HIGH-PERFORMANCE CHEVROLETS HBDJ CORVAIR CORVETTE CAMARO IMPALA CHEVELLE NOVA MONTE CARLO 265 283 348 V-8 ENGINES 409 396 427 454 V-8 ENGINES SPYDER CORSA NOMAD BEL AIR BEAUVILLE MALIBU

HARDBOUND BOOK in ENGLISH by RICHARD M. LANGWORTH

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Additional Information from Internet Encyclopedia

 The Chevrolet Corvair is a compact car manufactured by Chevrolet for model years 1960�1969. It was the only American-designed, mass-produced passenger car to use a rear-mounted, air-cooled engine.

Corvair models included a two-door coupe, convertible, four-door sedan, four-door station wagon, passenger van, commercial van, and pickup truck variants.

Contemporary competitors included the Volkswagen Beetle, Ford Falcon, Plymouth Valiant, Studebaker Lark, and the Rambler American.

The Corvair's reputation and legacy were impacted by a controversy surrounding its handling: the car was scrutinized in Ralph Nader's 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed, GM's top management resorted to unethical measures in response to its accusor, and a 1972 Texas A&M University safety commission report for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that the 1960�1963 Corvair possessed no greater potential for loss of control in extreme situations than its contemporaries.

The name "Corvair" is a portmanteau of Corvette and Bel Air.[2] The name was first applied in 1954 to a Corvette-based concept with a hardtop fastback-styled roof that was part of the Motorama traveling exhibition.

During 1959 and 1960, the Big Three automakers planned to introduce their own "compact" cars. Ford and Chrysler's designs were scaled-down versions of the conventional American car, using four- or six-cylinder engines instead of V8s, and with bodies about 20% smaller than their standard cars.

An exception to this strategy was the Chevrolet Corvair. Led by General Manager Cole, Chevrolet designed a new car deviating from the traditional American norms of design. The car was powered by an air-cooled horizontally opposed six-cylinder engine constructed with many major components made from aluminum. The engine was mounted in the rear of the car, driving the rear wheels through a compact transaxle. Suspension was independent at all four wheels. No conventional chassis was used, being the first unibody built by Fisher Body. The tires were an entirely new wide, low-profile design. The styling was unconventional for Detroit: subtle and elegant, with no tailfins or chrome grille. Its engineering earned numerous patents, while Time magazine put Ed Cole and the Corvair on the cover, and Motor Trend named the Corvair as the 1960 "Car of the Year".

The Corvair's sales exceeded 200,000 for each of its first six model years. The rear-engine design offered packaging and economy advantages, providing the car with a lower silhouette, flat passenger compartment floor, no need for power assists, and improvements in ride quality, traction, and braking balance. The design also attracted customers of other makes, primarily imports. The Corvair stood out, with engineering significantly different from other American offerings. It used GM's Z-body, with design and engineering that advanced the rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout pioneered by cars including the Tatra 77, Tucker Torpedo, Fiat 500, Porsche 356, Volkswagen Beetle, Renault Dauphine, Subaru 360, and NSU Prinz�and employed by the concurrent and short-lived Hino Contessa.

The Corvair's powerplant was an overhead-valve aluminum, air-cooled 140 cu in (2.3 L) flat-six (later enlarged, first to 145 and then to 164 cubic inches). The first Corvair engine produced 80 hp (60 kW; 81 PS). Power peaked with the 1965�66 turbocharged 180 hp (134 kW; 182 PS) Corsa engine option. The first generation model's swing axle rear suspension, invented and patented by engineer Edmund Rumpler, offered a comfortable ride, but raised safety concerns associated with the car's handling stability, and was replaced in 1965 with a fully independent rear suspension similar to the Corvette Sting Ray.

The Corvair represented several breakthroughs in design for mass-produced Detroit vehicles, with 1,786,243 cars produced between 1960 and 1969.

The 1960 Corvair 569 and 769 series four-door sedans were conceived as economy cars offering few amenities to keep the price competitive, with the 500 (standard model) selling for under $2,000. Powered by the Turbo Air 6 engine 80 hp (60 kW; 81 PS) and three-speed manual or optional extra-cost two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission, the Corvair was designed to have comparable acceleration to the six-cylinder full-sized Chevrolet Biscayne. The Corvair's unique design included the "Quadri-Flex" independent suspension and "Unipack Power Team" of engine, transmission, and rear axle combined into a single unit. Similar to designs of European cars such as Porsche, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and others, "Quadri-Flex" used coil springs at all four wheels with independent rear suspension arms incorporated at the rear. Specially designed 6.5 by 13 in. four-ply tires mounted on 13 in wheels with 5.5 in width were standard equipment. Available options included RPO 360, the Powerglide two-speed automatic transmission ($146), RPO 118, a gasoline heater ($74), RPO 119, an AM tube radio ($54), and by February 1960, the rear folding seat (formerly $32) was standard. Chevrolet produced 47,683 of the 569 model and 139,208 769 model deluxe sedans in 1960. In January 1960, two two-door coupe models were introduced designated as the 527 and 727 models. Following the success of the upmarket "Mr. and Mrs. Monza" styling concept cars at the 1960 Chicago Auto Show, management approved the neatly appointed bucket-seat DeLuxe trim of the 900 series Monza as a two-door club coupe only. This model began arriving at showroom floors in April 1960. Despite their late January introduction of the coupe, these cars sold well; about 14,628 base model 527 coupes, 36,562 727 deluxe coupes, and 11,926 927 Monza club coupes, making the coupe one of the most popular Corvairs.

Sales figures revealed to Chevrolet management that the Corvair was more of a specialty car than a competitor to the conventionally designed Ford Falcon or Chrysler's Valiant. Corvair was not as competitive in the economy segment. Chevrolet began a design program that resulted in a compact car with a conventional layout, the Chevy II, for the 1962 model year.[16]

An available option on the Corvair introduced in February 1960 was RPO 649, a more powerful engine, the "Super Turbo Air". Super Turbo Air was rated at 95 hp (71 kW; 96 PS) at 4,800 rpm and 125 ft-lb at 2,800 rpm due to a revised camshaft, revised cylinder heads with dual springs, and a lower restriction muffler with a 2" outlet. This option was available in any Corvair model. However, in 1960, RPO 649 was not available with RPO 360, the Powerglide automatic transmission.

The advertised February introduction of a fully synchronized, four-speed transmission RPO 651 was postponed until the 1961 model year. This was due to casting problems with the aluminum three-speed transmission case which resulted in technical service bulletins to dealers advising of the potential for differential failure due to external leaks at the front of the transmission's counter gear shaft. The revision of the four-speed transmission designated for 1961 introduction incorporated a cast-iron case and a redesign of the differential pinion shaft to interface with a longer transmission output shaft and a concentric pilot for the revised transmission case. These are among many of the course corrections undertaken by Chevrolet by the end of the 1960 model year.

In 1961, Chevrolet introduced the Monza upscale trim to the four-door sedans and the club coupe body styles. With its newly introduced four-speed floor-mounted transmission, DeLuxe vinyl bucket seats, and upscale trim, the Monza Club Coupe gained in sales, as nearly 110,000 were produced along with 33,745 Monza four-door sedans. The four-speed Monza caught the attention of the younger market and was sometimes referred to as "the poor man's Porsche" in various car magazines. The Monza series contributed to about half of the Corvair sales in 1961.