Reprinted with permission from the Aug. 12, 2005 edition of the Newark Post, Newark, Del.

HEADLINE:

Corvairs prove Ralph Nader wrong

Old Baltimore Pike couple get ready to show off their 1960 award winner

By JIM STREIT

NEWARK POST STAFF WRITER

What started in 1978 as a retirement "toy" for Herb and Nancy Brown has turned into a 28-year love affair with an unusual car - a 4-door 1960 Chevrolet Corvair 500.

Back in 1978 when Herb retired after 31 years at General Motors, the Browns sought a hobby.

"I just wanted something to play around with after I retired," Herb said.

His brother owned a Corvair and he was intrigued by the unique, rear-engine, air-cooled, American-built vehicles.

Brown came across the blue 1960 Corvair for sale in Wilmington. It was the "stripped down" model and was built with only one option - the AM radio. (The gasoline-fired heater was standard equipment). Though 18 years old at the time, the car had tallied only 28,000 miles. "I don't believe the car had ever been out of Wilmington," Herb said, noting that changed quickly after he purchased the Chevy.

Brown, a "shade tree" mechanic and tinkerer, quickly discovered the transmission of his "new" car did not function properly but was able to make the repairs himself. While already in near-perfect condition, he also reconditioned the physical appearance of the car.

Soon, he began accumulating Corvair parts, lots of them for all years and models of Corvairs. Today, this stock is housed in garages behind his Old Baltimore Pike home and hard-to-find parts are divvied out to owners of ailing Corvairs in the tri-state region.

The first year they owned the 500, Nancy and Herb drove it to Florida. It has since made several repeat southern trips and has been driven to shows in upstate New York and this area. Today, the odometer shows 42,000 miles.

It was in Florida that the Browns discovered the camaraderie of Corvair car clubs.

"We had so much fun in Florida," Nancy said, "we decided that we'd like to have a Corvair club up here."

They placed notices in local newspapers and discovered about 30 Corvair owners interested in joining. The First Corvair Club was born in 1982. Membership today is 36.

Visitors to the club's 17th show Saturday will see the Brown's car is in mint condition.

The first time it was entered in a competition, the blue Corvair garnered a second-place award in Gettysburg, Pa., in 1980.

But from that point on, the Browns' car has been top dog. Its premiere first-place award came in Syracuse, N.Y., a national title. It has tallied numerous first-place honors from the Antique Automobile Club of America and has earned a whopping 18 Preservation Awards from the AACA.

Today, Nancy, a former swimming instructor, is president of the local car club and Herb is treasurer. Newarkers Patsy and Dave Ziegler, owners of several Corvairs including a rare, eight-door Greenbrier van, chair the annual show.

Asked what she likes best about owning the vintage automobile, Nancy quickly answered, "Sitting at a traffic light and the people in the car beside you ask 'what kind of car is that'?"

No 'park?' What do I do?

Dave Ziegler, a long-time Corvair owner and enthusiast who operates a Corvair-only repair and restoration shop in Newark, answers some questions:

How many 1960 Corvair 500s, like the one owned by the Browns, were produced? 47,683.

Years of Corvair production? 1960-69.

How many Corvairs were manufactured the last year? 6,000.

Was what Ralph Nader claimed in his 1965 book, "Unsafe At Any Speed," true? What he said about the Corvair was not true, but the damage had been done.

Why are Corvairs unique? They are the only mass-produced rear-engine, air-cooled American cars.

Is it true that there is no "park" position on Corvair automatic transmissions? Yes, you must set the parking brake.

Until the 1950s, most American auto manufacturers made one size of car: large. Imports from Europe such  as Volkswagen showed that there was a market in the  U.S. for smaller cars and in 1959-1960, all the major makers planned to introduce  a "compact" brand.

Most of these designs were scaled-down versions of the conventional American car, using four- or six-cylinder engines instead of V-8s with bodies about 20 percent smaller than standard cars. An exception to this was the Chevrolet Corvair.

Chevrolet designed a revolutionary new car. It was powered by an air-cooled horizontal six-cylinder engine made almost entirely out of aluminum.  The engine was mounted in the rear of the car, driving the rear wheels  through a compact automatic transaxle. Suspension was independent at  all four wheels. There was no conventional frame, it was the first Unibody built by Fisher Body.

Despite critical acclaim, the Corvair did not dominate the marketplace. It was expensive to produce because of its unusual design, and it was not as economical to operate as its competitors.

For 1961 the Corvair product line expanded, with the addition of a sporty Monza sedan, station wagons, more engine horsepower, and a four-speed manual transmission. But the Ford  Falcon and the other conventional compacts continued to outsell the Corvair.

For 1962, Chevrolet introduced the Chevy II as a conventional compact car and directed the Corvair line toward sport and versatility.  The exciting new Corvairs were the Monza convertible and the sporty Spyder with a turbocharged engine. This was the peak of Corvair development and sales, with a dozen different models of cars and trucks, and almost one-third of a million units sold. But in 1964 Ford introduced its own sporty compact, the Mustang, and sold one-and-a-half-million cars in the first two years.

In 1965, Ralph Nader published "Unsafe at Any Speed," a criticism of the U.S. auto industry's safety record. Only the first chapter was about the Corvair, but that is all that the reviewers and critics read. Nader's complaint was about the 1960-63 rear suspension design that was already discontinued, but the damage to Corvair's reputation was done.

Corvair sales for 1966 were down by more than 50 percent and Chevrolet decided to cease any further development. Production and sales continued for three more years. By 1967, Chevrolet was selling the Camaro (its own Mustang-fighter).

Corvair sales fell dramatically in the last years, as advertising ceased and the model line was reduced to just two coupes  and a convertible. After 10 years of production throughout the decade  of the 1960s, the last Corvair was built on May 14, 1969.

History courtesy of the Corvair Society of America.