1960 introduction was a fully articulated rear suspension rather than drive axles with universal joints at each end it used a cheaper swing axle setup that meant that rear wheel camber was variable the tires tilted inward or outward depending on conditions like load or cornering this is not an ideal design it's desirable to use a system that keeps all four tires flat on the pavement at all times lest the cars stability be compromised now the early model Corvair was not the only rear-engine car to implement swing axles while there never an ideal design choice depending on the application and the use of engineering measures to counter their issues swing axles can be okay to use but compared to for instance the VW Beetle the Corvair was relatively large for a rear-engine car with a relatively big powerful engine and a particularly severe rearward weight bias while the Corvairs Engine was originally envisioned as an all-aluminum 4-cylinder the final design featured some use of cast iron in order to save cost not to mention a couple more cylinders for the smoothness and power than Americans prefer and while the cars rather traditional three-box proportions helped it look the part of a normal American car they didn't exactly help even out weight distribution all said and done the Corvair had a roughly 36 to 64% front to rear weight ratio with much of it landing behind the rear axle do tooth size shape horsepower and weight distribution this chassis was inherently not particularly well suited to a swing axle setup making matters worse upon its introduction the Corvair wasn't offered with either a front sway bar or camber compensating transverse rear leaf spring both features that would have served to counteract the swing axles stability issues the problem here was cost the original impetus behind the birth of the Corvair was to fill the role of cheap car but as it's completely novel and unique design was maturing it was turning out to be not cheap to make so some of those would be finishing touches were jettisoned in the fight to ensure profitability as a cheap fix Chevrolet advised Corvair drivers to run a tire pressure differential in their cars in order to quell their natural squirrel enos somewhat that is you were expected to keep a standard 26 pounds of air in the rear tires and just 15 pounds in the front this is not completely unheard of and it does help tremendously in this case but predictably this unusual yet critical advice was either forgotten or disregarded more often than not shortly after the Corvair went on sale GM began to face a rash of complaints and ultimately lawsuits from disgruntled customers claiming that the Corvair sketchy dynamics had led to single car crashes beginning to sense that the car's volatile driving manners were clashing with the general car buying public by 1962 Chevrolet offered as optional a heavy-duty handling package that included different spring and shock tuning rear axle limit straps and that vaunted front sway bar in order to mitigate the car's natural tendencies by 1964 the final year of the early model Corvair Chevrolet finally made the front sway bar standard as well as a camber compensating transverse leaf spring at the rear at this point the swing axle design had reached maximum refinement but it was still too little too late and the Corvair had developed a reputation but in 1965 Chevrolet completely redesigned the Corvairs body and suspension and it's hard to say why the decision was made to remake rather than to discontinue this car after all very early in the original cars run it was apparent to GM that the Corvair with its relatively high development in production costs and its rear engine peculiarities wasn't well suited to take the mainstream economy car segment head-on so by 1962 Chevrolet had already released the Chevy - which was a conventional front-engine rear-drive car similar to compact competitors like the Ford Falcon and with the Camaro on track to be released for 1967 Chevrolet already had an answer to the Mustang on the way neither Chevrolet's economy car nor its sports car the late model Corvair may have filled a role that was more symbolic than practical that is to say Chevrolet doubling down on the Corvair may have been a pride move more than anything else finally embracing its status as a sporty niche product the late model Corvair was marketed more as a driver's car rather than a grocery getter like the early model its coupe version and higher spectrums were emphasized while the early model was most heavily advertised as a four-door base model car and at the heart of this sleek handsome late model was the key ingredients so sorely missing from the original car a well-designed fully independent and fully articulated four-link rear suspension with W jointed axles five years after its debut the Corvair special chassis was finally quite well ironed out and in this form you can truly appreciate the beauty of the anomaly that was the Corvair just take a look at this thing it's got the timeless American look of the 60s yet it's unmistakably unique in subtle ways there's no traditional front grille for airflow and the engine compartment is a little longer than a normal trunk but otherwise this cars look is baseball and apple pie compared to most any other rear engine model gone is the early models boxiness in favor of this two-door hardtops smooth flowing curves unlike other rear engine designs the Corvairs hood is law to achieve those classic proportions and the front end is squared off in traditional the belt line curves gently up and down the car emphasizing the front and rear haunches to add some muscle to the cars look the hood is low and sleek courtesy of the lack of an engine under it allowing for further definition in the look of the front fenders the cars overall stance is low and hunkered down to the pavement these modern 15 inch alloys are wider than the stock 13s helping the car hold the road the windshields rake is flat and vertical typical of the period unlike the two-door version of the early model this is a hardtop coupe with no B pillars so when the front and rear windows are rolled down together you get this one nice big opening the rear windshield is swept back gently giving the car sporty outline and the rear vents that you see here perform the necessary function of providing air flow to the engine in classic fashion an array of metal emblems proudly announces the cars specifications for instance the mods ambulams on the front fenders steering wheel and glovebox tell you that this was a mid-level Corvair reverses the base model 500 series the Monza included a full vinyl interior with front bucket seats although these aren't to be confused with the firmly padded highly bolstered units found in newer cars they're effectively shaped like cut-off bench seats with short flat cushions aside from the bucket seats the Monza trim package was just that and most of what it added was simply brighter more upscale finishes inside now back here the checkered flag 110 emblem tells you that this car comes with the optional 110 horsepower engine that's the middle of the three engine options offered on the Monza the standard 95 horsepower and this optional 110 were both overhead valve mostly aluminum dual carbureted 2.7 liter flat sixes next in line was a hundred and forty horsepower engine featuring quad carbs both the Monza and the base 500 offered this engine lineup accompanying these three engines were three transmissions on either the 500 or the Monza you could order any available engine with either a base three-speed manual optional 4-speed manual or optional two-speed automatic mission so all in all both the 500 and Monza Corvairs each had a total of nine permutations of engine and transmission option that's the kind of powertrain configurability we never see these days it would be considered far too expensive but it was par for the course back then but that's not all the Corvair Corsa was the top-of-the-line factory model in addition to some nicer trim and a better gauge package the Corvair Corsa came standard with the quad car 140 horsepower engine or optionally with a hundred and eighty horsepower turbocharged engine yes a turbo in a 1960s American car this was quite unique in fact when the Corvair first received a turbo engine option in 1962 it was only the second production automobile ever to feature such being beat to market only by its GM stablemate o--'s 'mobile Jetfire a few months earlier add this to a long list of novelties heralded by the Corvair its unibody structure independent suspension at all four wheels air-cooled engine and rear engine layout were each firsts for GM if not production American automobiles as a whole while early turbo setups were not as refined as they are today turbocharging made perfect sense in this application unlike most 60s American cars the Corvairs engine compartment had serious size and weight constraints that wouldn't have allowed for simply dropping in a big heavy v8 more like a modern car there was a ceiling on the Corvairs displacements and what better way to make up for less volume than to stuff more air into it beyond powertrain the most noteworthy options that the Corvair came with were essentially the am/fm radio and air conditioning among a broad array of trivialities ranging from an analogue clock to a glovebox light brakes were manual drums at all four corners capitalizing on the Corvairs light front end Chevrolet never offered the car with expensive power steering as the car is pretty easy to handle without it add this to a list of natural advantages of the rear engine rear drive layout along with the flat floor and excellent traction but there were downsides too since the engine was air-cooled there was no great solution for the Corvairs here and fact for the first couple years of the Corvair the heater wasn't even standard equipment from day one there was an optional gasoline fire here which worked very well but was very expensive and sucked gas beginning in 1961 there was a second optional heater this one cheaper but weaker it's scavenged heat from the cars exhaust via heat exchangers from 1962 on this heater was made standard and although was improved upon over the years it was never quite a match for a water-cooled cars heater the gas-fired unit was dropped after 1962 another lesson endearing feature this serpentine belt design this single belt drives all the Corvairs accessories including the fan that this air-cooled pancake engines life depends so dearly on due to its odd up-and-down backwards and forwards routing this belt is prone to slipping off or snapping entirely fortunately there are warning lights on the dash for both the fan and generator but you'd better be paying close attention to them because they may be all the warning you get I'd like to think I know this car a little more intimately now having had the experience of changing its belt on the side of the road at 4 o'clock on a hot summer afternoon of Montgomery good thing uncle buddy knows to keep a couple of spares in the car speaking of hot although this car unlike many Corvairs had factory a/c its components have long been removed but you do have a couple of extra ways to get airflow through the cabin for instance these cable operated vents direct fresh airflow from the cow to the driver and passenger footwells a little higher up you've got the classic triangular vent windows on the front doors the shape of the dashboard and the design of the gauges make it clear that this is a driver's car to that end rather than a traditional column shifter for this automatic you've got what basically amounts to a miniaturised console shifter mounted up here on the dash although I do think the stale old column shift gives more positive tactile feedback than this little switch does this is a better look below the shifter you'll find the heating and air controls mounted low and out of the way looking like a bit of an afterthought you'd think they'd have earned a spot front and center on the radio but that space was reserved for the ashtray funny how priorities changed the parking brake handle in the floor mounted high beams which are throwbacks to otherwise the sporty slant of this cockpit styling has allowed it to aged tastefully and the additional mods a bright work doesn't hurt the backseat is accessed easily as the front seats don't latch in the upright position and fold forward with a single shove the rear seat back folds for it as well in order to form a flat loading floor for cargo this extra spot to put stuff was intended to make up for the fact that the Corvair didn't have a traditional trunk of course you've also got the Franck under the hood for luggage the back seat in this coupe is cramped hopefully the sedans back seat was better and something tells me it probably was drop down into the driver's seat and you'll find the core veilleux's signature flat floor quite close at hand the cowl seems to come up high the car is narrow for the 60s and the windshield is short and flat if I may make an odd comparison some of the cockpits dimensions actually remind me of 1990s compact pickups and their SUV counterparts Tacoma explorer the low slung seating position is relaxed and spacious the front seats are forward and backward adjustable only they don't recline although their default rake is a good medium I found the core bear to start easily and promptly all day with a smooth healthy idle the exhaust note I thought was good for a six-cylinder and distinctly American low throaty and a little coarse with a hint of an air-cooled buzz when I first got a hold of the keys in the morning and pulled away from the curb it seemed to be a car like any other and for the first few moments navigating out of the neighborhood my mind was on other things and then I came to a stop sign in a left-hand turn I hit the brakes their manual slow and heavy I cranked down on the steering wheel as I pull away again it's manual for a split second the heft of the steering wheel and the brakes wakes me up and I remember oh yeah this is an old car but for a minute I had been gliding around the neighborhood in the Corvair like it was anything else with most cars this age the reminders of their antiquity are constant and the entire experience feels more like setting sail than going out for an average Drive but the Corvair feels reigned in unencumbered with acres of excess steel just for the sake of it the Corvairs modest dimensions make it easy to park and maneuver its unibody structure despite being an early example is if anything a little over built lending a stiff tight feel to the car's body and although I wasn't impressed with steering feel the last time I drove an early model Corvair I found this particular car steering to be very good for a 1960s worm gear type ensuring proper tire pressure differential goes a long way to this end keeping the spare tire in the front as opposed to the engine bay is also a good move as a little bit of weight over the Corvairs front axle is good for it the Corvair is coil sprung at all four wheels and the front suspension is a solid upper and lower a arm design with anti diametric the front sway bar was standard on all late models and that rear transverse leaf spring wasn't present or rendered unnecessary by the deletion of the swing axles the ride has composed over good surfaces but the condition of this car's shock absorbers is unknown it could no doubt benefit from newer better ones between the lack of dampening short wheelbase and bus drivers springy front seats particularly rough stretches have the potential and make the car feel like an inflatable bounce house it's not jarring you just have to hold on to your hat but the crown jewel of the Corvair is driving experience as its handling the Corvair especially the late model like this one was a revelation for the American car industry Americans in this day could expect their cars to squeal and whine and crumble in protest when pushed into a corner their big heavy front ends and soft suspension were the natural breeding grounds of front-end plow understeer and vague steering but this car with its tight unibody structure well-designed front and rear suspensions and very low weight of roughly 2500 pounds was able to very effectively leverage its rear engine layout which when properly engineered yields the neutral balanced secure handling such as this car displays around curves it simply feels like a car from the another decade armed with just a hundred and ten horses it's hard to get this chassis to so much as flinch and it's clear that the car could handle significantly more power that said although 110 sounds like a pitifully low number especially for the Golden Age of horsepower that this car came about in if you handed me this car and asked me to drive it and guess its power rating I would say about 140 the weight is probably what makes the difference if you're in the frame of mind of modern cars you would expect a car this size to carry an extra thousand pounds and be an absolute dog with the same power rating this flat six didn't strike me as particularly torquey and certainly not peaky it's pretty balanced overall I would have been interested to know what the engine was revving alas a tachometer was in the realm of the Corvair Corsa that's especially true on the highway you'd expect a two-speed automatic to hold this car back more than it does I'm sure it becomes more evident in daily driving but in a single day of driving this car around town for hours I honestly didn't feel like it was really hurting for more gears all that badly call me uncultured I guess even on the highway I thought the car felt strong and goosing it up to 80 from 70 is quick with little effort and of course no downshifting although you're probably sucking a lot of gas by then at speed the car is tight and rattle free in a manner unlike most 60s cars and trucks I've driven with the windows up the cabin still seals well and wind and road noise intrusion are low although the engine is a little buzzy this Corvair is no perfect specimen it's no show car it's not restored it's just a several thousand dollar average driver but with a spare belt on hand and a tolerance for hot weather it can still easily be driven every day and unlike the early version you can throw a stranger the keys without first giving him a quick disclaimer as a collector's car the Corvair is cheap in comparison to many more traditionally constructed 1960s models such as the Mustang Camaro or nova that's likely because what the 60s did best was raw power and lots of cars do that much much better than this one the public controversy over the car's safety surely drove values down at one point I don't know if it makes any difference now yes the Corvair name became in its day infamous that the early model cars had the potential to exhibit some odd and dangerous behavior under certain conditions namely snap oversteer and roll over is undebatable the gray area was just how likely those things were to actually happen when driven by average drivers and average conditions and who was to blame when things did go wrong you can blame Chevrolet you can blame the drivers I can tell you I've driven a 64 early model and it wasn't my cup of tea I can tell you that the same people were driving impalas and Mustangs down the same streets in the 60s and he didn't have a trend of bizarre single car accidents and lawsuits with those yes the famous book and publicized lawsuits of Ralph Nader magnified the cars faults to caricature like proportions but the early model Corvair did make an easy target of itself for him all that being said the driving manners of this late model 66 don't strike me as problematic in the least in fact the cars handling is a marvel for its year but by this point the Corvair didn't really meet its originally intended function of serving as a cheap mainstream car to build this chassis and to build it right was too expensive and ultimately costs were cited for the cars of ventral discontinuation after 1969 this establishes the Corvair paradox a rear engine design American size and power solid dynamics low-cost the Corvair seems to prove that of those four you can pick three this car was a valiant attempt by Chevrolet to leapfrog all competition in the compact car segment a revolution not an evolution the upsides of such bravery can be immense but to clear an obstacle with one giant leap and not a series of steps for a moment there you're going to be going on faith you may find solid footing on the other side you may not I do give them a lot of credit on the grounds that the eventually determined canonical small car design did and does include like this one packaging the entire powertrain and drivetrain all together at one end of the car I think the Corvair foreshadowed that important eventualities maybe nothing else did but Chevrolet didn't clear that hurdle if they had this wouldn't have been the only mass-produced rear engine air-cooled car ever in the history of America no this car was never meant to be this car burnt its maker but in 1965 it found redemption not for economic reasons but because sometimes dreams and pride win so one of the theories I've been reading about this a little bit one of the alternate theories about how Carroll Baskins husband died is that he was some kind of drug war we're not really a drug war but then he was running cocaine really and it makes sense because it's like she said like oh yeah he just liked to go to Costa Rica all the time just because you know and he yeah he had all these private plans but he threw him under the radar so it wouldn't be detected it's like so this guy like this had this guy had untold riches he had gold and money buried all over the place like it's not clear exactly like what kind of business he was in but we do know that he went to Costa Rica monthly just just because he did business stuff there like yeah yeah from freaking Florida yeah in the 80s and 90s yeah like all under the tower when he took off yeah exactly even my granddad who had like applying this code of fear strip like still had that face right yeah so that is like one of the alternate theories about that's in how I got on and then of course you know part of that is well Carrie Carol may have known that but she would keep her mouth shut if he was involved in if she knew anything about if he was involved in drug stuff because she doesn't own the money again yeah I'll take it yeah she's like I heard that yep she seems like a real oh yeah it's hideous it's Richard Lewis yeah they just have lures written all over it

Channel: Atomic Automobile

Views: 57,723

Rating: 4.8622274 out of 5

Keywords: corvair, chevy corvair, chevrolet corvair, corviar, corvair review, corviar review, chevy corviar, 1960 corvair, 1961 corvair, 1962 corvair, 1963 corvair, 1964 corvair, 1965 corvair, 1966 corvair, 1967 corvair, 1968 corvair, 1969 corvair, corvair monza, corvair 500, corvair 110, corvair corsa, chevy

Id: hlbd0-6XtwI

Length: 27min 10sec (1630 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 05 2020