Chevy Corvair: "The Corvair in Action" 1960 Chevrolet Division, General Motors

more at http://quickfound.net/

Originally a public domain film, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvair

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The Chevrolet Corvair is a compact car manufactured by Chevrolet for model years 1960–1969 across two generations. As the only American-designed, mass-produced passenger car with a rear-mounted, air-cooled engine,[1] the Corvair was manufactured and marketed in two-door coupe, convertible, four-door sedan, four-door station wagon, passenger van, commercial van, and pickup truck body styles in its first generation (1960-1964) as well as two-door coupe, convertible and four-door sedan in its second generation (1965-1969).

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 accuser, 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, a name first applied in 1954 to a Corvette-based concept with a hardtop fastback-styled roof, 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...Time magazine put Ed Cole and the Corvair on the cover, and Motor Trend named the Corvair as the 1960 "Car of the Year".

Overview

The Corvair's sales exceeded 200,000 for each of its first six model years... 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...