Every day, people open up online car auction sites to gawk at air-cooled two-door cars with six-cylinder engines out back, sporting credentials, and possibly even forced induction. Who could blame them? The Porsche 911 is one of the most iconic sports car ever, and classic examples have the price tags to match. However, what if I told you that many elements of the air-cooled Porsche 911 experience could be had on the cheap, without resorting to water-cooled or four-cylinder engines? That’s right, move over Stuttgart, it’s time for Michigan’s own Chevrolet Corvair to shine.
Are those brave words? Sure, but they aren’t without precedent. In a 1963 road test, Car And Driver called the Corvair the “poor man’s Porsche,” noting that “The success of the factory-entered rally cars in various Canadian events, and a continuing succession of improvements, have made a warm spot for the car among automotive enthusiasts throughout the country.” However, while the Porsche 911 was canonized in the hall of sports car greats, the Corvair was crucified in the name of public safety.
From Volkswagen-fighter to villain to bargain, the Corvair has lived a tumultuous legacy, but that legacy means it’s one of the great deals of the classic car world. On the North American continent, there’s nothing like it for the money, and the vehicle is far better car than popular sentiment may suggest.
From Humble Beginnings
In the 1950s, Detroit’s big three had left a little white space in the car market for other manufacturers to shimmy into. I’m referring, of course, to the compact car segment. From AMC to Volkswagen, all manner of manufacturers were fighting for that market space, and foreign automakers were making serious inroads. Obviously, the American establishment wasn’t going down without a fight, and while Ford and Chrysler were busy scaling down what they knew well, Chevrolet decided to take a more European approach.
With a rear-mounted air-cooled flat-six engine, a flat floorpan, unibody construction, and four-wheel independent suspension, the Corvair was unlike everything else coming out of Detroit, and GM’s throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks product planning approach gave customers some serious choice. I’m talking sedans, wagons, coupes, cabriolets, pickup trucks, vans — anything and everything to compete with Volkswagen. For the first two years of production, improvements were incremental. Then something big happened.
For 1962, Chevrolet split the piñata wide open with the Corvair Monza Spyder, which wasn’t necessarily a “spyder” (i.e. convertible) and which draws its Monza name from a series of concept cars rather than directly from the Monza circuit in Italy. However, the odd naming convention doesn’t matter because the Monza Spyder was the second production car ever equipped with a turbocharger. Instrumented testing by Car Life magazine resulted in a zero-to-60 mph time of 10.8 seconds and a top speed of 105 mph. That’s good enough to keep up with modern traffic without substantial amounts of advanced planning. All of a sudden, the Corvair gained its wings, drawing a line in the sand regarding the future of the model.
All-In On The Sports Coupe
For 1965, the Corvair was thoroughly redesigned to become something even better. With the Chevy II taking up the mainstream compact slot in the Chevrolet lineup, the Corvair was free to bet it all on black, chasing its dream of attainable, European-inspired performance. The swing axle arrangement was gone, replaced with a fully-articulated independent rear suspension. The B-pillar was also gone, for pillarless coupes always feel more special, and a 140-horsepower 2.7-liter naturally-aspirated flat-six effectively replaced the 150-horsepower turbo motor from the old Monza Spyder.
That being said, a turbocharged engine was still on offer, this time with 180 horsepower. With the new zesty engines came the new trim designation of Corsa, and all was right with the world. Oh, and did I mention that this second-generation car looked stunning? Don’t just take my word for it, because here’s what David E. Davis had to say in Car And Driver:
And it is here too, that we have to go on record and say that the Corvair is in our opinion—the most important new car of the entire crop of ’65 models, and the most beautiful car to appear in this country since before World War II.
That is a bold claim, but not one without merit. Chevrolet’s stylists absolutely crushed it with the second-generation Corvair, with a shark-like front end, a Coke bottle silhouette, and solid proportions for a vehicle with an inherently awkward layout. Oh, and it drove properly too. In the words of David E.:
Our ardor had cooled a little by the time we got to drive the cars—then we went nuts all over again. The new rear suspension, the new softer spring rates in front, the bigger brakes, the addition of some more power, all these factors had us driving around like idiots—zooming around the handling loop dragging with each other, standing on the brakes—until we had to reluctantly turn the car over to some other impatient journalist.
With one redesign, the Corvair firmly transformed from economy car to reasonably-priced sports coupe, the anti-Mustang in every way imaginable. You just get a sense that it was built for Mulholland rather than Woodward, a rarity in the days of live rear axles and style-over-substance.
Axle Of Evil?
Mention the Corvair in just about any conversation, and it’s only a matter of time before someone brings up Ralph Nader. The safety advocate’s book Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile brought sweeping changes to the way cars were designed and engineered in America, but it also tarred and feathered the Chevrolet Corvair for its unusual swing axle rear suspension.
See, a swing axle arrangement gains camber under compression and loses camber in droop. While the former is a good thing, excess of the latter could theoretically lead to the outside rear tire tucking under the car, encouraging rollover. In addition, swing axles out back are typically tail-happy, and while decreasing the front roll stiffness with an anti-roll bar can mitigate this tendency, Chevrolet initially relied on a massive difference between front and rear tire pressures. However, several other automakers from Porsche to Volkswagen to Mercedes-Benz used swing axles at some point, and they weren’t put under the same scrutiny following the publication of Nader’s book.
Firstly, the Corvair was the scapegoat because it was the obvious homegrown car with a swing axle setup. Secondly, the Corvair wasn’t even that dangerous to begin with. In 1971, NHTSA tested the handling of an early Corvair against that of a late Corvair, a Ford Falcon, a Plymouth Valiant, a Volkswagen Beetle, and a Renault Dauphine. The result? Absolution, as per NHTSA report PB 211-015.
The 1960 to 1963 Corvair understeers in the same manner as conventional passenger cars up to about 0.4g lateral acceleration, makes a transition from understeer, through neutral steer, to oversteer in a range from about 0.4g to 0.5g lateral acceleration. This transition does not result in abnormal potential for loss of control.
The limited accident data available indicates that the rollover rate of the 1960-1963 Corvair is comparable to other light domestic cars.
The 1960-1963 Corvair compared favorably with the other contemporary vehicles used in the NHTSA Input Response Tests.
The handling and stability performance of the 1960-1963 Corvair does not result in an abnormal potential for loss of control or rollover and it is at least as good as the performance of some contemporary vehicles both foreign and domestic.
Boom. The Corvair was no more of a rolling hazard than many of its contemporaries. Oh, and let’s not forget that for the particularly squeamish, the second-generation Corvair did away with the swing axle design for a proper fully-articulated rear suspension setup. Mind you, the legacy of Nader’s book means that Corvairs are still cheap,
How Cheap Are We Talking?
While Chevrolet made all manner of Corvairs, let’s jump right into the performance trims. While outstanding examples fetch decent money, the Corvair isn’t a car you buy to show off. It’s a car you buy to drive, and even on Bring A Trailer, driver-condition hot Corvairs are still sensible money.
This 1963 four-speed Monza Spyder cabriolet certainly isn’t perfect, although it does meet the definition of Michigan mint. There’s some surface corrosion on the underbody and some rust around the rear wheel arches, but nothing egregious. The paint is in a condition best described as well-loved, and the fuel gauge didn’t work at the time of the auction. The grand total for this summer cruiser? A mere $8,000 on Bring A Trailer in mid-2023. Yep, that’s not bad.
Alright, but what about the sleek second-generation car? Well, here’s one that came up on Bring A Trailer in late 2023, and it’s a desirable Corsa turbo four-speed manual coupe. Being a southwestern car, it’s pretty free of corrosion, although it does have a few dings and other cosmetic imperfections. The seller did note that the odometer wasn’t function and the steering was a bit tired, but this is a nearly 60-year-old car, and would you really trust a five-digit odometer anyway?
Even though this is the bee’s knees as far as hot, standard production Corvairs go, this white shark only fetched $10,000 on Bring A Trailer. That’s ten grand for some of the eccentricities of an air-cooled Porsche 911. If that isn’t solid value, I don’t know what is.
If you’re willing to put up with a more patinated vehicle, you can hop on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace and find hot Corvairs for as little as $5,000. Here’s a primer-sprayed Corsa cabriolet on a lively set of aftermarket wheels for $5,200 in the San Fernando Valley. That’s project MG B GT money for a flat-six drop top. Who could argue with that? Sure, it isn’t the coveted turbocharged model, but the 140-horsepower Corsa isn’t that much slower than a turbo car.
Bargain Of The Year
Everyone loves a good redemption arc, and the Chevrolet Corvair is primed for one. In 2023, the Corvair’s handling is a non-issue. Actually, it’s better than a non-issue, as it’s downright joyous. Controllable, progressive oversteer with classic looks, solid performance, and a reasonable price tag? That’s hard to ignore. Don’t sleep on the Chevrolet Corvair, for it might just be the budget-oriented driver’s car you’ve been craving.
(Photo credits: Bring A Trailer, Chevrolet, Craigslist seller)
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You know what else is cool, aircooled, and goes for hella cheap: the Volkswagen 411.
Join me in unobtanium parts land. Mwahahahahahahaha.
There was a gentleman at the end of the street I used to live on that seemed like he was assembling a collection of Corvairs. At one point he had the van variation, two sedans, a coupe, convertible and I kept hoping the truck would show up…AND IT DID, but only for a couple of days, wasn’t his. Never saw a wagon. He also had a Nash Metropolitan coupe. I moved out in 2020. When I swung by the neighborhood on a visit back, he was down to just the Nash. It’s possible some were moved behind their fence, big yards around there.
Good thing I’ve already got my Corvair!
A few comments:
Of course the Corvair shares many attributes with the Porsche. Both are a knockoff VW Beetle.
“throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks product planning approach gave customers some serious choice”
This was not actually unusual or unique at all at the time. May I remind you that Ford sold a coupe Falcon, sedan Falcon, wagon Falcon, sportier coupe Falcon(Mustang), convertible sportier Falcon, van Falcon, sawed-off-van-to-make-a-pickup Falcon. Dodge also sold coupe, sedan, wagon, and van Valiants. This is just how they did it in the 60s. I mean, just a little earlier, for 1958, Ford would sell you the same(ish) fullsize Ford as a Ford, Mercury, or Edsel, with different sheetmetal for each brand and trim level, and in a bajillion bodystyles including Ranchero pickup and sedan delivery.
And of course, regarding the swing axle suspension: the swing axle suspension was nothing new or novel or unusual that Chevy used on the Corvair. The swing axle suspension, like almost everything else on the car, was copied from the Beetle. Porsches also used it. You can also make the argument that the 1965-2023 Ford Twin I Beam front suspension is a swing axle on the front. It certainly shares the same characteristics of radical camber gain.
A couple of weeks ago I was able to pace a restored second-generation Corvair convertible for a few highway miles. It was turquoise and the details were incredible by modern standards: the curve of the fenders and the rear fascia, the taillights, the cooling grilles, the Corvette-like dashboard.
Only the narrow tires hinted that it was almost 60 years old. My daughter, who’d never noticed Corvairs before, was fascinated that it was a Chevy and wondered why they weren’t still being made. “Well, it’s a long story….”
my dad had a corvair. and an audi 5000
Dang it Thomas don’t let everyone know!!! I’ve been plotting to pick up a Corvair once I someday have the extra garage space for a classic and I need them to stay cheap!
See if you can get Nader to write a sequel, that should do it! 😉
Corvairs are my favorite cars ever made, and tremendously under-appreciated.
I don’t have one currently, but I’m always looking for (my version) of the unicorn/holy grail, or at least with most of the bits to make it the unicorn:
1967 Corvair Sedan
4 speed manual
140hp 4 carb motor
Factory A/C
1967 was the last year of the sedan (which is by far the best looking corvair IMHO), it was also the first year of a collapsible steering column, better “skinny” seats, dual circuit master cylinder with a warning light, and just overall quality/parts improvements.
I saw a single one of these holy grails for sale, it had a locked engine, and it was 20 years ago…. I’ve been kicking myself ever since.
Throw some minor mods at it for improved stopping, handling, driveability, etc… and you basically have a 1960’s 4 door Porsche 911.
Fun fact. When they were designing the 3 speed TH350 automatic at the end of the 1960’s they had baked the new automatic design to have no center support bearing so it could potentially be used for a 3rd gen Corvair. I’ve always wondered if there was someone out there crazy enough to finish the job and make the TH350 work on a Corvair.
Needs a 911 turbo engine swap.
Totally agree that the second-gen 4-door is an absolute beauty. One of the best-looking ever.
I’ve been saying this for years! Every Corvair owner I’ve talked to at car shows says they’re an absolute joy to drive, and whenever I have space for a third car, I will absolutely be looking for one.
Make mine one of the 1961-1962-only Lakewood wagons. The rarest Corvair body style, but the most interesting packaging-wise. Like a VW Squareback, the engine is underneath the floor in the back, so the floor is pretty high, but you have plenty of flat space not interrupted by wheel arches – and there’s still a frunk up front for any groceries you want to keep cold! Plus, having the engine essentially in the cabin with you means the intake noise is glorious. I’d like to swap the drivetrain and suspension from a late model turbocharged Corvair into one of the Lakewood wagons for the ideal combination of Corvair parts and packaging, and I’d drive the crap out of it.
On the subject of the Corvair, there was also an electric prototype called the Electrovair, and a successor called the Electrovair II.
The latter used silver-zinc batteries which allowed it a range of 80 miles. When you consider just how crap the Corvair’s aerodynamics were, this range was especially impressive. These batteries had twice the energy density of the Ovonic NiMH used in the 2nd gen EV1 three decades later. The car also made 115 horsepower, and could reach a governed top speed of 80 mph and a 0-60 mph acceleration time of 16 seconds using a single speed gear ratio. The car weighed about 3,400 lbs.
I distinctly remember that Chevy sponsored the Jonathan Winters Show in the late 60s and at the end of the show there was a cartoon drawing of a Corvair. I know Chevy had basically stopped promoting the car with ads or press by then, but this memory is persistent. Anyone else recall this?
Because it sucks …
…
… air in and cools it’s flat six with it, like some kind of big Porsche? 😉
Well. I had a 63 Monza 4-Speed in the late 60s. Yes, I carried a spare fan belt and had to change it on the side of the road. The front end was WAY light, I had the front tires come off the road at the crest of a hill, put me sideways immediately. Also had the back end come around on a downhill corner. ALMOST killed me. The heater was useless, except it would fill the car with fumes. What a terrible car. I’ve had plenty of cars since (Camaros, Mustangs, Hondas, Miatas, etc) and the Corvair was a treacherous car I never want to see again.
I bought two Corvairs back in 2004. One was too rusty to put back on the road, but at $500 it was a fun risk for a 1963 Monza 900 convertible. The local Corvair club helped me source a replacement – a driveable 1965 Monza Convertible and I paid less than $2,000 for it.
It was a lot of fun, but it was also a lot of work. Calling the air-cooled engine “simple” is a bit deceptive as to function properly it had a bunch of metal covers all over it to help direct cooling air. To do serious maintenance, you had to take them off or work around them. Not a dealbreaker, but messy. Mine never did sling a fan belt, but the design sure did encourage it. The fan belt takes a 90-degree turn. It was standard practice to keep the two wrenches plus an extra fan belt with you at all times. It was also standard practice to get out and check every once in a while to make sure you still had a fan belt. The Alt (or Gen) light should come on if it gets slung, but sometimes the alternator would motor off of the battery so you got no indicator light warning.
You also had to really get used to driving a Corvair. It’s fun. But if you are expecting it to behave like a normal car… well, no. Porsche and Volkwagen made air-cooled four cylinder engines in their early cars. The boxer six in the Corvair stuck way out behind the rear axle and acted like a pendulum through curves. Again, FUN, but you had to be ready.
That being said, these are good bargains. You can still get a good one for reasonable money. Just know what you’re getting into because they are weird. The engine block is aluminum (and two pieces), the cylinders are steel and the heads are aluminum. That is a recipe for copious oil leaks.
Also I’m still looking for backup on this one, but I believe there were issues with the usual spare tire placement – in the engine compartment. If you didn’t under-inflate the spare and the engine got too hot, it could pop all over the engine bay. I’ve definitely seen old Corvair engine bays with tire bits in them.
In sum, STILL WORTH IT. Would I buy another one? Probably not. I had my fun and I’m just not great with welding patches on unibodies – there is always rust. But I loved everyone’s reaction. I heard this exact same response over and over whenever I drove my Corvair (and I’m not kidding):”Is that a Corvair? Cool! I had one (or my dad/grandad/uncle/aunt) had one! I loved that car. We had a lot of fun in that car. It blew up.”
Every time.
The engineers planned to have the spare in the front for better weight distribution (60s and early 61s were like this). Marketing wanted to advertise more luggage space so they crammed it in over the engine. Mine will always ride in the front trunk.
Over time, the engine heat will prematurely degrade the spare tire but I have never heard of one popping.
I’ve heard that about the tires, but mine is still the original spare from 1964 and hasn’t had an issue being in the engine bay all this time, so I guess it will stay there until there’s a problem
The Otto Superbelt from Clark’s Corvair Parts is supposed to hold on a lot better than other options, which is what I’ve been running. Of course, by 1964, there’s deeper pulley grooves, a belt guard, and the lighter weight magnesium fan which all combine to drastically reduce the belt throwing issue. It also seems to be more of a problem with turbo cars vs NA and with manuals vs automatics
Obligatory reminder – chapter one of Unsafe At Any Speed is slightly allegorical, and not meant to be a damning critique of the Corvair specifically, but of Detroit as a whole, and the issues in the Corvair’s design aren’t that different from what Ford would do with the Explorer 30 years later (expecting oddball tire pressures to sort out challenging handling). Also, Nader called out the anti-roll bar added to the ’64 as what GM should’ve done all along, and that the IRS in the ’65 even further helped. Lastly, all the imported swing axle stuff at time of publishing was relatively low-volume, and either slow or targeted towards more focused drivers (although, also, remember that Nazi officers were supposedly banned from driving Tatras due to instability).
That said, the Corvair also likely suffers from being too foreign for the domestic car folks and too domestic for the foreign car people (basically the reason GM had already committed to ending further development right around the time the 2nd gen was released), which might be all the more the reason I want one.
My American-car friends tolerate the Corvair. My foreign-car friends think it is really cool. Actual Europeans are fascinated that the US produced such a car in the 60s.
The Corvair has an outsoze legacy on the other side of the Atlantic. Many European marques (including those east of the Berlin wall) had offerings styled after the Corvair.
Actual European here: a Corvair is the top of my list of American cars to buy, if I ever find myself working over there again. So cool.
One side note: By the time Nader’s book came out the public was ready to believe Corvair stories about treacherous handling. A very famous comedian of the day was killed in a traffic accident in a Corvair station wagon in 1962; he lost control and hit a telephone pole, sideways. In the driver’s door. A press photographer happened to get on the scene quickly, and took some photographs that ended up on the front page of every newspaper in the country….and every article identified the car as a Corvair.
“…during an unusual southern California rainstorm, the comedian lost control of his Chevrolet Corvair station wagon while turning fast. Crashing into a power pole at the corner of Beverly Glen and Santa Monica Boulevards, he was thrown halfway out the passenger side, dying almost instantly from chest and head injuries.
Kovacs may have lost control of the car while trying to light a cigar. A photographer managed to arrive moments later, and morbid images of Kovacs in death appeared in newspapers across the United States. An unlit cigar lay on the pavement, inches from his outstretched arm.”
https://www.rarenewspapers.com/view/574835
To give some perspective on how famous Kovacs was at the time here is a list of his pall bearers and notable attendees at his funeral:
“The active pallbearers were Jack Lemmon, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Billy Wilder, Mervyn Leroy, and Joe Mikolas, while Ernie’s father, Andrew, and brother, Tom, served as honorary pallbearers. Among those in attendance were George Burns, Groucho Marx, Edward G. Robinson, Kirk Douglas, Jack Benny, James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Buster Keaton, and Milton Berle.”
Below is a contemporary photo of the wrecked car (but not of Kovac’s body of course)
https://barnfinds.com/rare-gem-1962-chevrolet-corvair-monza-wagon/ernie-kovacs-wrecked-corvair-lakewood/
There’s a wrecker driver in Utah with a few of these.
Morrvair FTW!
https://www.thedrive.com/news/40554/that-lifted-chevy-corvair-wagon-built-for-off-road-recoveries-is-finally-finished
That’s the guy 😉
“A few” as if he isn’t handing em out to the Youtube crew or couldn’t run a second business of NOS parts.
Even with the one he just gave away he’s still got half a dozen cars and uncountable conexes full of parts. My favorite YT vids are when he drags more corvairs home though.
I’d like to redo the turbo system with modern technology (such as a wastegate) so that boost would come in at a lower RPM. Rebuild the engine itself with all the knowledge of the Corvair community regarding what works.
Looks stock under the decklid, but instead of 180HP I’d have maybe closer to 220.
Many have done this but cooling is an issue. The Corvair cooling fan can’t really keep up with extended boost so the Spyders and Corsa Turbos were designed for spurts of power like highway passing or a stoplight dragrace. A popular option is methanol or water injection to cool the intake charge and allow longer boost sessions.
While it might be sacrilege to purists, one of my favorite builds I’ve been following is a guy that is basically making his own Crown V8 conversion in a Corvair.
Second gen body, LT1 engine, some Euro transaxle system, C4 corvette front suspension (and much of the rear as well.)
Its a home-grown beast.
That sounds amazing, considering that the Corvair has a Miata-like weight to it.
The build thread has been amazing to watch. Watching the owner start with Fluxcore and eventually teaching himself TIG.
Needs some definite dialing in, but at its first event it was easily pulling the front inside wheel on the autocross course.
AngryCorvair is the poster on Grassroots Motorsports forum, if you want
Thank you. I’m looking that up.
Enjoy, its a great place. I’m on there with the same screen name
Not too long ago I saw a Corvair at a car show with a Tornado power train.
That’s “Toronado”. Had to type it 3 times to override spell correct.
My advice as a 2-time Corvair owner. Get a ’64 or later with the “big block” engine and better suspension. Get a 4 speed, the ratios are perfect and it really wakes up the performance. You can get 95, 110, or 140 naturally aspirated engines and they are all good in their own ways. Install some quick steering arms and modern tires/wheels (with the right air pressure!!) and you have a great handling fun machine.
And, with the right colors, they are a great-looking car, IMO.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/B7znK95LcoKwEZUKA
I think the guy in the beige ’65 ad must be 3’6″. Why is he sitting so far forward??
The seats don’t go back far enough. A popular mod are extended seat rails.
I’ve wanted a first gen convertible for years now, they are def a bargain!
It’s not theoretical, it’s a fact.
https://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/images/triumph/spitfire-tuckunder.jpg
(Though this further highlights that picking on the Corvair for the swing axle is unfair, since many, many, many other cars shared the same suspension design without becoming pariah)
My first car was a 74 Spitfire. 10 days after getting it from my dad, I put the swing-axle-tuck theory into practice on a curvy road in San Antonio. The rear bumper passed the front bumper, the car rolled off the side of the road, and after a couple of rotations came to rest with all four wheels in the air and propped up by a tree. Not sure if the bump on my head happened during the rolls or when I unbuckled my seat belt and fell on the ground (top was down, of course). The Stray Cats “Sexy and Seventeen” was still playing on the radio after the wreck (it was the 80’s!)
Like the Corvair, those cars cornered great, but they did not so much as tolerate operator stupidity, let alone reward it.
Lovely little death traps. I have a GT6.
Being 16 at the time, I resembled that remark.
When I was a kid, I took the GT6 to over 100 mph while it was still powered by the ICE. It felt like it was floating and I could not only feel every groove in the pavement through the steering, but my 120 lb self had difficulty keeping it straight because the steering wheel felt like it was trying to rip itself from my hands for each groove and bump that the tires went over.
It would be a death sentence to crash it at half the speed.
Best. $1200. Spent. Ever.
I’ve owned one for 2 1/2 years now, have put over 15,000 miles on it road tripping around the Eastern Seaboard and whatnot, wasn’t completely sure what to expect, but have been generally impressed. Corvairs handle well, have very good brakes by the standards of their time, get decent fuel economy, keep up with modern traffic, and are surprisingly comfortable for an old economy car- actually better ride and seats than my 2022 Hyundai. Once deferred maintenence from the past few owners having treated it as a “take the grandkids for ice cream on Saturday” car was out of the way, it’s also been shockingly trouble free (knock on wood, but they are very simple mechanically, so it is true that there isn’t all that much to break, plus parts support is excellent and cheap). I got it for less than a decent Super Beetle goes for these days and it really is a lot more car for the money
Same story here. My first car was a Corvair and always wanted another. I bought a rust-free 30-year barn find 4 years ago and refurbished everything (brakes, seals, steering, suspension, lighting, carbs, ignition) but didn’t paint or rebuild the engine. I made the interior nice and I daily drive and road trip it. 23,000 miles in 4 years. I even drove it round trip from Atlanta to Detroit.
My first car had been a 1971 Super Beetle, and I had thought about getting another Volkswagen (maybe a standard Beetle or a Ghia or a Fastback), took one look at where the prices are now, and said to hell with that, I’ll just find a Corvair
I knew a mechanic in Corpus Christi who worked for Shook Enterprises that restored a Corvair. It was a beautiful car to see in person, and the engine was in the right place.
An engine swap from a Porsche 911 turbo into one would be sublime.
I don’t want the sedan or convertible, I want the Sportwagon! That’s a cruiser!
In Antarctic Blue with the CB and the optional rally fun pack.
You sure you didn’t order the metallic pea?
You think you hate it now, wait ’til you drive it.