How the Chevy Corvair became America's most controversial car

Chevrolet didn’t set out to design the most controversial American car ever.

When it launched the Corvair project, it wanted to create an entry-level model that rolled value, practicality and performance into a package that looked like nothing else on the road. It was Chevrolet’s first rear-engined car, though many believed it wouldn’t be its last, and it received an air-cooled flat-six engine that no other mass-produced American car could brag about. The Corvair bridged the automotive gap between Europe and the United States.

Ralph Nader’s 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed torpedoed the Corvair and demonized nearly everyone involved in its development. It irreparably damaged the car’s reputation and sales never recovered. Nonetheless, nearly 1.8 million Corvairs were produced. Was it unsafe or misunderstood? Let's take a look at the car and the real story:

Ed Cole’s rear-engined dreams (1950s)

Ed Cole, a prominent General Motors engineer and executive, is often considered the father of the Corvair. He had pushed the company to make a rear-engined car for many years before launching the project. He was notably part of a small team that developed a rear-engined Cadillac immediately after World War II. One of the prototypes built was fitted with dual rear wheels for increased stability. While the car never reached production, Cole’s interest in the rear-engined layout didn’t fade.

Getting Chevrolet go to rear-engined (1955)

In 1955, while he served as Chevrolet’s chief engineer, Ed Cole argued there was a market for a compact, rear-engined car that was lighter, smaller and cheaper than any model in the automaker’s range. It was clear he had the Volkswagen Beetle and other European imports in mind but it was also clear he wouldn’t settle for copying an existing design. The car he envisioned at the bottom of the Chevrolet line was new and innovative.

Instead of waiting for management’s approval, Cole became the management. He launched the Corvair project when he took the top job at Chevrolet in 1956. He started by assembling a team of engineers and designers he trusted and had worked with before and he put Kai Hansen in charge of the project.

Born on a blank slate

Kai Hansen’s team started from scratch. Moving the engine to the back gave designers the freedom to draw a car that looked like nothing else on the road thanks in part to an elegant, grille-less front end. The Corvair didn’t need a bulky transmission tunnel because four-wheel drive certainly wasn’t planned so it offered an unusually roomy interior with space for six passengers. And, significantly, Hansen envisioned the Corvair as a full range of models early on in the development process.

The Corvair went on sale across America in the fall of 1959 as a 1960 model. The line-up quickly grew to include three basic trim levels named 500, 700 and 900, respectively, numbers that corresponded to Standard, Deluxe and Monza (essentially entry-level, mid-range and performance) models. Buyers could choose between two- and four-door body styles. The four-door 700-Series (pictured) outsold its peers by a wide margin; it accounted for about 139,000 of the 250,000 units sold during the 1960 model year.

The original Corvair, by the numbers

Chevrolet released the Corvair with an aluminum, air-cooled flat-six engine mounted behind the rear axle. The 2.3-liter six sent 80 hp to the rear wheels through a three-speed manual transmission, though 83.5% of buyers paid $146 (about $1300 in today's money) for a two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission. Horsepower was cheap during the 1960s; Chevrolet offered a 95 hp evolution of the flat-six at an extra cost for $27 (approximately $230 today).

The two-door 500-Series model represented the entry point into the Corvair range. It cost $1984 (about $17,000 today) during its inaugural model year. At the other end of the spectrum, the 900-series Corvair Monza started at $2238 (roughly $19,000 today).

The Corvair’s main rivals were the Ford Falcon and the Valiant that Chrysler briefly sold as a standalone model before slotting it at the bottom of the Plymouth line-up. Both were introduced during the 1960 model year and they adopted a more conventional front-engined, rear-wheel drive layout. PICTURE: Corvair with an Abarth exhaust.

New for 1961

Kai Hansen’s vision of a full line of Corvair-badged models became a reality during the 1961 model year. Chevrolet released a station wagon called Lakewood (pictured) with a spacious cargo compartment above the engine and a second one up front. The firm also launched a pair of commercial, cab-over models not unlike the Volkswagen Bus named Corvair 95 in reference to the 95in wheelbase.

The Corvair 95 range was split into several models. The Corvan was a panel van, the Greenbrier had windows and up to nine seats while the Loadside and Rampside were pickups. The Rampside featured an innovative folding side panel that made rolling cargo into the bed a breeze. All of the new additions to the Corvair range used the same 80 hp as the two- and four-door models released a year earlier.