| Over the years you have probably
come across a number of "Corvair experts" who have been more than glad to
share their genius with you. The opinions they will try to present as fact
range from the comical to the annoying. Here are some of the best:
HEY, ISN’T THAT THE CAR RALPH NADER GOT BANNED?
First, no car
of any kind has ever been banned from American highways, and certainly NOT
the Corvair. In fact the Corvair is, to date, the only car that was thoroughly
investigated and found perfectly safe by the federal government. Keep in
mind that, at that time, the senate committee doing the investigating was
made up of folks who dearly wanted to prove Nader right.
WELL, OK THEN, RALPH NADER GOT CHEVROLET TO DISCONTINUE THE CORVAIR -
Sorry, wrong again! When Nader’s book came out in early 66 Chevrolet had
already (2 years before) made the decision to quit making the Corvair after
1966. Because of the controversy Chevrolet made the decision to make 3 more
production years (til 69) just to prove that Nader had no effect on them!
CORVAIRS ARE DANGEROUS! Horse manure. (Refer to comments already
made above). The 1960-64 Corvair body was deemed "the most structurally sound"
car ever built by the SAE. The 65-69 is in the top 5 of all time. While the
cars are rear engine and handle differently than front engine cars
that doesn’t equate to dangerous. Keep in mind that 65-69 Corvairs are still
winning autocross races - that’s against 2001 cars and everything in
between! This whole idiocy about the cars being unsafe actually predates Nader
by almost 6 years. The Ford Motor Co. Was involved in an unrelenting smear
campaign against the Corvair before it even hit the dealers showrooms in
Oct 1959 - attempting to cause fear and suspicion in the buying public. (Gee,
I wonder why Ford would do that?) Anything that is radically new and different,
like the Corvair, is always a perfect target for small minds. So far as Nader
is concerned - well, I’ll let the past 35 years of frivolous lawsuits speak
for themselves. Nader is properly credited for being the father of modern
torte insanity. He used the unique basis of trying to prove to a jury that
General Motors "willingly and intentionally" built and marketed a dangerous
car. Besides the fact that the entire concept is insane and makes no logical
sense it also ignores the fact that many of GM’s top executives had family
members that drove Corvairs (including wives, daughters etc). Nader can be
credited for institutionalizing this "legal" reality - If you fear or distrust
a large corporation enough - and their pockets are deep enough - then logic,
rationality and fairness have no place in a damages lawsuit. Nader even admitted
later that he attacked GM because they were the largest car maker in the
world (at that time) - NOT that their cars were the most dangerous - just
because they were the largest.
CORVAIRS ROLL OVER -
In our 36 year history we have parted out
over 900 Corvairs. Many were wrecked (as all cars can be) but yet only 2
out of that 900 had been rolled. Go into any wrecking in the nation and pick out
800 of any other kind of car and I can guarantee that more than 2 will have
been rolled (a LOT more than 2). Quite frankly I’ve come to the conclusion
that Corvairs are probably LESS likely to roll over than other cars!
THE
CORVAIR WAS DESIGNED BY VOLKSWAGEN (OR PORSCHE) - Incorrect. The
car is thoroughly American. GM spent millions of 1950's dollars and nearly
7 years of development to make this one of the best designed cars ever built.
This myth about Porche and VW comes from the superficial observation that
all three are rear engine air cooled. NO company in the free world made anything
larger than a 4 cylinder air cooled in 1960.It would make as much sense to
say that Ford invented the Camaro because both are front engine waterpumpers.
CORVAIRS ALWAYS LEAK OIL - Well, they are harder to seal than
SOME other cars. This is because they are air cooled (and run hotter) and
they originally used some o ring materials that were not adequate. A lot
of Corvairs do not leak oil, and they can be made that way with updated materials
and techniques.
CORVAIRS CONSTANTLY THROW FAN BELTS - Again, not true. We drive
our cars 20,000-30,000 miles a year and only replace a belt every couple
of years. In 1964 Chevrolet effectively ended what had been a
nagging problem with fan belts on manual transmission cars. They
replaced the heavy steel blower fan with a very light magnesium fan
- This ended nearly all belt throwing problems on Corvairs once and
for all.
CORVAIRS CANNOT BE DEPENDED ON FOR DAILY TRANSPORTATION - Again,
horse manure! They are actually one of most reliable, unbreakable cars ever
mass produced. How many people do you know who drive 50 year old cars daily?
Well, we have many customers who do (including us).
MY UNCLE HAD A 4 CYLINDER CORVAIR - no no! All Corvair motors
were 6 cylinder except for a few (less than 10) experimental engines that
were 8 and 10 cylinder. Add to this list - CONTINENTAL KITS, POWER STEERING,
RACK AND PINION, TILT WHEELS, and POWER BRAKES. NONE of those items came
on Corvairs! In addition there are lot of other parts/changes on currently
surviving cars that have nothing to do with what came from the factory!
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!
Put the ninnies and the twits in their place with
the truth about our favorite car! Lon Wall
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